I have a unique accent called West Endicott (Endy-kaat). This accent belongs to a speech pattern group that encompasses the Southern Tier of New York, just above the Pennsylvania border.
We are used to it, but to those who do not come from here the accent may sound a bit grating to the ears. It's usually spoken by the females with a flat nasal tone, and by the males with a sound emanating from deep in the throat. We also tend to leave off final consonants, as in “important”--(im-por-'a'). We sound absolutely nothing like the speakers of Downstate New York, that is, those from Manhattan, Brooklyn, or The Bronx. Here are some examples of our vocabulary: roight—right shirr--sure em-bare-ussed—embarrassed fer—for Don—Dawn Dawn—Don Aadrey--Audrey Peyem—Pam Ailus—Alice Bab—Bob Cairul--Carol theyet—that moy--my ya—you (final) “hot anuff fer ya?” yew—you (initial) “Yew gat a prablum with theyet?” prablum—problem pyeddle—paddle ("Oi gat the pyeddle et school!") etty-tood—attitude (Yew gat a real etty-tood prablum!") beyeck—back (Oh moy achin' beyeck!” or, “Put theyet beyeck!” Byet-myen—Batman (“Arr ya gonna watch Byet-myen tonight an tv?” cair-ut—carrot pair-ut—parrot keyet--cat dag--dog rare-but--rabbit
And that's just to name a few—but it gives you a good idea of how I talk! My husband often teases me about my accent in a little routine he does about "My Hat." "Oi heyev a heyet. It's a noice heyet. Oi lioke moy heyet. It was only foive dallers." (I have a hat. It's a nice hat. I like my hat. It was only five dollars). I must admit he does my accent pretty well, probably better than I can do his. I find especially amusing some of our local commercials, done by very local people. There was one--I think it was a dating service ad--where the woman is told to be patient about being asked out. "Oh shirr," she said. "Sit beyeck on moy heels an' wait fer someone to come alang!" I always found that one funny, even though I've heard my own voice recorded, and I know I sound just like that! One time I was in a local restaurant that had an all-you-can-eat salad bar. On the wall was a sign that read "Sail into our salad bar!" with a picture of a ship. Nothing remarkable about that, but I knew it was a pun because our local pronunciation of "salad" is "sail-ud." Hence, "Sail into our sail-ud bar." Cute. I am married to a man with a distinct Brooklyn accent. He sounds like John Travolta in [i]Saturday Night Fever[/i]. So you can imagine some of our conversations! Or worse, when we're yelling at each other and both accents come through strongly. Oh well, that's how I talk. It may seem very unflattering to me, but i have heard that others like it and think it's cute. Personally I think I would rather have a Southern accent. At least it could be identified.
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@Amylynne: Not quite Australian. They say "Roight," but ours is more like a softer "ruyt." I have an MA in Linguistics, so I learned phonetic spelling, which actually has a bunch of sound symbols that I don't use in my stories because they may cause confusion. Thanks for reading!
@Amylynne: To Rhode Island it was about four hours from what I remember. It was a tour bus. Endicott NY is along the Southern Tier border from Pennsylvania, about 200 miles from New York City.
