I am not a mid westerner I am a New Yorker born and raised in New York City and as such remain proud of my Brooklyn New York accent.What bugs me is that the news on T.V. will never have a native New Yorker broadcast the news.Even in our ( metro New York) area you’ll never hear a N.Y accent. Even if the on air news celebrity is a native-born and raised New Yorker the station will insist that they squelch any a semblance of New Yorkese and try to feign some sort of Mid Western accent.
I’m over 70 years old now and in my day there were 3 distinct new York Accents or speech patterns ..Jewish, Italian and Irish. Each had its on style or phrasing & delivery when talking ..;Maybe a Okie from Muskogee couldn’t tell us apart when but talking every new Yorker could ..
The New York style of speaking was way over exaggerated when shown on T.V.,Movies and commercials with stars such as Fran Drescher with her unique Jewish way of speaking with Italians over done with Sylvester Stallion & Irish with non other with the likes of a James Cagney..Those days are long gone long .
My Grandmother was born in New York City back in 1901 and raised in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Like many children of non-English speaking immigrant parents they learned to speak english from their School teachers who were for the most part Irish New Yorker’s who spoke with a South Brooklyn accent .
They pronounced words such as Birds as Boyd’s … Church as Choych and called oil earl..Demograhics have changed all that and with different ethic group you don’t hear people speak that way anymore.
They try to convey that us New Yorker’s are less educated than the rest of the nation because of the way talk.I remember when I was in grade school and asked my teacher what is the pronunciation “Water” or Wata”(to roll the er or affix and A at the end in place of the “Er”) both are correct she replied. New Yonkers don’t loose your N.Y. accent.I you attend an out of State College to get an education that’s OK….but keep the New York accent.
Yiddish words that made itself into our English language below
The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten
INTERNATIONAL HEROLD
The Lerman Report® 