I don't know if that proves a point -- that those who live in New York may not be perceived as true "Nou Yawkers" (whichever dialect that is!) It's always been said that New York is the central melting pot of the world and I don't know about a gay New York accent but I doubt if there is one. This is fun to the extent that heterosexual gaydar is probably like the radar on the Hawaiian Islands just before Pearl Harbor!
I knew gay guys in NYC--they sounded like New Yorkers, for sure, with the gay overtones mentioned earlier in this thread. Which is not to say that all gay men in NY sound any one way, just like all straight men don't. Only that a native NYer who's gay would still sound like he was from NY, most likely...
Speaking of Hawaii, Bette Midler lived there until she graduated from college. Funny that she is now known as having a NY accent!
LW, Thanks for clearing up the sentence for me. I've rarely encountered someone from someplace else who has picked up a New York accent. I have to assume that the reason for this is simply that may move here and not meet all that many people who are natives, unless they live in one of the outer boroughs.
None of the people on Sex and the City sounds like a native. Bette Midler has a NY accent? Not to my ears.
And D'art is right. Gay men may have certain speach patterns that are distinctive, but if they're from NY, they'll still have a NY accent.
I grew up in the Bronx. My parents grew up in Manhatttan. My accent was somewhat different from theirs in very basic ways. And I can always hear a difference between accents from Brooklyn and Queens.
I'm remembering when I was in first or second grade and learning about words groups. Log, fog, hog, dog. I raised my hand and wanted to know what dog was doing in that group. It didn't sound like the other words. The teacher informed me that in some places in this country those words rhymed. Who knew?
Um, Roberta, what does dog rhyme with for you?
Kinda "doe-ig" -- hmm, can't quite do it phonetically. (My dad's from New York.)
He also pronounces "donkey" to rhyme with "monkey", but he's weird...
My mom grew up in Brooklyn, so I guess I can sort of hear that, soze. Actually, I can hear some of her relatives say that! Thanks.
I think I see why a TV show (or a movie) usually believe that authenticity of presenting New Yorkers doesn't always include the accent.
Dawg is about as close as I can come. Soz, are you telling me that donkey and monkey aren't pronounced the same way? How might they differ.
It's rare, indeed, to hear people with real-sounding NY accents on tv. Actors often overdo it. There are two accents that sound authentic to me. The first is on the show Monk. Sharona's accent sounds right. The second is on Third Watch. The woman police officer sounds real to me too.
Do you think any of they guys on the show are possibly native New Yorkers and have purposefully dropped the accent? I think there is a trend to make TV shows and movies generic in that way. I don't even know if Woody Allen's accent is New York but the ensemble of actors in his films are generally without a distinguishable accent.
Interesting article in this week's Newsweek about this show. It's garnered the highest ratings Bravo has ever gotten.
Woody's accent is the genuine article.
BTW, I thought of a word that rhymes with dog--morgue.
Is Woody's a Jewish New York accent or just a Jewish accent? I don't know if the Jewish people I knew and know in California were all from New York, but they all sound kinda like Woody.
The show is also getting high ratings behind re-runs of "Will and Grace" and I understand they are going to expand it to an hour this Fall.
Woody doesn't have a hint of a Jewish accent. (I'm assuming that you mean Yiddish? Not sure.) He sounds Brooklyny to me. Is that where he's from originally? So does Barbra, when she's talking Noo Yawk. She can switch accents in a Noo Yawk minute.
One of the things Newsweek remarks on is the lack of mean-spiritedness of Queer Eye. The producers said that this was deliberate. Aside from the gasps at the first look at the apartment or house in question, I'm inclined to agree that the folks are kind. BTW, the apt makeovers take several days. The straight guy is put up at a hotel until the redecorating is ready. They spend anywhere from $1,500 to more than $10,000 on the decorating.
Woody and Barbra were both born in Brooklyn.
I guess there is a NY Jewish accent, as opposed to plain-old NY accents, again taking into account all sorts of variation based on what part of NY a person comes from. All this is complicated by the fact that many Yiddish words and locutions have entered the vernacular in NY. So it's a bit hard to generalize about all this, IMHO.
[My bona fides in this discussion are that I'm from NYC and LI and am Jewish, if anyone cares...]
And thanks, Roberta, for explaining how long it takes to re do those apartments. I had a feeling it wasn't happening during the course of an afternoon, even though the show sort of suggests that!
D"art, Trying to imagine in my mind's ear what a Jewish NY accent is. I may hear it and not know it. It wouldn't surprise me though if people from Brooklyn who live in Italian neighborhoods sound different from people in Brooklyn who live in Jewish or Irish neighborhoods.
Yes, the show does suggest that the redos are accomplished at an alarmingly fast pace. I don't know why the powers that be want to keep it a secret. But it's not a secret if it's printed in a national mag.
That's excellent reporting, Roberta, on the time to redo the house or apartment and it certainly figured that way. It looked to me like the budget for the interiors especially grew expotentially as the series progressed. I like what was said about the show avoiding any mean-spiritedness and I'm sure the straight guys go through a very complete sequence of interviews before they are chosen.
Maybe you haven't heard that many Hollywood professionals who are Jewish but perhaps they are aping Woody's accent, consciously or unconsciously. So even at L.A.'s Farmer's Market right in the middle of the Jewish district, I still hear Woody-like dialect floating through the restaurants.
