A Bronx Tale: differences in accent among New York boroughs and/or social classes?
Thread poster: Sebastian Witte
Sebastian Witte
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Aug 11, 2016

Dear all,

When watching that De Niro-made movie starring Bronx native Chazz Palminteri I just realised the BX working class accent in that movie is too much for me.

Somehow I had not noticed this in other well-known movies about the city.

So, are there any differences in accent among the New York boroughs and/or its social classes?

Any movie suggestions for sampling those?

How noticeable is the New York accent, say, 40 miles away?<
... See more
Dear all,

When watching that De Niro-made movie starring Bronx native Chazz Palminteri I just realised the BX working class accent in that movie is too much for me.

Somehow I had not noticed this in other well-known movies about the city.

So, are there any differences in accent among the New York boroughs and/or its social classes?

Any movie suggestions for sampling those?

How noticeable is the New York accent, say, 40 miles away?

Best regards,

Sebastian Witte

[Edited at 2016-08-11 21:06 GMT]
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Lingua 5B
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NY State and NY City. Aug 11, 2016

40 miles away would still be NY State?

Just generally speaking, accent is always different 40 miles away, in any country.

But it would be interesting to hear answers from people living there, nonetheless.


 
Sebastian Witte
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Accent always different 40 miles away? Aug 11, 2016

Lingua 5B wrote:

Just generally speaking, accent is always different 40 miles away, in any country.



Hi Lingua,

The Brandenburg dialect in the Greater Berlin Area sounds, at least to my ears as a non-Berliner, highly similar to the Berlin dialect and accent.

But I agree that 40 miles is a lot in this respect, even within a given metro area (New York State does not come into the picture here, as not all of it is urban - the question only concerns the actual metro area surrounding New York City).

Best,

Sebastian


 
Axel Dittmer
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yep Aug 12, 2016

Hi,
Watch 'The Nanny' , 'The Sopranos' , 'Cosby Show', all Scorcese and Woody Allen movies set in New York.
And yes, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island used to be the 'working class' boroughs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_dx7CkA0ck
Plus there are of books about it. With a little bit of googeling you find lots of clips about it.

Cheers


 
Sebastian Witte
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Thanks, Axel Aug 12, 2016

Axel Dittmer wrote:

Hi,
Watch 'The Nanny' , 'The Sopranos' , 'Cosby Show', all Scorcese and Woody Allen movies set in New York.
And yes, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island used to be the 'working class' boroughs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_dx7CkA0ck
Plus there are of books about it. With a little bit of googeling you find lots of clips about it.

Cheers


Hi Axel,

That YouTube video really looks a treat, I just have to watch it.

Directors Scorsese and Woody Allen, I love both of them, even though what one of them does is so very different from what the other one does.

The Sopranos ring a bell (James Gandolfini!). I just saw the series is based in urban NJ. I understand this is only a short water taxi ride from Midtown Manhattan or Lower Manhattan, as the case may be, and then there are one or two bridges across the Hudson River, too?

The Cosby Show brings up memories from when I was growing up. We used to watch it on TV at times. I have never been that much of a super fan but always thought it was quite alright, actually.

Thanks again for these very relevant pointers,

Cheers,

Sebastian Witte







[Edited at 2016-08-12 08:07 GMT]


 
Jack Doughty
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In memoriam
Bronx poem Aug 12, 2016

De spring is sprung, de grass is riz.
I wonder where doze boidies is?
De boid is on de wing? Absoid!
I toit de wing was on de boid!


 
The Misha
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This is a moot question Aug 12, 2016

The real issue is that upwards of 80% (or so they say) of people currently living in this city were born elsewhere. For quite a few of them English is not their native language either. The Bronx and parts of all other boroughs are heavily black, Hispanic and Chinese, which directly affects how these folks speak English - even when, and to the extent that they do speak it. To this, one should add the burgeoning Asian, Indian and Russian populations that all tend to have distinct and heavy accents... See more
The real issue is that upwards of 80% (or so they say) of people currently living in this city were born elsewhere. For quite a few of them English is not their native language either. The Bronx and parts of all other boroughs are heavily black, Hispanic and Chinese, which directly affects how these folks speak English - even when, and to the extent that they do speak it. To this, one should add the burgeoning Asian, Indian and Russian populations that all tend to have distinct and heavy accents. Against all that the older, primarily Yiddish and New England-influenced accents, whether real or perceived, are quickly becoming little more than a nostalgia issue, and the difference in accents between separate boroughs is even less relevant. Brooklyn Italian, for one, is largely a thing of tacky Hollywood gangster movies these days.Collapse


 
Balasubramaniam L.
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Dialects and communities Aug 13, 2016

Even within New York, or any large city for that matter, different ethinc and religious groups will have their own lingo. The Blacks, the Asians (among them the various sub-groups like the Punjabis, Urdu-speakers, Hindi-speakers, Chinese, and so on), the Hispanics, and the Italians have their own lingo. So it is not just a class issue, or a regional issue, but a characteristic of any multi-cultural conglomeration of people.

Movies just pick up a few prominent traits and blow them up
... See more
Even within New York, or any large city for that matter, different ethinc and religious groups will have their own lingo. The Blacks, the Asians (among them the various sub-groups like the Punjabis, Urdu-speakers, Hindi-speakers, Chinese, and so on), the Hispanics, and the Italians have their own lingo. So it is not just a class issue, or a regional issue, but a characteristic of any multi-cultural conglomeration of people.

Movies just pick up a few prominent traits and blow them up to produce an effect and don't generally reflect the actual linguistic features on the ground. So if you find a particular movie dialect to be difficult to follow, it could also be because it has been largely manufactured by the script writer for the purpose of the movie, and it doesn't actually exist in New York.

[Edited at 2016-08-13 04:19 GMT]
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A Bronx Tale: differences in accent among New York boroughs and/or social classes?






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