I Don't Have a New York Accent Anymore

I don't have a New York accent, but I did at one time. I believe I was twelve or thirteen when, out of nowhere, I spoke and started pronouncing my r's with better clarity. Perhaps it was all those years watching shows on the Disney channel that depicted a dream-like Middle America where everyone had those red mailboxes with the black wing and said "Good morning, Mr. Whately" to the mailman. It could also be my general distaste of the New York vernacular, and reactions from out-of-towners who have been known to describe the New York tongue as "harsh." I've done research in a class last year to prove the latter, and that doesn't make me feel very warm and mushy inside. Can I really blame them, since I also cringe at the botched way New Yorkers say "bottle" with the glottal stop or adding a "w" to words that don't have room for another letter? I made it one of my missions to show the world that not everyone from New York sounds like this.

Both my parents are natives of Brooklyn, but it's my father who plays the part with better authenticity. While both his parents are natives of The City, my mother's parents began their years in Staten Island, New York and Central Vermont, respectively. Through some fluke with their HMO, I was born outside of New York City in the town of Rockville Centre, just another stop on the Long Island Railroad for most people. The town is a few leaps from where I grew up and still live in Queens. Now, at twelve or thirteen, I would not have developed my "adult voice", so that leaves me thinking, had I maintained my Yawkish speech how would I sound today? Naturally, there are times when I'm passionately angry and my New York accent flies out with every aggressive word. It's like a prisoner in solitary confinement that wants a little time out for fresh air, and after my tempers cool, I re-lock the shackles and demand that the prisoner return to seclusion. Did anyone I'm not comfortable with witnessing this spectacle hear this?

Overall, I don't mind hearing the accent spoken by others, but sometimes I get angry when I hear words pronounced a way that could clearly be avoided. If my mother says "cawna" which I know she tends to do even though she can pronounce it correctly, I'll say "it's corner! corner!" There's a difference between having a slight regional accent and speaking in a way that's a nuisance to the ears. However, I'm favorable to Southern accents. =)