Yeah it s pretty fascinating I disagree that New Englanders moved into New York City and changed the accent to non rhotic Lots of people moved into New York City Jews Italians and Irish being the biggest I think New Englanders might be around 178 on the list of groups moving to NYC and the New Engand ar is so different from the NYC ar that we can forget the whole theory Also the Northern Cities accent shift is food for a nice academic paper that s what scholars do right but incorrectly implies that northern cities like Syracuse or Albany did something or other to change the accent from the rural acreas when the truth is that the rural accent around Syracuse is the same as that in the city People move back and forth all the time You have to have a big city like NYC or Boston to have enough isolation to create a new accent There is no variation in accent anywhere from eastern NY to Syracuse city rural or whatever because people move around too much and there is no isolation The first change going west happens in Rochester where o changes to a So doctor becomes dactor contact lenses becomes cantact lenses I m an optometrist a dactor who fits cantacts whenever I m in Rachester Ha ha I tell patients to turn their hat around and they turn their head around e becomes a so head sounds like hat I ask them how do you say head and they say heead Buffalo gets worse it has a Midwest accent by everybody s opinion and many Buffalo people think it s part of the Midwest I think you are from Ohio that s probably just like Buffalo Believe it