How a New York Accent Can Help You Get Ahead
Fun reading, at least for us New Yorkers, even those not supporting OTHER New Yorkers!
"THEIR partisans may be loath to admit it, but Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump do in fact share some common ground. There is of course their upstart, outsider image. Then they share a posture of forthrightness and candor. A third similarity is how they talk. Not what they say, but how they sound: Like theyre from New York. . .
But how could a New York accent actually play a positive role in politics? Well, we can start with the observation made by the Georgetown linguist Deborah Tannen that New Yorkers tend to have a different conversational style than other Americans. New Yorkers usually favor being more direct. We speak over one another, particularly to show our engagement with what our interlocutor is saying. We like to tell long stories. And we dont mind arguing as long as it is not too personal.
When other Americans talk to one another, they tend to wait for clear signs that their turns are over before beginning to speak. They make room for others by not, as they see it, hogging the floor. They tend to interpret open disagreement as conflict, and so avoid it.
To be fair, Ms. Tannen was referring specifically to Jewish New Yorkers in her research, and Jews do seem to provide a kind of prototypical example. Witness the classic Easter dinner scene in Woody Allens 1977 movie Annie Hall, in which Mr. Allens character Alvy Singer is visiting his girlfriend Annies family in Wisconsin. Toward the end of the scene, a split screen shows the Halls bland, unthreatening and slow-paced conversation on one side. On the other is the Singer family in Brooklyn, loudly talking over and contradicting one another."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/opinion/how-a-new-york-accent-can-help-you-get-ahead.html?
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)My husband has a bit of a Wisconsin (Wis-cahn-sin) accent. His name is Jahn.
My son in law has a real Boston accent. Love it. We used to kid him with the "Pahk the cah at the Hahvahd Yahd."
Noo Yahkes are great. But there are sub groups of Jewish and Italian. Watch the original Godfather movie and hear the Italian one.
morningglory
(2,336 posts)He has a NY accent.
Aristus
(66,328 posts)The rapid-fire delivery of Brooklyn; the nasality of the Bronx.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)but I'm prejudiced seeing as how I'm a native.
elleng
(130,895 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)I'm from da Bronx.
virgdem
(2,126 posts)from Longisland!
elleng
(130,895 posts)(after Manhattan and Brooklyn.)
virgdem
(2,126 posts)elleng
(130,895 posts)> Long Island.
Now in MD, near DC where most of my professional life occurred.
cprise
(8,445 posts)...for derision. The twang of the South was still gaining favor.
marmar
(77,080 posts)..... I never could stand the accent. The inability to enunciate an "r" gets under my craw.