Epitaph for a Bronx Accent

More Brooklyn than Bronx, but...

"Hark! I hear the cannons roar. Is it the king approaching?"[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bSu1BLyD0c

I grew up in and around these accents, and will never forget the unique things like "Florida" being pronounced "Flor-id-er" that didn't really fit any other NY accent.

Very fun to read and reminds me so much of my grandparents, three of whom grew up in the 1940s in the Bronx. Especially how their accents and mannerisms sound so foreign and out of place out west (in Arizona and Los Angeles) yet likely to them, all children of Eastern European immigrants, they aspired to learn and speak their unique variant of American English unique in time and place, as well as live and survive in what must have been not the easiest place to grow up. And for my grandfather, his aversion to Jewish rituals and observances despite being brought up in an observant household, and not learning even one of the multiple languages his parents spoke, I have always thought was yet another way to prove he was a fully assimilated American, yet in so many ways was shaped by the culture, tradition and outlook of his andestors. It’s a shame the accents of New York City and throughout our country are loosing their defining features and sharp edges.

Cockney had a similar fate. I am sure many modern-cockney speakers would beg to differ, but from the orthography of Dickens and the way my mother talked (she was a magpie for accents, picked up the sounds early on in the 1930s-40s although born overseas) I think modern cockney is not the same.

Great essay, although the essay describes the author as much as his subject.

But I don’t understand from the essay how his uncle was “ruined”, much less “ruined by LA”. “Ruin” is a strong word. I’d guess if his uncle was still around he would call such a characterization “horseshit”.

I find the design of the website very pleasant.