When it comes to the next leader of NYC, there’s a diversity of mayoral candidates — particularly in the way they speak.
And since we’re talking about “Noo Yawk,” many have a local accent — some more than others.
Coming off Wednesday night’s fiery debate, language expert, author and Stony Brook professor Elyse Graham evaluated the candidates’ speaking styles and what they telegraphed to voters.
Their accents tended to fall into one of two categories — classic New York or standard American English — said Graham, who wrote “You Talkin’ To Me?: The Unruly History of New York English,” under the pen name E.J. White.
Admitting no opinion or position on this race, Graham analyzed the candidates’ accents based on authenticity — and their predilection for pronouncing the letter “R” after a vowel.
Eric Adams
He had the most convincing and authentic New York dialect, Graham said, conveying a sense of localism and toughness.
Like many in the five boroughs, Adams tended to add an invisible “W” into his pronunciations of words, such as “our” (“ow-ur”) and “officer” (“aw-fficer”).
She added that the Brooklyn Borough President put a New York, blue-collar spin on African American Vernacular English. For instance, he turned pain into purpose by becoming an “NYPD refawmer” and discussed how equality and injustice were issues he lived through his “entiah life.”
Scott Stringer
The comptroller has lost some of his New York accent by mixing in “prestige speech,” but it occasionally slipped back in (“running foah mayor”).
He held a long inflection of the vowels in “becawse,” while also delivering a locally sounding pronunciation of a rushed “W-shingt-n Heights.”
If Stringer is trying to downplay his inner New Yorker, the-hard-to-lose “becawse” will be one of the last lines to go, Graham said.
Kathryn Garcia
The former DSNY commissioner takes pride in her working-class values and it shows by how she talks, according to Graham.
Her local accent was glaringly evident in her high-pitched “New York A” pronunciation of “Hurricane Sandy”
Unlike Adams and Stringer, Garcia’s speech is rhotic, Graham said — meaning she pronounces the r’s after a vowel.
Well, mostly. At one point, she said, “no one on this stage did mowah during the pandemic.”
Ray McGuire
The Ohio native’s adopted New York accent could be gleaned from his staccato pronunciation of “City Hawl,” Graham said.
But that cadence was short-lived.
While all the candidates’ accents seemed to level off during the thick of conversation, McGuire’s had the most dramatic shift.
“He recognized and understands New York sounds, but is not audacious enough to continue it,” she said.
Dianne Morales
The Columbia graduate sounded like an Ivy League professor with a “prestigious” accent in a general American sense, Graham said.
Morales’ hard “R” inflections were textbook rhotic, standard American English.
Shaun Donovan
A graduate of Harvard, Donovan spoke standard American English, though not quite as crisply as Morales.
Donovan also mentioned “Sandy” in his opening, though unlike Garcia, his inflection was lower and much more non-New York.
Maya Wiley
With her television training, Wiley spoke in the classic broadcaster style — using pitch change to keep the audience’s attention and ensure she finished her statements.
Graham also said Wiley starting her answer to a question posed in Spanish also en Español added to a noticeable “self-understanding” of New York.
“Learn a little bit of Spanish is something New Yorkers tell to people new to the city,” Graham said.
Andrew Yang
Yang — who was born in Schenectady, raised in Westchester, and spent adolescence at a New Hampshire boarding school — sounded “exactly what I would imagine of someone who thought a Whole Foods is a bodega,” Graham said.
While his rhetoric style is a “total use of standard American English,” Yang connects with locals by using jokes and humor, Graham said.
He also downplayed prestige speech by opening the debate with a self-punchline joke about 6-foot-4 McGuire towering over him, she added.
“A politician has to decide if they have gravitas or folksiness,” Graham said, noting that Yang has chosen the latter.
“He’s aiming for as much ordinariness as he can manage without appearing false.”
Rather than trying to adopt a New York accent, Yang is making his appeal based on the fact he’s not from the area.
