Despite popular stereotypes in the media that there is a singular

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

accent, there are in fact several distinct accents native to the U.S. state of New Jersey, none being confined only to New Jersey. Therefore, the term New Jersey English is diverse and often misleading, and it may refer to any of the following dialects of

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

(mostly New York City English and

Philadelphia English Philadelphia English is a variety or dialect of American English native to Philadelphia and extending into Philadelphia's metropolitan area throughout the Delaware Valley, including southeastern Pennsylvania, counties of northern Delaware (espec ...

), or even intermediate varieties that blend features of these multiple dialects.

African-American dialect

Working- and middle-class African Americans throughout New Jersey commonly speak

African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...

(AAVE), regardless of the area of the state in which they were raised. New Jersey AAVE commonly includes a distinction between the vowels of ''cot'' and ''caught'', as well as notable fronting of the vowel.

New York metropolitan dialect

The dialect of greater New York City is spoken in northeastern New Jersey, plus

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

and

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

Counties. Therefore, the short-''a'' system of these areas of New Jersey is most similar to the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

split-''a'' system, however with some variation. East of the

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the subur ...

, William Labov finds the short-''a'' system to occur with no more variation than in New York City proper. However, west of the Hackensack River, he finds that the normal function word constraint of New York City English is lost and the open syllable constraint becomes variable. While most of the New York metropolitan dialect heard in New Jersey is rhotic, that of

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

and

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

from New York City) may be non-rhotic or "''r''-dropping".

Northern dialect

Outside of the New York metropolitan area, regional English of North Jersey was classified as part of the broad Northern U.S. dialect region by '' The Atlas of North American English'' in 2006 and part of the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

lexical region by Hans Kurath in 1949. Here, the vowel remains very far back in the mouth. Like Inland Northern English but unlike New York City English, the accent backs and fronts , so that both vowels are centralized, distinguished from each other only by height. However, unlike the Inland Northern accent, this accent uses the nasal short-''a'' system.

Philadelphia metropolitan dialect

The regional dialect of the Mid-Atlantic States, in this case

specifically, is spoken in

South Jersey South Jersey comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey located between the lower Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of South Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquialism rather than an administrative ...

and some parts of

Central Jersey Central Jersey is the central region of the U.S. state of New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, ...

, including most of Ocean County. Generally, the closer a speaker was raised to the city of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, the more features their variety will share with the Philadelphia sub-dialect, such as use of the term '' hoagie'' to mean '' submarine sandwich'' (or ''sub''). In

Vineland ''Vineland'' is a 1990 novel by Thomas Pynchon, a postmodern fiction set in California, United States in 1984, the year of Ronald Reagan's reelection.Knabb 2002 Through flashbacks by its characters, who have lived the sixties in their youth, th ...

in South Jersey and in some areas of

, a nasal short-''a'' system has been reported (in which is tensed only before a

nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...

), rather than the defining Philadelphia split-''a'' system typical of South Jersey.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book , last=Labov , first=William , authorlink=William Labov , last2=Ash , first2=Sharon , last3=Boberg , first3=Charles, authorlink3=Charles Boberg , year=2006 , title=The Atlas of North American English , location=Berlin , publisher=Mouton-de Gruyter , isbn=3-11-016746-8

External links

* New Jersey English,

Wiktionary Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a number ...

American English

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...