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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/nyregion/21accent.html
If you read the comments, a lot of people there seem to be posting under the misguided impression that wherever they're from has the flat, universal accent. Minnesota? Connecticut? Boston? California? How about, uh, no? (Especially California. I count at least three people claiming that everybody should speak "neutrally" like they do over in California. LOL! Have they heard themselves speak lately?)
I take a much more sensible approach. Rather than New Yorkers trying to change their accents, everybody else in the country should simply speak like we do. Not because our accent is neutral, far from it, but because it's simply the best, most correct way to talk. It's self-evident! :P
Or, if that's a bit much, maybe we can start judging people on the content of their speech, rather than assuming ignorance before we even listen properly. And then I'll let you guys over in California and Boston and wherever else think you speak normally, and you can let us think the same, and we'll all communicate nicely with each other without getting caught up in silly little details like which vowel goes where and how we indicate a plural you (or if we do at all).
There are also comments from people bemoaning the lack of a NYC accent in NY. I don't think this means the accent is dying, though. Probably just means that it's moving and changing as we get new immigrants (who will alter the accent, of course) and as the older groups pick up and move elsewhere now that they have more money. Elsewhere like, say, Staten Island. It's remarkable how many conversations I've had on Staten Island that run "Where are you from?" "Brooklyn!" "Oh, me too - Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst!" (And it's always those two neighborhoods, too.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/nyregion/21accent.html
If you read the comments, a lot of people there seem to be posting under the misguided impression that wherever they're from has the flat, universal accent. Minnesota? Connecticut? Boston? California? How about, uh, no? (Especially California. I count at least three people claiming that everybody should speak "neutrally" like they do over in California. LOL! Have they heard themselves speak lately?)
I take a much more sensible approach. Rather than New Yorkers trying to change their accents, everybody else in the country should simply speak like we do. Not because our accent is neutral, far from it, but because it's simply the best, most correct way to talk. It's self-evident! :P
Or, if that's a bit much, maybe we can start judging people on the content of their speech, rather than assuming ignorance before we even listen properly. And then I'll let you guys over in California and Boston and wherever else think you speak normally, and you can let us think the same, and we'll all communicate nicely with each other without getting caught up in silly little details like which vowel goes where and how we indicate a plural you (or if we do at all).
There are also comments from people bemoaning the lack of a NYC accent in NY. I don't think this means the accent is dying, though. Probably just means that it's moving and changing as we get new immigrants (who will alter the accent, of course) and as the older groups pick up and move elsewhere now that they have more money. Elsewhere like, say, Staten Island. It's remarkable how many conversations I've had on Staten Island that run "Where are you from?" "Brooklyn!" "Oh, me too - Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst!" (And it's always those two neighborhoods, too.)
