New York City English, or Metropolitan New York English, is a regional

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

spoken primarily in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and some of its surrounding metropolitan area. Along with

Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas ...

, it has been described by sociolinguist

William Labov William David Labov ( ; December4, 1927December17, 2024) was an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has ...

as one of the most widely recognized regional dialects in the United States. Its pronunciation system—the

New York accent The phonology, sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The accent (sociolinguistics), accent of the New York metropolitan area is one of the most recognizable in the United States, largely due to its p ...

—is widely represented in American media by many public figures and fictional characters. Major features of the accent include a

high High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sports, air sport in which pilots fly glider aircraft, unpowered aircraft known as Glider (sailplane), gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmospher ...

vowel (in words like ''talk'' and ''caught''); a split of the "short a" vowel into two separate sounds; variable dropping of ''r'' sounds; and a lack of the '' cot–caught'', '' Mary–marry–merry'', and '' hurry–furry'' mergers heard in many other American accents. Today, New York City English is associated particularly with urban New Yorkers of lower and middle

socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is a measurement used by economics, economists and sociology, sociologsts. The measurement combines a person's work experience and their or their family's access to economic resources and social position in relation t ...

who are descended from 19th- and 20th-century European immigrants. The dialect is spoken in all five boroughs of the City and throughout

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

's Nassau County; it is also heard to varying degrees in Suffolk County (Long Island),

Westchester County Westchester County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The county is the seventh most populous cou ...

, and

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state's ...

of New York State plus

Hudson County Hudson County is a List of counties in New Jersey, county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River, the No ...

Bergen County Bergen County is the List of counties in New Jersey, most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Newark ( Essex County) in

northeastern New Jersey The Gateway Region is the primary urbanized area of the northeastern section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The region is anchored by Newark, the state's most populous city, and constitutes part of the New York metropolitan area. The area enc ...

.Newman, 2014, pp. 17–18: "Although small, the ialectregion is certainly populous. The 2010 US Census gives the population of New York City at 8,175,133. Nassau County, which is entirely within the dialect region, adds 1,339,532. The remaining counties are only partly inside. They include Suffolk (1,493,350), Westchester (949,113), and Rockland (311,687) in New York State and Hudson (905,113) and Bergen (905,116) in New Jersey... Labov, et al. (2006) found that Newark, in Essex County, also had NYCE features."

History

The origins of many of New York City English's diverse features are probably not recoverable. New York City English, largely with the same major pronunciation system popularly recognized today, was first reproduced in literature and scientifically documented in the 1890s. It was then, and still mostly is, associated with ethnically diverse

European-American European Americans are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes both people who descend from the first European settlers in the area of the present-day United States and people who descend from more recent European arrivals. Since th ...

native-English speakers. The entire

Mid-Atlantic United States The Mid-Atlantic is a region of the United States located in the overlap between the nation's Northeastern and Southeastern states. Traditional definitions include seven U.S. states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virg ...

, including both New York City and the

Delaware Valley The Philadelphia metropolitan area, also known as Greater Philadelphia and informally called the Delaware Valley, the Philadelphia tri-state area, and locally and colloquially Philly–Jersey–Delaware, is a major metropolitan area in the Nor ...

(whose own distinct dialect centers around

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

) shares certain key features, including a

vowel with a glide (sometimes called the ''aww'' vowel) as well as a

phonemic split In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new ones ...

of the short ''a'' vowel, (making ''gas'' and ''gap'', for example, have different vowels sounds)—New York City's split not identical though to Philadelphia's. Linguist

has pointed out that a similarly structured (though differently pronounced)

split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

is found today even in the southern accents of England; thus, a single common origin of this split may trace back to colonial-era England. New York City became an urban economic power in the eighteenth century, with the city's financial elites maintaining close ties with the British Empire even after the Revolutionary War. According to Labov, New York City speakers' loss of the ''r'' sound after vowels (incidentally, not found in the nearby Delaware Valley) began as a nineteenth-century imitation of the prestigious British feature, consistently starting among the upper classes in New York City before spreading to other socioeconomic classes. After World War II, social perceptions reversed and ''r''-preserving (rhotic) pronunciations became the new American prestige standard, rejecting East Coast and British accent features, while postwar migrations transferred rhotic speakers directly to New York City from other regions of the country. The result is that non-rhoticity, which was once a high-status feature and later a city-wide feature, has been diminishing and now, since the mid-twentieth century onward, largely remains only among lower-status New Yorkers. Today, New York City metropolitan accents are often rhotic or variably rhotic. Other features of the dialect, such as the dental pronunciations of ''d'' and ''t'', and related ''th''-stopping, likely come from contact with foreign languages, particularly Italian and

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

, brought into New York City through its huge immigration waves of Europeans during the mid-to-late nineteenth century and twentieth century. Grammatical structures, such as the lack of inversion in indirect questions, similarly suggest contact with immigrant languages, plus several words common in the city are derived from such foreign languages.

Influence on other dialects

Philadelphians born in the twentieth century exhibit a short-''a'' split system that some linguists regard as a simplification of the very similar New York City short-''a'' split. Younger Philadelphians, however, are retreating from many of the traditional features shared in common with New York City. Due to an influx of immigrants from New York City and neighboring New Jersey to

southern Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are Central Florida and North Florida. S ...

, some resident southern Floridians now speak with an accent reminiscent of a New York accent. Additionally, as a result of social and commercial contact between

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, and New York City, the traditional accent of New Orleans, known locally as "

Yat Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ''Ѣ ѣ'') is the thirty-second letter of the Early Cyrillic alphabet, old Cyrillic alphabet. It is usually Romanization, romanized as E with a haček: ''Ě ě''. There is also another version of y ...

", bears distinctive similarities with the New York accent, including the (moribund) coil–curl merger, raising of the vowel to , a similar split in the short-''a'' system, and ''th''-stopping. Similarly, dialectal similarities suggest that older New York City English also influenced

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, and

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

, whose older speakers in particular may still exhibit a short-''a'' split system that linguists suggest is an expanded or generalized variant of the New York City short-''a'' system. Certain New York City dialect features also understandably appear in

New York Latino English American English as primarily spoken by Hispanic and Latino Americans on the East Coast of the United States demonstrates considerable influence from New York City English and African-American Vernacular English, with certain additional features ...

Recent developments

Though William Labov argued in 2010 that the New York City accent is basically stable at the moment, some recent studies have revealed a trend of recession in most features of the accent, especially among younger speakers from middle-class or higher backgrounds. Documented loss of New York City accent features includes the loss of the coil–curl merger (now almost completely extinct), non-rhoticity, and the extremely raised long vowel (as in ''talk'', ''cough'', or ''law''). Researchers proposed that the motivation behind these recessive trends is the stigmatization of the typical New York City accent since the mid-1900s as being associated with a poorer or working-class background, often also corresponding with particular ethnic identities. While earlier projects detected trends of emphasizing New York City accents as part of a process of social identification, recent research attributes the loss of typical accent features to in-group ethnic distancing. In other words, many of the young generations of ethnic groups who formerly were the most representative speakers of the accent are currently avoiding its features to not stand out socially or ethnically.

Pronunciation

The pronunciation of New York City English, most popularly acknowledged by the term ''New York accent'', is readily noticed and stereotyped, garnering considerable attention in American culture.Labov et al., 2006, p. 233 Some distinctive phonological features include its traditional dropping of ''r'' except before vowels, a short-''a'' split system (in which, for example, the ''a'' in ''gas'' is not assonant to the ''a'' in ''gap''), a

vowel (in words like ''talk'', ''thought'', ''all'', etc. and thus an absence of the

cot–caught merger The ''cot''–''caught'' merger, also known as the merger or low back merger, is a sound change present in some dialects of English where speakers do not distinguish the vowel phonemes in words like ''cot'' versus ''caught''. ''Cot'' and ''cau ...

), absence of the

Mary–marry–merry merger In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions, so fewer vowel ...

, and the highly stigmatized (and largely now-extinct) coil–curl merger.

Vocabulary and grammar

These are some words or grammatical constructions used mainly in Greater New York City: *' : a small neighborhood convenience store; used in recent decades, particularly in New York City though not on

generally; it comes from Spanish, originally meaning "a wine storehouse" via the

Puerto Rican Spanish Puerto Rican Spanish is the variety of the Spanish language as characteristically spoken in Puerto Rico and by millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living in the United States and elsewhere. It belongs to the group of Caribbean Spanish ...

term for "small store; corner store"; by extension, "

bodega cat A bodega cat (also referred to as a deli cat, store cat, shop cat, the manager or the boss) is a type of working cat that inhabits a ''Bodega (store), bodega'', which in New York City English refers to a convenience store or Delicatessen, deli ...

s" is the term for the cats that inhabit such establishments. These small stores may also be called , which is the short form of ''

delicatessen A delicatessen or deli is a grocery that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany (contemporary spelling: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the mid-19th centur ...

s''. *''bubkes'' : a worthless amount; little or nothing (from Yiddish; probably an abbreviation of ''kozebubkes'', literally, "goat droppings")Newman, Michael (2014). ''New York City English''. De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 113-114 *''dungarees'': an older term for

blue jeans Jeans are a type of trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with the addition of copper pocket rivets added by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and patented by D ...

*''

egg cream An egg cream is a cold beverage consisting of milk, carbonated water, and flavored syrup (typically chocolate or vanilla), as a substitute for an ice cream float. Ideally, the glass is left with liquid and foamy head. Despite the name, the dr ...

'': a mixture of cold milk, chocolate or vanilla syrup, and seltzer (

carbonated water Carbonated water is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, either artificially injected under pressure, or occurring due to natural geological processes. Carbonation causes small bubbles to form, giving the water an effervescent quali ...

) *''have a catch'': to play a game of catch *''hero'': a footlong sandwich or "

sub Sub or SUB may refer to: Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB People * Bottom (BDSM), or "sub" for "submissive" * Substitute teacher Christianity * Sub tuum praesidium, an ancient hymn and prayer dedicated t ...

" *''

Mischief Night Mischief Night is an informal holiday on which children, teenagers and adults engage in jokes, pranks, vandalism, or parties. It is known by a variety of names including Devil's Night (particularly in Detroit), Gate Night, Goosey Night, Moving ...

'': the night before

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

*''on line'': Metro New Yorkers tend to say they stand ' line, whereas most other New York State and American English speakers tend to stand ''in'' line. *'' punchball'' and ''

stickball Stickball is a street game similar to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ...

'': street variants of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, suitable for smaller urban areas, in which a fist or stick substitutes for the bat and a rubber ball (a "

Spaldeen A Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball, often called a Spaldeen or a Pensie Pinkie, is a rubber ball, described as a tennis ball core without the felt. These balls are commonly used in street games developed in the mid-20th century, such as Chinese handball (a ...

") is used *'' skel(l)'': a

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

beggar Begging (also known in North America as panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars m ...

, or small-time street criminal *''s(c)hmuck'': an insulting term for an unlikeable man (from Yiddish ''shmok'': "penis") The word ' tends to be used as a synonym for "weak", "someone unwilling or unable to defend himself" or perhaps "loser", though it appears to descend from an outdated New York

African-American English African-American English (AAE) is the umbrella term for English dialects spoken predominantly by Black people in the United States and, less often, in Canada; most commonly, it refers to a dialect continuum ranging from African-American Vernacu ...

meaning of ''male receptive participant in anal sex''.

Conversational styles

New York City speakers have some unique conversational styles. Linguistics professor Deborah Tannen notes in a ''New York Times'' article it has "an emphasis to involve the other person, rather than being considerate. It would be asking questions as a show of interest in the other person, whereas in other parts of hecountry, people don't ask because it might put the person on the spot." Metro New Yorkers "stand closer, talk louder, and leave shorter pauses between exchanges," Tannen said. "I call it 'cooperative overlap'. It's a way of showing interest and enthusiasm, but it's often mistaken for interrupting by people from elsewhere in the country." On the other hand, linguist William Labov demurs, "there's nothing known to linguists about 'normal New York City conversation.

