<P> Though William Labov argues that the New York accent is generally stable at the moment, some recent studies have revealed a trend of recession in certain features of the accent, especially among younger speakers from middle - class or higher backgrounds . Documented loss of New York City accent features includes the loss of: the coil--curl merger (now almost completely extinct), non-rhoticity, and the extremely raised long vowel (ɔː) (as in talk, cough, or law). Researchers proposed that the motivation behind these recessive trends is the stigmatization against the typical New York accent since the mid-1900s as being associated with a poorer or working - class background, often also corresponding with particular ethnic identities . While earlier projects detected trends of emphasizing New York accents as part of a process of social identification, recent researches attribute the loss of typical accent features to in - group ethnic distancing . In other words, many of the young generations of ethnic groups who formerly were the most representative speakers of the accent are currently avoiding its features in order to not stand out socially and / or ethnically . </P> <P> The pronunciation of New York City English, most popularly acknowledged by the term "New York accent", is readily noticed and stereotyped, garnering considerable attention in American culture . Some well - known phonological features include its traditional dropping of r, a split short - a system (in which, for example, the a in passive is not assonant to the a in passing), a high gliding vowel in words like talk, thought, all, etc. (and thus an absence of the cot - caught merger), absence of the Mary - marry - merry merger, and the stigmatized (and largely now - extinct) coil--curl merger . </P> <P> There are some words used mainly in Greater New York City . For instance, a "stoop" (from the Dutch word "stoep") is the front steps of a building . In the black and Latino communities, the word punk tends to be used as a synonym for weak, someone unwilling or unable to defend himself or perhaps loser, though it appears to descend from an outdated African - American English meaning of male receptive participant in anal sex . </P> <P> New Yorkers tend to say they stand on line, whereas most other American - English speakers tend to stand in line . Small convenience stores are, in recent decades, often called bodegas, from the Spanish term originally meaning "a wine storehouse" via the Puerto Rican Spanish term for "small store; corner store", or delis, which is the short form of delicatessens . </P>

Where does a new york accent come from