Aileen Marshall
Welcome back to our series on learning the New York dialect. Did you practice your vocabulary words from last month? As a recap, the letter T in the New York dialect is pronounced like a D. Our vocabulary words were dem, dese, and dose. Here are some more examples of these words used in a sentence.
I’ve got all dese leftover subway tokens, how do I get rid of dem?
Dose cars in da intersection are blocking da box.
Other common words in which the T is pronounced like a D are water and butter. Click on the links to hear them.
New York City has the best tap wada.
Barbara Streisand’s voice is like budda.
This month’s lesson:
In the New York dialect, the G is dropped in words ending in “-ing.” The syllable is pronounced “in.”
Here are some examples of “-ing” words used in a sentence. Click on the links to hear the pronunciation.
Are you doin’ anything tonight?
I have to go; I can hear my mother callin’ me from up the block.
Dose tourists are walkin’ too slow.
When learning any language, it helps to listen to as much as you can, to train your ear to pick it up. Try to pay attention to conversations you hear on the street and the subway. Also, watch episodes of Seinfeld and listen to the Jerry and George characters.
Watch next month for dropped R words.