Notable speakers

The New York accent has a strong presence in media; pioneer variationist sociolinguist

described it as one of the two most recognizable regional accents of

North American English North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar ...

(the other being the Southern accent). The following famous people are native New York City–area speakers—including some speakers of other varieties native to the region—that all demonstrate typical features of the New York accent. *

Bella Abzug Bella Abzug (; née Savitzky; July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998), nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria ...

Eric Adams Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and former police officer who has served as the 110th mayor of New York City since 2022. Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City P ...

Mitchell, Alex (June 3, 2021
"NYC Mayoral Candidates With the Best — and Worst — New York Accents"
''New York Post''. Retrieved April 11, 2022. *

Danny Aiello Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. () (June 20, 1933 – December 12, 2019) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous motion pictures, including ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974), ''The Front'' (1976), ''Once Upon a Time in America'' (1984), ''Hide in ...

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* Jack Armstrong *

Rona Barrett Rona Barrett (born Rona Burstein, October 8, 1936) is an American gossip columnist and businesswoman. She runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizen ...

* Gary Berntsen *

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James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...

Sid Caesar Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954) ...

James Cagney James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and maj ...

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Mariah Carey Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...

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* Michael Cohen *

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Howard Cosell Howard William Cosell (; né Cohen; March 25, 1918 – April 23, 1995) was an American sports journalist, broadcaster and author. Cosell became prominent and influential during his tenure with ABC Sports from 1953 until 1985. Cosell was widel ...

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Mario Cuomo Mario Matthew Cuomo ( , ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ...

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* The

Dead End Kids The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York City who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play '' Dead End'' in 1935. In 1937, producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film. They ...

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* Vic DiBitetto * Bo Dietl *

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Jimmy Durante James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side New York accent, accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced son ...

* Harry Enten *

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* Amy Fisher *

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* Michael Franzese *

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* Meir Kahane * Ken Kalfus * Wendy Kaufman * Harvey Keitel * Carole King * Peter King (American politician), Peter King * Don Kirshner * Calvin Klein * Ed Koch * Michael Kors * Rich Kotite * Ed Kranepool * Bert Lahr * Burt Lancaster * Cyndi Lauper * Spike Lee * John Leguizamo * William J. Lindsay * Vince Lombardi * Natasha Lyonne * Ralph Macchio * Steve Madden * Bernard Madoff * Barry Manilow * Marty Markowitz * Garry Marshall * Penny Marshall * The Marx Brothers; prominently Groucho Marx * Jackie Mason * Walter Matthau * Debi Mazar * James McBride (writer), James McBride * Garry McCarthy * John Mearsheimer * Al Michaels * Henry Miller * ''Mob Wives'' cast * Chris Mullin (basketball), Chris Mullin * Jerry Nadler * Bill O'Reilly (political commentator), Bill O'Reilly * Al Pacino * Ralph Pagano * Chazz Palminteri * Joe Paterno * Rosie Perez * Rhea Perlman * Bernadette Peters * Regis Philbin * Rick Pitino * Mario Puzo * Christine Quinn * Colin Quinn * George Raft * Joey Ramone * Marky Ramone * Charles Rangel * Michael Rapaport * Lou Reed * Paul Reiser * Leah Remini * Don Rickles * Thelma Ritter * Joan Rivers * Phil Rizzuto * Ray Romano * Maxie Rosenbloom * Lynn Samuels * Bernie Sanders * Michael Savage * Telly Savalas * Anthony Scaramucci * Chuck Schumer * Vin Scully * Neil Sedaka * Sidney Shapiro * Judge Judy Sheindlin * Phil Silvers * Paul Simon * Curtis Sliwa * Al Smith * Phil Spector * Ronnie Spector * Art Spiegelman * Sebastian Stan * Arnold Stang * Paul Stanley * Barbara Stanwyck * Peter Steele * Howard Stern * Barbra Streisand * Scott Stringer * Johnny Thunders * Marisa Tomei * Ronnie Trucchio * Donald Trump * John Turturro * Nicholas Turturro * Eric Ulrich * Christopher Walken * Eli Wallach * Denzel Washington * Barry Wellman * Mae West * Lenny Wilkens * Richard D. Wolff * Janet Yellen

