Bernie Sanders represents Vermont in the U.S. Senate
but you probably noticed — SANDERS:“Millionaihs and Billionaihs”
— that his voice represents another place entirely. And another time.
“New York City: Where the world’s nations sit side by side”
Sanders grew up in Brooklyn in the 40s and 50s.
The city had long ago developed a distinctive accent. Surprisingly, its features can be
traced back to the early English settlers rather than the big waves of immigration that
came later. NEWMAN: “The most famous feature of the New York City
accent is what linguists call the ‘thought’ vowel -- and I just said it in a very New
York way. SANDERS: “Tawk the issues to the people” “And
second of awl” “There is a brawd consensus”
When Bernie Sanders says these words, the position of the vowel is raised.
What does that mean? For me it was helpful to look at this chart of vowel sounds.
It’s shaped like this because it’s basically a diagram of your mouth, with the vowels mapped
according to the position of your tongue when you say them.
Try saying eeee and oooo and pay attention to your tongue. Eee-ooo. No, really, try it.
eee-ooo-eee-ooo. It’s moving forward and back, but it can also move up and down.
Without moving your jaw too much try aaa-eee. aaa-eee-aaa-eee. Researchers measure the position
of these sounds by analyzing their frequencies. So what’s happening with the New York City
“thought” vowel is that it stays back but moves up.
Instead of “thought” you get “thawt” This feature is becoming less distinct with
each generation, according to a recent survey of native New Yorkers — particularly among
white people. The more recent the birth year, the lower
the “thought” vowel. It goes from cawfee to coffee.
“So the cawf - none of my nephews or nieces will say it that way”
You can also hear Bernie Sanders’ New York roots in his Rs ...or actually his lack of
Rs.
“Democratic pahty” “Our computas” “Denmahk” “In Novembah”
Like dialects from Boston “Are you a nahk?” and Savannah “I like to drive undah the
speed limit”, the New York City accent is historically non-rhotic,
meaning Rs often get dropped, except before vowels.
So newscasters call him “Bernie Sanders” but he calls himself “Bernie Sandahs.”
R-dropping is something that became fashionable in London in the late 1700s before spreading
to the East Coast of the US. “There must be an end to speculation with
othah people’s money.” But now, it too is fading.
NEWMAN: “Particularly after the second world war it lost its prestige. “
Americans were focused on their own identity rather than maintaining ties to England.
And as pop culture increasingly portrayed New Yorkers as criminals, the stigma led some
to intentionally lose their accents. As with all dialects, the New York City accent
is more pronounced among the working class. Which may help explain why Sanders — who
grew up in a lower-middle class home — has a heavier accent than Donald Trump, also a
native New Yorker. "Law enforcement. "Law enforcement." But the accent also varies by ethnicity. So,
many people might recognize Sanders’ Jewish intonations.
“My name is rabbi Manny Shevitz.” One thing you might notice is the Ts at the
end of some his words. “Profound and important.”
NEWMAN: “Normally you wont say the T very much. You’ll say, ‘where’d you go?’ ‘I
left.’ But you would rarely say ‘I lefT.’ And It’s kind of typical of Jews to do that,
to say ‘I lefT.’” SANDERS: “This country, in facT.” “I very much
rejecT.” But it’s also in the pacing and the rise
and fall of how he speaks. Which is why, to do a really good Bernie Sanders,
it helps if you’re also a Jew from 1950s working-class Brooklyn.
DAVID: “This may not be great politics, but I think the American people are sick and tired of
hearing about your damn emails.”
One of the things both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are known for is their pronunciation of the
“hyu” sound. SANDERS: “A yooge voter turnout. And I say yooge!”
Why do New Yorkers drop the h at the front of the word? Well the answer seems to be that
it takes less energy to say yooge than huge. Consider another H that most of us have dropped
— the H one in what, where and when. Back before the 18th century, it was considered
uneducated speech to say what instead of hwhat. Maybe in the future all English-speaking yoomans
will say yooge.