'Sweet Spot With Mike Sugerman:' New York Accent No Longer?
"Sweet Spot," by Mike Sugerman
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Is the New York accent going away?
You still hear it at Yankee Stadium. The letter 'r' doesn't stand a chance there.
But while you might not know it, experts say the accent is changing.
"Some of the more stereotypical features are declining," says Queens College linguistics professor Michael Newman, who literately wrote the book on New York City English.
He's among the many researchers who say New Yorkers are ditching the "oy" vowel – you know, the one Archie Bunker was famous for.
"People would be laughed at for using it, so it's unsurprising that people would stop using it," Newman says.
Others are joining in that category. Researchers also say the dropping of the "r" is being dropped.
So what's going on?
"What's happened in New York, as we all know, is that there's been a huge demographic influx, mostly from out of the country but also a lot of people from other parts of the U.S.," Newman tells me.
New York has always been big, but now apparently not as provincial, especially Manhattan. Other boroughs and New Jersey aren't changing as fast. And that's OK with the professor.
"Although I'd like to be objective about it, I have a certain nostalgia to the sounds of the place that I grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens," he says.
The soundtrack of the city – as far as we know – remains the same.