Help me tawk like a New Yawkah
April 9, 2019 12:47 PM   Subscribe

I need to figure out how to speak with a New York accent. I'm a hippie Californian. I stink at this.

I got cast in Tony n' Tina's Wedding. It turns out I am terrible at New York accent. I don't really "notice" it too much when I hear someone speaking in it (my therapist is a New Yorker) so it somehow doesn't stand out to me in the way that say, a Southern accent does. I know I should be watching New York movies and the like, but I don't think that's had much of an effect over the many years of seeing New York mentioned everywhere all over the world.

I just tried to get my therapist to coach me in this but I think I was driving her nuts. I was being TOO nasal ("you think I sound like that?" "No...") and talking TOO fast (yeah, I know) and at one point she had to phonetically tell me how to say my lines. However, I may not have too many lines because it's a mostly improv show so I have to be able to freestyle it. Any advice?
posted by jenfullmoon to Writing & Language (11 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Get a dialect coach! There are people whose job it is to help you with this. Also, there's not one "New York" accent, there are many different ones depending on different boroughs, etc.
posted by karbonokapi at 1:06 PM on April 9, 2019 [7 favorites]


How necessary is this for the part? Because a bad accent will break immersion much more than no accent.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:07 PM on April 9, 2019 [12 favorites]


The Wikipedia page on the New York accent has detailed descriptions and sound files to demonstrate some of the features of the kind of accent you seem to be looking for.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:08 PM on April 9, 2019 [1 favorite]


For me, the California accent is something you shape with the front of your mouth and your lips and "push" out; the New York accent takes its shape from the rear of your mouth and palate and you sort of let it "escape" like you're releasing a pressure valve.

That was probably not helpful but good luck!
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:14 PM on April 9, 2019 [6 favorites]


Watch/listen to movies & TV shows with actors with strong, stereotypical New Yorker accents (but, yeah, you'll get a variety unless you can narrow it down by burrough & so on). Something like My Cousin Vinny might work.
posted by carrioncomfort at 1:19 PM on April 9, 2019 [1 favorite]


Seconding My Cousin Vinny.

There's actually more than one New York accent; Bronx is different from Queens is different from the Upper East Side, and the neighborhoods also have gradations as well. But if you're doing "Tony & Tina's Wedding", you're not just looking for a "New York" accent - you're looking for an Italian-American accent, which is a much more specific beast. It may even help to think of it as a New Jersey category of accents; this Atlas Obscura article gets into a deep dive about how that particular speech pattern developed, and I think that if you listen to some of the references they mention in it, you'll be hitting on the kind of accent that you're looking for.

It's possible you've just been listening to the wrong kind of "New York" accent. Try something emphasizing the Italian part; you may end up taking a detour through New Jersey, but you'll be finding your way to Tony and Tina's wedding.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:38 PM on April 9, 2019 [11 favorites]


My Cousin Vinny for sure. Also, if you can tolerate the Jerky Boys, most of the characters and many of the “victims” are really great examples, on the first album in particular.
posted by STFUDonnie at 3:24 PM on April 9, 2019


Yes to "My Cousin Vinny" but especially watch "Moonstruck" with Cher.
posted by alwayson_slightlyoff at 3:30 PM on April 9, 2019 [2 favorites]


Seconding Showbiz_liz. Unless you're good at accents, it's pretty tough to sustain one. You can learn the basic phonetic differences but doing it consistently while thinking about acting is going to be an uphill battle, and if there's anyone familiar with the accent in your audience, they're going to be able to focus on little else. Might be best to leave it up to imagination.
posted by Smearcase at 3:50 PM on April 9, 2019 [2 favorites]


Amy Walker’s YouTube tutorials might be of interest!
posted by armeowda at 6:07 PM on April 9, 2019 [2 favorites]


I marathonned All in the Family on YouTube, but they were from Queens and not Italian so YMMV.

(Plus a liberal garnish of an old college classmate from Long Island)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:33 AM on April 10, 2019


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