Dialect and accent of American English
New Orleans English
[1]
is
American English
native to the city of
New Orleans
and its
metropolitan area
. Native English speakers of the region actually speak a number of varieties, including the variety most recently brought in and spreading since the 20th century among white communities of the
Southern United States
in general (
Southern U.S. English
); the variety primarily spoken by black residents (
African-American Vernacular English
); the variety spoken by Cajuns in
southern Louisiana
(
Cajun English
); the variety traditionally spoken by affluent white residents of the city's
Uptown
and
Garden District
; and the variety traditionally spoken by lower middle- and working-class white residents of
Eastern New Orleans
, particularly the
Ninth Ward
(sometimes known, since at least the 1980s, as
Yat
).
[2]
[3]
However, only the last two varieties are unique to New Orleans and are typically those referred to in the academic research as "New Orleans English". These two varieties specific to New Orleans likely developed around the turn of the nineteenth century and most noticeably combine speech features commonly associated with both
New York City English
and, to a lesser extent,
Southern U.S. English
.
[1]
The noticeably New York-like characteristics include the
NYC-like short-
a
split
(so that
mad
and
map
, for example, do not have the same vowel),
non-rhoticity
,
th
-stopping
(so that, for example, "those" may sound like "doze"), and the recently disappearing
coil?curl merger
.
[4]
Noticeably Southern characteristics include the
fronting
of
/o?/
and possible
monophthongization
of
/a?/
(just these features, plus non-rhoticity, often characterize the Uptown accent).
Often, the term "Yat" refers particularly to the New Orleans accents that are "strongest" or most especially reminiscent of a working-class New York City accent,
[1]
though others use the term as a regional marker, to define the speech heard in certain parts of the city and its inner suburbs. Used in these narrower senses, Yat is simply one of many sub-dialects of New Orleans. The word comes from the common use of the local greeting, "Where y'at?" or "Where are you at (i.e. in life)?", which is a way of asking, "How are you?"
History
[
edit
]
A unique New Orleans accent, or "Yat" accent, is considered an identity marker of white metropolitan people who have been raised in the greater New Orleans area. English professor Allan A. Metcalf discusses that "Yats" mostly live near the
Irish Channel
in blue-collar neighborhoods. The dialect's connotation with the working-class white population therefore encodes the speaker's identities.
[5]
The striking similarity between the New Orleans Yat accent and the
accent of the New York metropolitan area
has been the subject of much speculation. Plausible origins of the accent are described in
A. J. Liebling
's book
The Earl of Louisiana
, in a passage that was used as a foreword to
A Confederacy of Dunces
,
John Kennedy Toole
's well-known posthumously published novel about New Orleans:
[6]
There is a New Orleans city accent ... associated with
downtown New Orleans
, particularly with the German and Irish
Third Ward
, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of
Hoboken
,
Jersey City
, and
Astoria
,
Long Island
, where the
Al Smith
inflection
, extinct in
Manhattan
, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect, is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans.
[7]
In the decades following the 1803
Louisiana Purchase
, when New Orleans changed from being a French colonial possession to an American city, Irish, German, and eventually Italian (largely Sicilian) immigrants indeed began populating the city.
[8]
However, rather than believing the New York and New Orleans dialects evolved similarly merely due to a similar mixture of European immigrant populations, modern linguists believe that the dialect histories of New Orleans and New York City actually have a direct relationship: significant commercial and demographic interactions between the two cities.
[9]
Although exact linguistic theories vary, the broad consensus is that key New York accent features probably diffused to New Orleans by the late 19th century.
[10]
Large-scale movements (permanent or
seasonal
) of working-class, lower middle-class, and merchant-class Northeastern Americans of European immigrant families to New Orleans may have brought along their native Northeastern (namely,
New York City
) accent features. Even during the
antebellum era
, Northerners made up over a quarter of all free, white, non-immigrant residents of New Orleans.
[11]
Linguist
William Labov
specifically argues that Jewish American bankers and cotton merchants strongly affiliated with New York City were the biggest influence on upper-class accents (and presumably, the eventual accents of all classes) in New Orleans. He cites examples of
Sephardic
and
German Jewish
connections to influential mercantile firms in 19th-century New Orleans.
[12]
Phonology
[
edit
]
Many of the features bear a direct relation to
Southern American English
or
New York City English
, when not
common across the United States
more broadly. Of the "Yat" dialect features, the most distinct ones are:
- no
cot?caught merger
, as in regional American accents. there is a
father?bother merger
, but the merged
/?/
becomes
[?]
or
[?]
in rhotic environments.
