New Orleans and New York City accents

To my ear, some of the people in New Orleans have an accent that sounds very similar to that of New York City. Not everyone in New Orleans, but some. It's curious how the two can sound so similar.

 

I'll take it as a compliment, thanks!

 

not the same at all

new orleans leans hard to the french side...new york is more one of kind

 

There are French leaning accents in New Orleans. But there are also German and Irish leaning ones, which may be why they sound similar to NYC (at least to some people). The two are major port cities and European immigrant influenced. My ear usually doesn't detect a common French-influenced accent in NYC.

I've watched news stories not knowing where the event was originating. Various times it sounded like NYC, but it was people in New Orleans.

 

I have a NYC accent I never thought it sounded like a New Orleans one.

 

Not that I've known a ton of people irl from either place (tho I have talked to some from each and my grandma was from NY) but from what I've heard, they don't sound very similar at all. Of the general accents I've heard, Louisana people have a certain drawl that seems undeniably Sothern and speak with a cadence that's fairly unique. New Yorkers seem to have a more blunt tone and don't have a drawl.

They are hosting the Super Bowl in New Orleans and there has been media coverage from there throughout the week and its really my first glimpse at New Orleans. It seems like a way different atmosphere and enviornment than NYC.

 

My cousin's wife is from Mississipi, but lived very very close to "Nawlins" (that's what she calls it, lol), and she talks like she's from New York. I always figured it was because she was Italian. lol

 

The Yat dialect is probably the closest description of what I'm referring to. Apparently it's most prevalent in the downtown NO area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yat_dialect

"“There is a New Orleans city accent . . . associated with downtown New Orleans, particularly with the German and Irish Third Ward, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Astoria, Long Island, where the Al Smith inflection, extinct in Manhattan, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect, is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans.[4] ”

Today, few citizens of German or Irish background occupy the Third Ward, however, the presence of immigrant groups in the city of New Orleans has inevitably lead to the formation of the Yat dialect [1]"