Brooklynese in N.O.

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:13:17 -0400, Wilson Gray wrote:

>On 9/14/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>The so-called "Brooklyn diphthong" in words like "girl," "world," etc.,
>>seems to be extremely difficult for non-users to imitate.  They always
>>make it come out like "oy," which it very rarely is ( though cf. Jackie
>>Mason).
>
>This could be because they know it primarily from reading it in
>eye-dialect and not from actually hearing it. I'm not certain that
>I've ever heard it spoken by native speakers, unless the dialect(s)
>used by the Eastside Kids/Bowery Boys in that series of movies
>count(s). And there was the guy on radio whose catchphrase was,
>"[Placename?!] I useta woik in that town!"

Al Smith was one famous user of the diphthong. There's an audio file of a
speech by Smith at <http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5075/>, where you can
hear how he pronounces "person", "church", and "service".

Another such speaker is the great character actor James Gleason, best
known from his role as boxing manager Max Corkle in _Here Comes Mr.
Jordan_.


--Ben Zimmer