New York Dialect: Short O

Video Transcript

"Now the major way, the second major way, in which you learn a dialect. First is point of placement. The second are in various vowel and consonant changes, which are indicative of each dialect. And with a New York dialect, I'm going to start with the changes in the vowel sounds. Now, take the short "o," for example. Standard American dialect would be "orange." "Get me an orange." Or "stop the car." They're very rounded. Well, in the New York dialect they become elongated where "stop" becomes "stap." All right, it becomes very hard. It's not a round o. It's a hard - you just put it out of your mouth a hard, almost "a" sound. "Get me an arange." "Stap the car." All right. Now that's the first thing you have to look at, and when you're learning a dialect, you know, you're probably going to have words in front of you. You're going to have script in front of you, and you want to want to practice getting the vowel based on, you know, you've got to go through it and you've got to find the words and practice those words. Like the word father. You and I, standard American, would say father. New York? Father. It becomes an "ah" instead of an "o." Or a father. "Orange." "Arange." "Option." "Aption". All right. You see how I'm really dropping my jaw? I'm really involving my jaw. Instead of saying "option," say "aption." Drop your jaw. "Aption." "Racket." Say "rocket." "Racket." So, what you ultimately want to do is practice saying it normal, then practice saying it New York. If you have to, turn that soft "a" into a hard "ah.""