The Washington herald., 1908-02-09
GOTHAM HAS DIALECT
st. Louis Sheriff Detects Real
Accent, He Claims.
EXPERTS AGREE IT EXISTS
Brander Matthews and Robert Tn
derwOOd Johnson Say SO-Dr.
Thomas, However, Gissents-Dis-
cussiOn Arises as Result OF Arrest
of One Alexander 81. Cyr.

of One Alexander st. Cyr.
New York, Feb. SIT is definitely es-
tablished at last that a man from Osh-
kosh cannot come to this city for few
months, put New York in large letters
on his suit case. and then pass himself
off as a New Yorker. unless he keeps his
mouth shut
The real New Yorker has a label
which no other can initiate. and which
he cannot lose. If any one doubts that
he is a bona fde native Of this city.
he has only to say a few words. fatten
his vowels, and drop his RS" In the
genuine Manhattan style. and he VIII
have proved his residence conclusvely-
A certain Alexander ST. Cyr was ar
rested IN St. Louis for holding up a store
keeper. lie tried TO throw the blun that
ne was from Boston But the Missouri
sheriff, who had once visited this city
got him to talking freely. After the ban
dit had spoken familiarly OF Faneuil Hall
and Bunker Hi Monument. the sheriff
suddenly exclaimed
Don't try 10 string out your bluff any
longer. You are a New Yorker all right.
your accent is altogether TO strong 10
get by"
This little incident has already made s..
Cyr ana the unknown sheriff famous. and
all the philologists. phoneticans, and liH-
gusts in the city are now asking:
Has New York really an accent Of its
own?"
Matthews Believes Ii.
Brander Matthews IS among those who
believe that New York IS sufficiently a
unit IN itself 10 have an accent.
There is no reason why this city should
not have a particular dialect" says he.
London speech is shade different from
that Of the rest Of England. The accent
OF a Maine man can be distinguished
from that Of one from Connecticut even
think that it is safe to assert that you
can tell, if able 10 distinguish sounds
carefully, whether man is from Massa-
chusetts or Rhode Island OF Connecticut
by the way in which he talks.
But New York Is so large and the pop
ulation is so cosmopolitan that it has
not only one but probably half a dozen
distinctly American accents. The Bowery
and uptown have. for instance, distinctly
different dialects, and yet there IS Il
general relation between them. These
conclusions are the result Of comparisons.
I have been too long in New York TO
be able to be aware of the dialect myself.
But knew that London in general has
an accent Of its own: and also that the
people in WhiteChapel. the shOpkeepeTs.
? mid rfu
easily be distinguished from each other
by their speech. There is no reason why
New York should not have its distinct
general accent, with a number OF local
variations
THAT Alexander st. Cyr was identified
as New York man by his accent can
| easily be believed"
Prof. Thomas Doubts 1t.
Prof. Calvin Thomas, Of Columbia, an
eminent phonetician and philologist. dis
| agrees somewhat with his colleague.
Il don't believe" said he. that New
York has a distinctly different dialect
| from other seaboard cities Of the North
| eastern part Of the country. It can be
readily told from that spoken west Of
the Alleghenies, or from that spoken be-
low the Mason and Dixon line; but New
| York is still too cosmopolitan TO have
developed a distinct accent OF its own.
Indeed. the most characteristic feature
of the speech of the cultured circles of
New York is that il has 10 distinctive
! characteristics. II is a combination OF
New England, the West, the South, and
the Southwest.
zone variation which is very pro-
nOuncedly evident here is the dropping Of
the r after a vowel Most New Yorkers.
say, make lard rhyme with laud, instead
OF uttering r plainly. Listen 10 a friend
! here say north. and. ten chances to one.
he viii say something like moth But,
of course, this dropping of the r is not
local to this city.
Similarly, in the more exclusive social
circles there is a distinct accent It.
however, is rather an affectati0n Of the
English than the result of a steady
linguistic growth.
Perhaps the most marked accent Is
found down on the Bowery. We all know
how they make 'goiF out Of girl de out
Of the wild out of with and sit out OF
| sixth But It IS not certain in my mind
whether abe Bowery accent is found only
in this city. It is likely that the same
peculiarities of speech are found in SIM
liar sections of Buffalo, Albany, Boston,
and other Eastern cities
Accent Emphasized.
"Sdu. it is probably true that each
particular accent IS emphasized more
strongly I'm this city than elsewhere be-
cause here the life is more intensive. But
1 doubt whether New York can be said 10
have an accent of her own It would
take years in which there had been little
change in the population to produce that.
At present. this city is too foreign to have
a real dialect"
On the contrary. Robert Underwood
johnson. the critic and associate editor
of the Century Magazine, is certain that
one can distinguish a New Yorker by his
speech,
Il believe" said he. that I can tell
whether a man Is born in this city as
soon as he has talked a while. 1t would
be difficult TO say just why. Probably it
is by elimination OF what he is not
a New Yorker certainly doesn't have
the Southern manner Of speech, nor the
Western, nor the upstate, nor the New
England. His speech is more Of the com
posite variety, and because of this charac-
teristic is essentially distinctive
You find strangers constantly remark
ing on the peculiar way in which We
speak. Recently a very brilliant woman
writer said to me: