New Jersey Dialects

[drew]

Hello all!

This is my first post to ADS-L, so I apologize if I violate any of your conventions or
offend anyone just by being here.

Could anyone direct me to resources concerning speech in New Jersey? Specifically, I
am looking for information on North Jersey/South Jersey phonological contrasts as
influenced by proximity to New York City and Philadelphia respectively. The more
recent the study, the better. I have found entire books on the topic, but they have all
been too old to be of much use. I have also seen some of the surveys that have been
done recently (e.g. the Harvard online survey and the ongoing work being done by
DARE), but they provide little information on dialectical differentiations *within* New
Jersey. Additionally, I have seen some research done on the unique "Piney" speech of
the Pine Barrens. That is of little interest to me. Beyond that, I haven't been able to find
much. There is a lot of hearsay about the way New Jerseyans talk, but there seems to
be very little actual linguistic work being done on the topic.

I am interested in the way people in New Jersey (specifically people in their late teens/
early twenties) speak today, and especially whether there is an actual distinction
between the so-called "North Jersey" and "South Jersey" modes of speech.

Any ideas?

Many thanks,

Drew Pidkameny