People from around the country, the world even, can be heard imitating different accents, including the infamous New York accent. From dropping r’s to adding a second syllable to words like “talk”, New Yorkers are known for sounding like they should be yelling into a phone with an accent as thick as butter. Grab a cup of “cawfee” and settle down to read about where in the world that accent came from and why it’s fading away from the city.

The accent originally started in the city and has been called “New Yorkese” and even “Brooklynese” because of the belief that it is from Brooklyn. The accent is actually just a mix of different accents from around Europe; New Yorkers tend to drop r’s in words such as doctor making it sound like “doctah”. New Yorkers also tend to make the vowels in words longer like “sausage” turns into “sawwsage”.

The different boroughs all believe that they sound a little different than each other but that is basically just borough pride. The only real differences are in ethnicity; the Italian-American version comes as a package including the “fuggedaboutit” attitude and the Irish-American version basically requires you to yell phrases such as, “You doity rat!” or other, harsher things. Although, you no longer hear very many people asking you to go take a “wawk” on “Thoity Thoid” the accent has spread to other areas. Long Island has now turned into “Lawn Guyland” and New Jersey is now “New Joisey” as you may know if you have seen Jersey Shore.

The reasoning behind why the accent is fading away is simple; while the accent is so well-known it is also criticized – a lot. It used to be considered distinguished to drop your r’s but now the accent is one that people are ashamed of.

The accent basically signifies where people come from and some people are not proud of that; some of those who have grown up with the accent are trying to get rid of it. Sophomore Carleigh Kerns wonders why people would try to lose their classic New York accent. “They’ve had it for so long. I don’t think they’d get rid of it just because people are making fun of it,” she said. A lot of people just aren’t proud of it anymore and while some are still rockin’ it. The accent has mostly been laughed out of existence.

Here in Westhampton Beach we are in a “speech bubble” of sorts, meaning that we are not affected as much by the accent. Sophomore Madeline Neuberger said, “I’ve noticed that the accent is thicker on the western part of Long Island.” That is true in a way; people from the western part of Long Island tend to have more of an accent than those from the eastern part. Some people have the accent but then move away and lose it, others pick it up by living here and then some others have bits of it mixed in with how they normally talk. It is always a little bit hard to tell who has an accent though when you have heard people talk similarly all of your life.

Hopefully that cup of “cawfee” lasted you until the end of this and if you didn’t enjoy it well then I hope your coffee was good; if not then… “Fuggedaboutit!”