Introduction

A caveat to be made when discussing the English spoken in New York City is that it is difficult to isolate a single variety that is prototypical of the region. New York has been a dense, populous urban centre for long enough that different neighborhoods, social classes, and ethnicities can easily have their own variety. Although each of these local varieties is identifiably distinct to other New Yorkers, they all share a set of dialectal features that can distinguish any local variety from other American varieties.

Thus, when we speak of "New York English" as a variety of English, we are referring to a composite of the various forms spoken there. Similarly, if we can identify a New Yorker from his or her speech, we are using at least some of the features which collectively help distinguish New Yorkers from other Americans.

In this area of the LSP website, you will encounter features that are unique to New York English, features that it shares with other dialects of English, and features that vary within New York City.

Dialects of the Northeast

Homepage

© 2001 The Language Samples Project