- stressed
/?/
and
/?/
becoming
/?/
and
/?/
to
[??]
or
[??]
(i.e., 'God,' 'on,' 'talk', become
[???d]
,
[??n]
, and
[t??k]
, respectively).
- non-rhoticity
; 'heart' and 'fire' become
[h??t]
and
[?fa??]
, respectively.
- the
coil?curl merger
: phonemes
/??/
and
/?/
, creating the diphthong
[??]
, before a consonant. the feature has receded, but not as much as in
New York City
. Sometimes, the exact opposite occurs, the full rhotacization of a syllable-internal
/??/
(i.e. 'toilet,' becomes
[?t?l?t]
); this is more typical in men than in women.
- th-stopping
, pronouncing the "th" sounds like 't' or 'd'. this is common to many lower-class varieties of English.
- a variable
horse?hoarse merger
- /?n/
or
/?n/
used for unstressed and final
/?ŋ/
. this makes 'running' sound like 'runnin'.
- splitting the historic 'short a' vowel
into tense
[e?]
and lax
[æ]
versions. New Orleans' system most closely resembles New York City's, but also applies to voiced fricatives and function words.
- /a?/
-
monophthongization
, resulting in
[aː]
. this is common to many
Southeastern
United States accents.
[14]
- shifting the stress of some words, such as "insurance", to the first syllable. this also occurs in the broader
Southeastern
United States, and many forms of
AAVE
.
There are some words with phonemic peculiarities, but according to no particular pattern; including 'sink'
/ziŋk/
, 'room'
/??m/
, 'mayonnaise'
/?me?næz/
, 'museum'
/mju?z??m/
, 'ask'
/æks/
.
[
citation needed
]
New Orleans
is locally pronounced
[n??w??l?nz]
or
[n??w??li?nz]
, with the "New" destressed. The slurred, stereotypical "N'awlins"
[n??l?nz]
and the
General American
[nu
???linz]
are not often heard from natives.
Louisiana
can be pronounced as the standard
[lu?iziæn?]
or a slightly reduced
[l??wiziæn?]
in the 'Yat' dialect.
Vocabulary
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
July 2023
)
|
Local variance
[
edit
]
The Yat accent is the most pronounced version of the New Orleans accent, and is perceptually similar to a
New York accent
. As with all dialects, there is variance in the accent to geographic and social factors like one's exact locational or financial background.
Speakers of this dialect originated in the
Ninth Ward
, as well as the
Irish Channel
and
Mid-City
. Lighter features of the dialect can be heard in some parts of the city, such as Lakeview, the Marigny, the Garden District, and some parts of Gentilly, but mainly in the suburbs. The dialect is present to some degree in all seven parishes that make up the
New Orleans metropolitan area
, from St. Tammany to Plaquemines. As with many
sociolinguistic
artifacts in the 21st century, the dialect is usually more distinct among older members of the population. The New Orleans suburban area of
Chalmette
shows the strongest Yat accent.
In popular culture
[
edit
]
The distinct New Orleans dialect has been depicted in many ways throughout the city and the U.S.
The main character of the
cartoon strip
Krazy Kat
spoke in a slightly exaggerated
phonetically
-rendered version of early-20th century Yat; friends of the New Orleans-born
cartoonist
George Herriman
recalled that he spoke with many of the same distinctive
pronunciations
.
Actual New Orleans accents were seldom heard nationally. New Orleanians who attained national prominence in the media often made an effort to tone down or eliminate the most distinctive local pronunciations. Dan Baum's
Nine Lives
shares the feelings of Ronald Lewis, a native of the Ninth Ward who is embarrassed by his local dialect when speaking in front of a group of white northerners. After the displacement of Greater New Orleans area residents because of
Hurricane Katrina
, the United States was introduced to some of the New Orleans Yat accents by constant news coverage.
Steven Seagal
's show
Lawman
exposed some Yat accents and dialects to the nation.
Ronnie Virgets
, a New Orleans writer, commentator, and journalist, employs New Orleans dialects and accents in his written and spoken works, including the locally produced public radio program,
Crescent City
.
WWNO
, the local public radio station, broadcasts the program and provides access to past
Crescent City
programs on its website.
The name of the official mascot for the
1984 Louisiana World Exposition
, held in New Orleans, was derived from the truncated pronunciation of "See More of the Fair," which results in the pseudo yat speak "
Seymore D. Fair
."
A Midwest Cajun restaurant chain based in
Indianapolis
,
Indiana
carries the name Yats.
