Word: alwiss
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Most thoroughly disliked, most easily located was the proletarian accent of New York City. ("He'd alwiss shoik making gah cherce.") This accent is characterized by a dentalized t (pronounced with the tip of the tongue between the teeth), by an excessively hissing s, by heavy ng sounds (e.g., "making gah" for "making a"); and by closing and diphthongizing certain vowels, so that "ask" sounds like "ay-usk" (or "ay-ust"), and "cough" sounds like "co-uff." The uneducated New Yorker seems to say "shoik" for "shirk" and "cherce" for "choice." Actually he uses the same sound, intermediate between...
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