Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

"A New York accent makes you sound ignorant..."

B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
...in the opinion of:

Lynn Singer, a speech therapist who works with Miss LoGiudice. "People listen to the accent, but not to what you’re saying."
Click to expand...

According to the New York Times, increasing numbers of New Yorkers are turning to speech therapy to iron out their consonants and vowels in order to be understood.

Those who seek professional help to conquer their accents make similar complaints, like, “ ‘People don’t understand what I’m saying,’ ” said Sam Chwat, who is considered the dean of speech therapists. “ ‘I’m stigmatized by the way I speak.’ ‘I’m tired of people imitating or ridiculing the way I speak, or saying I sound “cute.” ’ ‘My accent seems to imply negative characteristics.’"

Miss LoGiudice’s accent didn’t matter when she was growing up in Howard Beach, a heavily Italian neighborhood in Queens where dropping r’s in words like doctor (doctuh) and water (wawtuh) just happens to be the way many people talk.
Click to expand...

There's money in it too.

The online Yellow Pages includes more than a dozen listings for “New York accent reduction” specialists, and searching “New York accent” and reduction or elimination on Google generates about 4,000 hits. The process typically takes at least several months, with as many as three sessions a week, and can cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
Click to expand...

Some history:

The New York accent is a distinctive amalgam of Irish, German, Yiddish and Italian — now infused with black and Hispanic dialects and a Caribbean lilt — that was identified at least as far back as the early 19th century. In 1896, E. H. Babbitt wrote about “The Language of the Lower Classes in New York and Vicinity” whose voices O. Henry later captured in his short stories.

In 1928, when radio became a factor in a national political campaign for the first time, the president of CBS wrote unflatteringly that Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York pronounced the word first as “foist.” A 1940 study by two New York University professors found that the New York accent was the most widely disliked style of speech in the United States. And in 1966, William Labov, a sociolinguist, identified what he called “linguistic self-hatred in New York.”
Click to expand...



Is this true? Or do other accents in the US get some flack too?

On a side-note, over here in parts of the UK and amongst some people, there's a generally similar perception of the Brummie accent (Birmingham) and the Scouse accent (Liverpool). Never bothered me, but then I've got an accent too. ;)
 
CorvusCamenarum

CorvusCamenarum

macrumors 65816
Dec 16, 2004
1,231
2
Birmingham, AL
Blue Velvet said:
Or do other accents in the US get some flack too?
Click to expand...

Southern, especially lower-class southern.

Oddly enough, my family has been here since the Cassette Girls landed, yet I don't have a southern accent. Go figure.

I remember hearing somewhere that the midwestern accent is preferred as it's the easiest to universally understand.
 
steve2112

steve2112

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2009
3,023
6
East of Lyra, Northwest of Pegasus
Blue Velvet said:
...in the opinion of:




Is this true? Or do other accents in the US get some flack too?

On a side-note, over here in parts of the UK and amongst some people, there's a generally similar perception of the Brummie accent (Birmingham) and the Scouse accent (Liverpool). Never bothered me, but then I've got an accent too. ;)
Click to expand...

Do other accents get flak? Yeah, you could say that. One of the things that drives me crazy is that people in the rest of the US automatically assume Southern accent=backwards, shoeless, toothless, inbred, trailer-park living idiot. Sometimes I think if Stephen Hawking's voice box had a southern accent, people would automatically consider him a dumb redneck or something.
 
Melrose

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
Redneck Accent sounds the most ignorant and least trustworthy of all American speech.

Fortunately, with my dad being from a middle-class Brit family, it kind of evened out the heavy Rochester accent my mum has. I spot a Rochester accent a mile away.
 
Macky-Mac

Macky-Mac

macrumors 68040
May 18, 2004
3,525
2,581
here in Los Angeles there are actors who go to voice coaches in order to eliminate their southern accents.....and there are speech therapists who have foreign born clients trying to eliminate all sorts of accents in order to improve their communication skills
 
bigjnyc

bigjnyc

macrumors 604
Apr 10, 2008
7,869
6,801
I would think that southern and Boston accents are worse... but thats just my opinion.
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
To me, New York, Boston, Chicago etc. accents either sound snooty or arrogant. I'm a well enough adjusted person to not have that perception causing me to judge people based on their accents, however. It's also not completely decoupled from the type of people that come from urban areas.

Personally, I'm fond of British accents, especially with cursing. I think it's funny to hear it in an accent that sounds so proper.
 
Last edited:
emw

emw

macrumors G4
Aug 2, 2004
11,172
0
Huh. So the accent makes them sound ignorant? I always thought people from New York simply were ignorant. Learn something new every day, I suppose. ;)

BTW, I'm in ChiCAga over by dare, and we're significantly more eloquent.
 
SidewaysTakumi

SidewaysTakumi

macrumors 6502a
Aug 5, 2010
793
133
Texas
Accents are awesome!

I'm from the south but don't think I have a particularly southern accent.

I love doing impersonations though...have friends from Midwest (say thing like oh gaaad [god]) and from the Northeast and it's fun to hear the differences.

I also often do an English (or British) accent in class (I'm a teacher) but this thread has me wondering which region am I impersonating? --haha.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CheesegraterMac
JoeG4

JoeG4

macrumors 68030
Jan 11, 2002
2,847
520
There's 2 accents I dislike:

1. Valley girl accent. It gives me headaches
2. Fake Brit accents, you can tell them a mile away.

I'm not sure what I speak exactly, but I would love to have an Aussie accent! All I know is I grew up in NorCal and when I was growing up, my classmates told me I had a funny accent lol.
 
B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
SidewaysTakumi said:
I also often do an English (or British) accent in class (I'm a teacher) but this thread has me wondering which region am I impersonating? --haha.
Click to expand...


Given my recent but admittedly limited experience of Americans attempting British accents, probably no region that exists on earth at all. :D

What do people think of Hugh Laurie's American accent in House (M.D.)? Not sure what accent he's using there...
 
Moyank24

Moyank24

macrumors 601
Aug 31, 2009
4,334
2,454
in a New York State of mind
NYR99 said:
Hey! I'm from Long Island! I don't think my accent is that bad.
Click to expand...

So am I, and my accent is awesome. Though living in Texas for the last few years, I get SO much crap over it.

Seriously, y'all is not a real word. It still makes me giggle when people text it. Like they are trying to keep the accent in the written word as well.

NY accent FTW!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom