dialect of Elena Kagan

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 10:07 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> If you think a majority of New Yorkers, in particular a majority of
> middle-class and/or college educated Upper West Side New Yorkers in
> the 40-60 age bracket, are non-rhotic, you have an inaccurate or at
> best considerably outdated view of the facts.  Non-rhotic speech may
> be a stereotype of New Yorkers, but it's not (currently) accurate.
> As an anecdotal aside, my father, who grew up in Brooklyn in the
> first quarter of the 20th century, was non-rhotic, as were most of
> his (New York-based) coeval friends.  I, who grew up in Manhattan in
> the mid 20th century, have always been rhotic, as have all of my (New
> York-based) coeval friends.  Labov and I'm sure many others have
> written about the shift in rhoticity among New Yorkers since the
> World War II period.

...as alluded to at the end of this so-so Daily News article on the
"Queens accent"...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/05/11/2010-05-11_whats_a_qns_accent_locals_linguists_tangle_over_it.html


--Ben Zimmer

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