That being said, words like "coffee", pronounced more like "caw-fee" and "talk" like "tawk" are ones that most people foreign to the city could recognize as being part of the New York accent. However, there is actually much more to this dialect than meets the eye. For the casual listener, the accent doesn't seem very complicated, but, according to linguists, there are many subtle changes in pronunciation that give this language its particular twang. For instance, there is a short-A split in words like "bat" and "class" in the New York City accent that is unseen in many other styles of speaking in the United States, with the exception of cities like Boston and Philadelphia (Becker, Wing-mei Wong, The Short-a System of New York City English: An Update). For this reason, linguists have concurred that this characteristic may have been brought over by the English, as the short-A split is also found in some Southern English accents. .
However, perhaps the most interesting part of this accent is not where it came from, but rather, where it is going. While the New York City accent can be emulated across the world, if you stopped 50 New Yorkers and asked them to say the word "water" only a very small handful of them would pronounce it like "wah-duh". This is because the New York accent is dying. What struck me as so strange was the fact that, despite living within an hour distance from the city for most of my life, I never noticed this. It was only until I moved to New York full-time that I realized that this integral part of New York City's history had all but disappeared. Within about five minutes of researching the topic, I came to find that I wasn't the only one who realized something important was missing. In fact, it seems as though I was pretty late in realizing that the accent was fading. .
Apparently, this disappearance is for a multitude of reasons, all as complex as both the city's history and the dialect itself.
CANADA, A New Friend On my trip to Toronto, Canda, I found that Americans know so little about Canadians. ... Upon reaching the New York state border we decided to stop and rest. ... He had a slight accent, and spoke very proper. ... We had made it finally, and with a new friend to help us enjoy our stay. ... Our new friend suggested a place called Zeldas. ...
