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The New York accent is one of the most recognizable dialects in the English language. To an outsider, a New York City accent encompasses anyone from NYC but if you’re from the area you know that these accents drastically change within a matter of miles.
Staten Island and Brooklyn are only separated by a bridge but linguistically the accents are quite different. The same holds true for the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. The accents often vary street by street depending on the area. Director Nicolas Heller is stuck at home like every other New Yorker but he had the idea for the #BestNYAccent challenge as a way to bring the city together in this strange time.
The challenge absolutely exploded. Picking up thousands of submissions from New Yorkers including celebrities. Famous names like Alec Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, and Nick Turturro threw their voices into the mix for consideration. I’m partial to Vinny Guadagnino’s clip and how quickly he turns it on.
The NYPost has some information on prizes and the winners:
Meanwhile, Heller, Michael Rapaport and Princess Nokia picked their five favorites of the 1,000-some submissions for “Best of Boro” titles. Prizes were gift cards and merchandise from brands that support Heller — and, of course, what any decent New Yorker thrives on, respect.
As for how he picked his favorite submissions, “I wasn’t judging based on how thick someone’s accent was, I was just judging how it made me feel,” says Heller. “It’s very subjective. There’s no such thing as the best New York accent.”
While being inundated with recordings of New York accents was exhausting, it also felt comforting in a time of so much eerie quiet on the borough streets.
“The chaos of the city soothes me. That accent is therapeutic to me, it makes me calm,” says Heller. “Especially in these times, when I’m not going to the store every day and talking to my usual suspects, it’s nice to be reminded there are still New Yorkers out there, and we’re gonna get through this.” (via)
Nicolas aka New York Nico went on camera for the NYT to explain the bracket-style challenge they set up for this #BestNYAccent challenge:
Here are some of the best entries that he shared on his Instagram in the past few weeks:
This one’s phenomenal:
The runner-up:
Aaaaand here’s your 2020 winner of the Best New York Accent:
If you didn’t want the YouTube clip above you should check it out. He explains how the accents were chosen and whether or not anyone ‘got robbed’ in the contest.
Meanwhile, the overall New York Accent only ranks 3rd in America amongst ‘sexiest accents’ behind Boston and Texas.