New Jersey English

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For a small state, New Jersey is dialectally quite diverse, with two regions of the state overlapping with other dialect areas, New York and Philadelphia, and several autochthonous dialects.

Generally, only the European American residents of areas immediately closest to New York City are New York Dialect speakers.

European Americans in much of southern New Jersey generally speak with an accent that is similar to that of Philadelphians. The southwestern section of New Jersey along the Delaware River is a suburb of Philadelphia and has large numbers of transplanted Philadelphians who moved to the growing area during Philadelphia's decline. The situation is very similar to the Northern New Jersey-New York City relationship.

The so-called North Jersey accent spoken in northern New Jersey is found in the northeast quarter of New Jersey, and is basically the part of the state which is in New York City's metropolitan area, including communities such as Rutherford and Rahway. However, it is not part of the New York Dialect area. For instance, it is rhotic and lacks a short a split. NYC shibboleths such as hero are less used than the less regionally distinct sub (sandwich on baguette style bread). A curious example of a speaker of this dialect is the founder of variationist sociolinguistics William Labov. An exaggerated version of this accent is spoken by many characters on the television series The Sopranos, the best example being mob boss Tony Soprano (who is played by New Jersey native James Gandolfini).

The present accent of the Jersey Shore, from Cape May to Bell Mawr, is heavily influenced by the populations of summer visitors from North Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia from which it was principally settled. However, prior to the influence of the tourism industry on the area, the situation was different. Presently the beachfront communities north of Atlantic City tend to have a heavy New York influence and those to the south have a Philadelphia influence due to the large number of residents from those areas who spend their summer "down the shore".

The "Piney" accent of the Jersey Pine Barrens and parts of the Pine Belt has a unique vowel formation of its own. "House" is pronounced "huose," much as in today's Cape Breton accent, stressing the "u." Some have said that it is due to lingering Dutch and Swedish features, but the heavy Irish and Scots immigration may be a factor as well.

Cape May was first a Dutch town, which is still reflected in the Dutch names of some local businesses and streets. The only road to Cape May was from Philadelphia, so Philadelphia English mixed in with the Dutch. The Cape May accent is fading away now as more residents from North Jersey, New York and Philadelphia populate the area.

Contrary to popular belief, no one in any part of New Jersey refers to their state as [dʒɒɪzi], typically written as Joisey. The pronunciation of middle vowel as [ɒɪ] instead of the standard American [ɝ] has its roots in New York English but it is only residual in the NYC dialect area as described above. Nevertheless, the use of the bare term Jersey is common in New York City, although it may also be a mistaken attempt by non-New Jersey residents to use what they believe to be the local term.

[edit] See also

• Regional Vocabularies of American English

[edit] External links

• Varieties of English: New York City phonology from the University of Arizona's Language Samples Project
• William Labov's webpage There are links to many sites related to dialects, including references to his early work on New York dialect and the Atlas of North American English.

[edit] References

• Labov, William (1982) The social stratification of English in New York City Center for Applied Linguistics ISBN 0872811492
• Labov, William (1994) Principles of Linguistic Change: Volume 1: Internal Factors Blackwell ISBN 0631179143
• Labov, William (2001) Atlas of North American English DeGruyter ISBN 3110167468
• Labov, William (2001) Principles of Linguistic Change: Volume 2: Social Factors Blackwell ISBN 063117916X
• Wolfram, Walt & Nancy Schilling Estes (2005) American English 2nd edition Blackwell ISBN 1405112654
• Wolfram, Walt & Ward, Ben (2005) American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast Blackwell ISBN 1405121092