'Ey Yo Foget 'Bout it: the New York Way of Speaking

OK, so maybe we don't actually say that.  Despite this, New Yorkers still have a unique way of speaking.  The New York accent is easily one of the most recognizable accents in the entire world.  New Yorkers also abbreviate many phrases, giving them a distinguished dialogue all their own.

New York City is a hustling metropolis.  Here, eight million people have to scramble and hustle to make their engagements on time: they have to hail taxicabs, board buses, transfer subway lines, and speed through social interactions.  Because of this, New York culture is rushed, and things move a lot faster in New York than in other places.  The dialect reflects this.  As New Yorkers are constantly trying to punch the clock in order to meet their engagements in time, they often abbreviate phrases in order to speed things up a bit.  For example, instead of asking someone if they finished eating, a New Yorker will instead ask, "Jeet?".  Jeet is obviously faster than saying, "Did you eat?", therefore, it becomes part of the New York vernacular.  Also many New Yorkers often say, "comere", as opposed to, "come here".  Again, this is due to the fact that in New York, time does equate to money.  In addition to the innovative abbreviations, New Yorkers will speak very, very fast in general.  In fact, many non-New Yorkers have trouble simply keeping up with a NYC native in a conversation (my sister, a New York native, often talks so fast that even I, another New Yorker, can't figure out what she's saying).

While the abbreviations and fast paced way of speaking are easily identified with New Yorkers, the New York accent is the driving force behind the New York dialect's iconic status.  The accent is so easily distinguishable that when many people first think of New York, they think of the accent.  For example, the fact that New Yorkers replace the "r" sound at the end of a word with an "a" sound (New Yawka, Peanut Butta, wata) has become common knowledge.  A less known change in pronunciation revolves around the swapping of an "er" with an "iz".  For example, my grandmother, an old relic of Brooklyn, asks if I would like some "red-hot peppiz", as opposed to "red-hot peppers".  She also likes to wear her "slippiz" (slippers) at night.  These are but two of the many examples of unique New York accents.  Others include: "Long Island" becomes "Lawn Guylang", "Florida" becomes "Flarida", and "milk" becomes "melk".

The New York dialect has become one of the most iconic speech patterns in the world.  Hell, why do you think Bugs Bunny,  possibly the most recognizable character of 20th century culture, has a noticeable New York accent? (Bugs says he's from "toity toid" Street.)  And our very own Joe Paterno, the most famous man in the county, has a distinguished Brooklyn accent.  Because of the dialect, New Yorkers have been stereotyped as being uncouth and acrimonious.  Whether this is actually true, however, remains to be seen.  If you're curious, I recommend taking a little trip to the Big Apple and finding out for yourself.