Cellphone company
Boost Mobile
used the phrase "Where Y'At?" in early advertising campaigns.
Who Dat?
is a chant commonly tied to the Yat dialect and used in support of the
New Orleans Saints
football
team. The entire chant is "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" Saints fans are collectively called the "Who Dat Nation."
The Yat dialect is seldom heard when New Orleans is depicted in movies and television shows. Traditionally, characters portrayed from New Orleans are heard using a southern or Cajun accent. An example of this is 1986's
The Big Easy
, in which
Dennis Quaid
speaks an exaggerated Cajun/southern derivation.
[16]
This trend has been challenged, though, in light of post-Katrina New Orleans representation, like HBO's
Treme
and
Werner Herzog
's
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
, both of which feature actual New Orleans locals either speaking in Yat or one of its variations.
Other local dialects and misconceptions
[
edit
]
Historically, the city of New Orleans has been home to people of French, Spanish, and African heritages, which led to the creation of the
Louisiana Creole
language, before this city came under U.S. rule in the
Louisiana Purchase
. Over the course of the 19th century, the city transitioned from speaking French to becoming a
non-rhotic
English-speaking society. Similarly, much of the South has historically spoken non-rhotic English.
A misconception in other parts of the U.S. is that the local dialect of New Orleans is the same as
Cajun English
(spoken in several other areas of
South Louisiana
), but the city's cultural and linguistic traditions are distinct from that of the predominantly rural
Acadiana
, an area spanning across South Louisiana. While there has been an influx of Cajuns into the city since the oil boom of the later 20th century and while there are some similarities due to shared roots, Cajun culture has had relatively little influence upon Creole culture and thus Yat culture. The confusion of Cajun culture with the Creole culture is largely due to the confusion of these French cultures by the tourism and entertainment industries; sometimes this was done deliberately, as "Cajun" was often discovered to be a potentially lucrative marketing term. Speakers with a
New Orleans accent
are typically proud of their accent as it organically stems from the historical mixing of language and culture. This distinctive accent has been dying out generationally in the city due to
white flight
of the city, but remains very strong in the suburbs. However, the Yat dialect does survive in the city in several areas, notably Mid-city, Lakeview, parts of Gentilly and Uptown.
[17]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Bernstein (2014
:220)
- ^
Bernstein (2014
:219)
- ^
Alvarez, Louis (director) (1985).
Yeah You Rite!
(Short documentary film). USA: Center for New American Media.
- ^
Labov et al (2006
:260?1)
harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFLabov_et_al2006 (
help
)
- ^
Metcalf, Allan A.,
How We Talk: American Regional English Today
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000). Print.
- ^
Toole, John Kennedy (1980).
A Confederacy of Dunces
. Baton Rouge: LSU.
- ^
Liebling, A. J. (1970).
The Earl of Louisiana
. Baton Rouge: LSU.
- ^
Bernstein (2014
:220)
- ^
Carmichael, Katie; Becker, Kara (2014). "
That Hoboken near the Gulf of Mexico: What (r) can tell us about English in New York City and New Orleans
". Paper to be presented at
New Ways of Analyzing Variation
(NWAV) 43, Chicago IL.
- ^
Carmichael, Katie; Becker, Kara (2018). "
The New York City?New Orleans connection: Evidence from constraint ranking comparison
."
Language Variation and Change
30.3: 287-314. pp. 19, 22.
- ^
Carmichael & Becker, 2018, p. 5
- ^
Labov, William. "Transmission and Diffusion".
Language
. Volume 83, Number 2, June 2007, 344?387. Linguistic Society of America. pp. 33-34.
- ^
Ben Trawick-Smith (1 September 2011).
"On the Hunt for the New Orleans Yat"
.
Dialect Blog
. Retrieved
3 May
2012
.
- ^
"The Rise of Canadian Raising of au in New Orleans"
.
pubs.aip.org
. Retrieved
2023-04-26
.
- ^
The Big Easy (1986) trailer
on
YouTube
- ^
Brasted, Chelsey (12 April 2018).
"site-logo BATON ROUGE NEW ORLEANS ACADIANA LAKE CHARLES GAMBIT ADORE LOG IN SUBSCRIBE VIEW E-EDITION NEWSLETTERS 79° WEATHER NEWS SPORTS SPORTS BETTING ENTERTAINMENT/LIFE OPINIONS LEGALS HOMES OBITUARIES JOBS CALENDAR STORE Not happy about the Yat accent disappearing? Neither is this man"
.
nola.com
. Retrieved
22 February
2023
.
References
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]
External links
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]
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