Fictional characters

Many fictional characters in popular films and television shows have used New York City English, whether or not the actors portraying them are native speakers of the dialect. Some examples are listed below. * The Bowery Boys * Archie Bunker, Archie and Edith Bunker * Bugs Bunny * The Cat in the Hat from The Cat in the Hat (film), the film ''The Cat in the Hat'' * Cuphead and Mugman from ''The Cuphead Show!'' * Vinny Gambini and Mona Lisa Vito from ''My Cousin Vinny'' * ''The Honeymooners'' cast * Daniel LaRusso from ''The Karate Kid (franchise), The Karate Kid'' movie franchise * Terry Malloy * Meowth from ''Pokémon (anime), Pokémon'' * Rhoda Morgenstern * Harley Quinn * Linda Richman * Rico "Ratso" Rizzo from ''Midnight Cowboy'' * Rizzo the Rat * Jerry Seinfeld (character), Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza from ''Seinfeld'' * ''The Sopranos'' cast * The Three Stooges * Joey Wheeler from ''Yu-Gi-Oh!''

Geographic boundaries

The accent is not spoken in the rest of New York (state), New York State beyond the immediate New York City metropolitan area. Specifically, the upper Hudson Valley mixes New York City and Western New England English, Western New England accent features, while Central New York, Central and Western New York belong to the same dialect region as Great Lakes cities such as Chicago and Detroit, a dialect region known as the Inland Northern American English, Inland North.

New York State

New York City English is confined to a geographically small but densely populated area of New York State including all five boroughs of New York City as well as many parts of

; the dialect region spans all of Nassau County and some of Suffolk County. Moreover, the English of the Hudson Valley forms a continuum of speakers who exhibit more features of New York City English the closer they are to the city itself; some of the dialect's features may be heard as far north as the state capital of Albany, New York, Albany.

Connecticut

A small portion of southwestern Connecticut speaks a similar dialect, primarily speakers in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and as far as New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County.

New Jersey

The Gateway Region, northeastern quarter of New Jersey, prominently Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson, Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen, Union County, New Jersey, Union, and Essex County, New Jersey, Essex Counties, including the municipalities of Weehawken, New Jersey, Weehawken, Hoboken, New Jersey, Hoboken, Jersey City, New Jersey, Jersey City, and Newark, plus Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex and Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth Counties, are all within the New York metropolitan area and thus also home to the major features of New York City English. With the exception of New York City's immediate neighbors like Jersey City and Newark, the New York metropolitan dialect as spoken in New Jersey is Rhoticity in English, rhotic (or fully ''r''-pronouncing) so that, whereas a Brooklynite might pronounce "over there" something like "ovah theah/deah" , an Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth native might say "over there/dare" . ''The Atlas of North American English'' by

et al. shows that the Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩, short-''a'' pattern of New York City has diffused to many ''r''-pronouncing communities in northern New Jersey, like Rutherford, New Jersey, Rutherford (Labov's birthplace) and North Plainfield, New Jersey, North Plainfield. However, in these communities, the function word constraint of the city's short-''a'' pattern is lost, and the open syllable constraint is used only variably.

Notable speakers

The following is a list of notable lifelong native speakers of the New York City English of northeastern New Jersey, regardless of their level of rhoticity: * Jon Bon Jovi * Chris Christie * Glenn Danzig * Danny DeVito * Tommy DeVito (musician), Tommy DeVito * Joey Diaz * James Gandolfini * Sammi Giancola * Ed Harris * Jerramiah Healy * Tom Heinsohn * Richard Kind *

* Artie Lange * Jerry Lewis * Ray Liotta * Steve Lonegan * Gerald McCann * Bill Pascrell * Joe Pesci * Paul Sarlo * Frank Sinatra * Patti Stanger * John Travolta * Frankie Valli * Dick Vitale * Zakk Wylde

