TEACHING THE NEW YORK ACCENT. I once watched an early morning educational program which taught English to Spanish speakers. The teacher had a beautiful voice and flawless American accent (think of the best professional announcers). In the program I watched he was teaching his students how to understand the New York accent. I had not realized that the New York accent in part consists of substituting the “uh†sound represented by a schwa for the “r†sound. He wrote on the board “beer†and “bird†and then the New York pronunciation: “bee uh†and “bu ud.†Then he wrote the familiar words “beer, here†and the pronunciation “bee uh, hee uh.†Finally he introduced a nuance, writing “bird†on the board again and pointing out that some New Yorkers pronounced it “boy ud.â€
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I was at a party in Uganda talking to an American I’d just met.
A minute later he told me I came from the north central Bronx around 233rd Street.!He was off by one block!
CIA? I said.
No, he said. I did an MA thesis at Fordham University on Bronx dialects and am now doinga Ph.D. thesis on Ugandan dialects.
Do I still sound like a Bronxite? You guys know.
Shades of Mark Twain! He claimed to be able to tell what county on the Mississippi somebody was from. I had a friend with that kind of ability who once referred to a “Rye, New York” accent. I challenged him that there was no such thing. He told me to call the Rye Hilton and listen for a characteristic pronunciation by the operator. He was right.
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