NEW YORK DIALECT

(This Dialect Guide Supplements the NY Dialect Video on Youtube)

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• Resonance – (Quality of a sound) -

o In Standard American English, the resonance is in the
middle of your mouth.
o The NY resonance is forward & down between the bottom
teeth & bottom lip.
o The NY dialect uses a lot of jaw action.
• Vowels -
o The Short “O” sound goes to the “AH” sound.
§ It tends to be an intense, unrounded sound in the lower,
forward part of the mouth.
§ Ex: Stop = St”AH”p, Orange = “AH”range
o The long “I” sound sometimes changes to “OI” (however, it
does not become the fully rounded “OI” as it does in the
Cockney Dialect).
§ For instance, when the long “I” sound (as in “bribe”)
is followed by any *voiced consonant, it changes to
“OI”
• Ex: pride, dime = Pr”OI”de, d”OI”me
§ When the long “I” sound (as in “pike”) is followed by
a *voiceless consonant it does not round at all
• Ex: bike, site, ripe = bike, site, ripe
• However, be sure to drive into that “I” sound
o The “AWE” sound gets stretched out further in the lower part
of mouth and almost gets a “W” sound in front of the “AWE”
sound –
§ Ex: Lost = L”W-AWE”st, flawless = fl”W-AWE”less
• PITCH -
o There’s not a big Pitch Range in the NY dialect, however:
§ There is a tendency to have a pitch drop off at the end
of words.
§ The pitch tends to be slightly monotone. But it is not
extreme.
o “R” drop.
§ Ex: sister, brother = sistah, brothah
o “AIR” sound gets the “EH-YA” sound
§ Ex: wear = ”EH-YA”.
o “EER” sound gets the “EE-YA” sound.
§ Ex: the deer’s ear = the de”EE-YA”s “EE-YA”.
o “ORE” sound goes to “EW-AH”.
§ Ex: More, Bore = m”EW-AH”, b”EW-AH”.
o “AR” sound – goes to “AH” sound
§ Ex: Car and Bar = “CAH” and “BAH”
§ However, when the “AR” sound is followed by a vowel or
a “Y”, the “R” stays in the word.
• Ex: Park the ca”r” in the garage.
§ Sometimes, an “R” gets thrown into a word.
• Ex: I saw it = I sa”r” it.
o In an ethnic, lower class NY neighborhood, you may get the
“ER” changing to “OI” -
§ Ex: Bird = b”OI”d. Thirsty = th”OI”sty
o In some parts of NY you keep the hard “R” in the word.
§ Ex: b”OI”d = b”IR”d, th”OI”sty = th”IR”sty
o “D” replaces the “T” -
§ Ex: Latter, British = Laddah, Briddish
o When speaking in a super stereotypical NY accent, you can
add the glottal stop to the “T” words.
§ Ex: Pretty = Pri-y, butter = Bu-ah.
o Drop the “G” from “ING” –
§ Playing = playin’, singing = singin’
o If you really want to have an extreme NY accent, you can make
the following two changes –
§ Ex: The “OI” sound gets an added “R”.
• Ex: Oil = oi”R”l
§ Ex: The “D” replaces a voiced and voiceless “TH”
• Ex: The other day = “Dah uddah day.”
• *Voiced consonants –
o Here are two simple exercises to determine which are the
voiced consonants .
§ Put a finger on your larynx and make a “Z” sound.
Notice you can feel a “buzz” on your finger. This is
because your vocal folds come together and turn your
breath into a vibration.
§ Put your fingers in your ears while you make a “Z” sound.
You’ll get the same vibration.

o Here is a list of “ALL” the voiced consonants…

§ V § R
§ TH (as in This) § W
§ B § Y
§ D § L
§ G § M
§ S (as in § N
mea”s”ure) § NG
§ DG (as in judge)

• *Voiceless consonant –
o Here are two simple exercises to determine which are the
voiceless consonants .
§ Put a finger on your larynx and make an “S” sound
• Notice you do not feel a vibration this time. Rather,
you just feel your breath.
• Now put your fingers in your ears and, again, you
will not get that vibration.
§ Get a piece of paper and put in front of your mouth –
• With voiced consonants, the paper won’t move too
much.
• With voiceless consonants, the paper will move
much more.

o Here is a list of “ALL” the voiceless consonants…

§ P § Sh
§ T § Ch
§ K § H
§ F § Th (as in Thing)
§ S