Explanatory notes

Citations

General and cited references

* * Becker, Kara & Amy Wing Mei Wong. 2009
The Short-a System of New York City English: An Update
''University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics''. Volume 15, Issue 2 Article 3. pp: 10–20. * Becker, Kara & Elizabeth Coggshall. 2010. The vowel phonologies of white and African American New York Residents. In Malcah Yaeger-Dror and *Erik R. Thomas (eds.) ''African American English Speakers And Their Participation In Local Sound Changes: A Comparative Study''. American Speech Volume Supplement 94, Number 1. Chapel Hill, NC: Duke University Press. pp: 101–128 * Becker, Kara & Elizabeth L. Coggshall. 2009. The Sociolinguistics of Ethnicity in New York City, Language and Linguistic Compass, 3(3): 751–766.4 * * Becker, Kara. 2010. ''Regional Dialect Features on the Lower East Side of New York City: Sociophonetics, Ethnicity, and Identity''. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, NYU. * Bonfiglio, Thomas Paul. 2002. ''Race and the Rise of Standard American''. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 214–225. . * * Cutler, Cece (2007). "Hip-hop language in sociolinguistics and beyond". Language and Linguistics Compass, 1(5):519–538. . * Cutler, Cece (2008). "Brooklyn Style: hip-hop markers and racial affiliation among European immigrants". International Journal of Bilingualism, 12(1–2), 7–24. * * Hubbell, Allan F. 1972. ''The Pronunciation of English in New York City''. NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. * Kurath, Hans and Raven I. McDavid. 1961. ''The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. * Labov, William, Paul S. Cohen, Paul Cohen, Clarence Robins, and John Lewis. 1968. ''A study of the Non-Standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican Speakers in New York City, V. 1: Phonological and Grammatical Analysis''. Washington, DC: Office of Education, Bureau of Research/ERIC. * Labov, William, Paul S. Cohen, Paul Cohen, Clarence Robins, and John Lewis. 1968. ''A study of the Non-Standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican Speakers in New York City', V. 2: The Use of Language in the Speech Community''. Washington, DC: Office of Education, Bureau of Research/ERIC. * * Labov, William. 1972a. ''Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular''. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. * Labov, William. 1972b. ''Sociolinguistic Patterns''. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. * Labov, William (1994) ''Principles of Linguistic Change: Volume 1: Internal Factors'' Blackwell * Labov, William (2001) ''Principles of Linguistic Change: Volume 2: Social Factors'' Blackwell * * * Labov, William (2007
"Transmission and Diffusion"
''Language'' June 2007 * Newman, Michael (2005). "New York Talk" in ''American Voices'' Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward (eds.). p. 82–87. Blackwell. . * * Schneider, E. W., Kortmann, B. (2005), A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multi-Media Reference Tool, Mouton de Gruyter, , p. 284 * * * * * John C. Wells, Wells, J. C. 1982. ''Accents of English. ''3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Wolfram, Walt. 1974. ''Sociolinguistic Aspects of Assimilation: Puerto Rican English in New York City''. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. * Wolfram, Walt & Natalie Schilling Estes (2006) ''American English'' 2nd edition Blackwell * Wolfram, Walt & Ward, Ben (2005) ''American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast'' Blackwell *

External links

Varieties of English: New York City phonology
. From the University of Arizona's Language Samples Project.
A paper by Labov on dialect diversity, including information on NY dialect phonology

The website of the New York Latino English Project, which studies the native English spoken by New York Latinos.
A site with samples of speech in various dialects, including NYC English

AM New York's feature on the New York accent
* . A demonstration of NYC English's raised and tensed /ɔ/, i.e., the THOUGHT vowel, in words like "coffee" and "sausage". {{English dialects by continent American English City colloquials Culture of New York City, English Languages of New York (state) Languages of New Jersey Working-class culture in New York City

History

Influence on other dialects

Recent developments

Pronunciation

Vocabulary and grammar

Conversational styles

Notable speakers

Fictional characters

Geographic boundaries

New York State

Connecticut

New Jersey

Notable speakers

See also

Explanatory notes

Citations

General and cited references

External links