Social Changes Enhancing the New York Dialect

Roashell Bonadie

Education 150 Section: 060

Professor S. Jaramillo

March 27, 2009

            The New York dialect is closely confined to the geographically small but densely populated New York City dialect region, which is consist of the city’s five boroughs.  The New York dialect that was spoken in times past had a distinguished accent that was perceptible to non New Yorkers in the way certain words were pronounced, for example New Yorkers said “Toidy Toid and Toid” and “terlet for toilet”.  As time exceeded the dialect the dialect is changing or being altered.  Even though the New York dialect is changing, the changes that are taking place is one that we can embrace because it is moving unto something that is positive and acceptable by most New Yorkers.  These changes came about by social changes in education, media, immigration, socio economy class and migration.

            Talking about the changing New York dialect have gotten the attention of many Linguists one of them being George Jochnowitz, emeritus professor of linguistics at the College of Staten Island; he stated that the New York accent is “hanging on”, but “compared with certain other regional accents, it’s hanging on less”. (Pujol 1) One of the factors that are affecting this change in the dialect hanging on less is the Education system.  Heather Rosso 60 of Bensonhurst remarked that she speak with more of an accent than both her kids do because education makes you speak better.  She also stated that when you go to school, that you don’t learn how to speak with an accent like the New York accent. (Pujol 3) In schools mainstream English is taught in order to help the kid assimilate with other kids.

            The education system also helps to change the dialect of kids when they leave New York to further their education in colleges or to work in other states.  Deborah Sontag in her essay interviewed Judy Schwarz a 45 year old teacher whose New York accent changed when she went away to college.  Judy said “It was like someone took a vacuum cleaner to all the really noticeable parts of my accent”. (Sontag 2) This change in dialect represents a positive change because New Yorkers who go away are less likely to be branded negatively based simply on their speech.

            The media have also helped to change the way New Yorkers speak, especially the influence of television which has helped in reducing the accents.  Gone are the days when there where television programs that made fun of the New York dialect; for example The Archie Bunker television show was a sitcom that was based in New York that had an eminent New York dialect.  “Archie Bunker confused “terlet” for “toilet” and called his long-suffering wife “Edit”. (Pujol 1) Recent reversal of these negative stereotyping has long been replaced with shows that are more generic.  Television programs are far more diverse to reflect the majority of Americans.  For instance if you sit down to watch sesame street you would find that not everyone on the program speak like a New Yorker, instead there are many different people with so many different types of accent from all over the country.  This type of environment has helped New Yorkers adapt other accents from all over, thus creating a change. Sometimes the changes in the dialect is one that is subconscious for as we listen to the television our minds are at work and we pick up different accent without knowing it.  As we listen to varying television program a positive change takes place where we are able to communicate better with other people because we are learning there lingo.

            The natural history of immigration has also influence the New York accents. “As New York City increasingly becomes a multiracial city, with large numbers of new immigrants from the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia, it is only natural that a language shaped for decades by Irish, Italian and Eastern European settlers should change.” (Sontag 1) Being an immigrant myself I understand the changes that can take place with ones dialect.  I had to adapt to my surroundings, to the way other around me speak, even though I speak like a Vincentian it is not the same as it use to be because of all the different languages that I have formulated contact with every day.  I don’t think I speak like a New Yorker because there are so many different people from different countries in New York that have help to shape the way I speak.  This is what is happening to the dialect, which Becker mentioned in New York Accent: Still Talking the Tawk.  He stated that “In a place like New York, there are people of all races and ethnicities and linguistic background, they’re the ones who are going to be changing the character of New York City speak, making it unique.”  (Pojol 3) Even though there are traces of the dialect, it is being altered owed to different nationalities synchronized in the same neighborhood.

             The upper socio economy class also contributed to the changes in the New York Dialect.  These classes of people are the ones linguists believed are likely to change their accent once they become upwardly mobile because of outside influences and self-consciousness. (Sontag 1) then higher you are in society the less likely you are to speak the New York dialect.  On the contrary the lower socio economy class is the ones that are more likely to have a strong hold on the dialect.  A study was orchestrated by linguist William Labov who published a definitive description of New York dialect in 1964; he researched the use of ‘r’ in a study at Saks, Mary’s and S. Klein.  Employees at each store were asked where a department like women’s shoes, employees was more likely to pronounce the r: at Klein’s, the bargain basement, they were most likely to drop it. (Sontag 2) This study have shown according to Sontag essay that the poorer communities whose resident do not have much contact with other ways of speaking keep the stronger dialect than people from more aloft communities who tend to change in the manner in which they speak thus altering the way New Yorkers speak.

            New York has always been a melting pot for languages due to the immigration and migration of New Yorkers and non New Yorkers.  Although both words are similar in meaning they in part have a distinct effect on the changes taking place in the New York dialect.  Immigration is described as the moving away from one region to another.  I have already discussed the changes that immigration has o the New York dialect so I want to discuss the changes that are also taking place with migration.  The migration of New Yorkers to different states has brought a change in shifting the dialect for most New Yorkers.  Migration from one state to the other has always been a part of the American Culture.  When New Yorkers migrate to another state there dialect changes, these changes take place because their living environments has shifted and they are no longer hanging around New Yorkers that have the same dialect, so their way of speaking is slowly distorted to facilitate their ne environment.  Even though people all over the country speak English, the dialect we speak help us to identify who we are as a community, this dialect is always improving as migration takes place.

            The national language of the United States is American English.  This language distinction serves to separate American speaker from other English speakers – such as the population of England who speak the “Queens English.” (Schumacher 36) The true function of language is to serve as a means of communication.” (Cameron 23) but variations found within a main language can provide a more specific look at the geographical data imbedded in each states is a dialect the is very distinguishable, so is the New York dialect, which is the layering of ethnic speech from the waves of immigrant that settled in the city, from the earliest settlements by the Dutch and English, followed in the 1800s by the Irish and Mid Westerners.  Over time many collective influences combined to give New York a distinctive accent, all the different combination of languages is changing the way New Yorkers speak.  Just like the changing Education levels, the media’s influence on our society, immigration, the social economy class and also the migration from one stat to the other,.  The dialect of New York City has undergone some Manor changes; embracing these changes are helping to shape us as a people thus making us who we are; a multicultural melting pot that is New York.

 Work Cited

Cameron, Deborah. Verbal Hygiene. 1995 Routledge London

Pujol, Rolando. New York Accent: Still Talking the Tawk? AmNY. Com 20, February 2008.

            www.amyn.com...

Schumacher, Kayleen. Speaking English:  A Geographical Analysis of Dialect Distribution in

            Massachusetts.  www.svsu.edu

Sontag, Deborah. Oy Gavalt! New Yawkese an Endangered Dialect? The New York Times. 14,

            February 1993. www.query.nytimes.com...