New research contends that it's not just the Lower East Side's distinctive architecture and character that are in danger — but also the neighborhood's unique dialect. Younger LES residents whose families have lived in the neighborhood for decades no longer speak with the recognizable inflection of older generations, according to a New York University linguistics student.
In 1966, a linguist determined that Lower East Side residents had a unique way of saying words like "bought" and "daughter" that involved "pushing the vowels up and into the back of the throat," according to Fox News. While that raised inflection is still common among older residents of the neighborhood, younger residents no longer use it. "The 'raised bought' of older speakers is not produced by those younger," said Kara Becker, who interviewed 64 native speakers and analyzed thousands of vowel sounds in their speech. In 2008, Becker determined that the city's accents differ more between social classes than they do between boroughs. [via EV Grieve]
