Nuyorican English
A form of New York accent traditionally spoken by Puerto Rican immigrants in said city, but now applies to a characteristic type of speech common to Hispanic-Americans in the Northeast United States (Therefore now a misnomer). Its foundation is the New York City dialect, with Spanish influences. Many Hispanic-Americans, despite speaking English flawlessly, have a way of speaking characterized by:
- Occasionally placing the accent on the first syllable of a word. When this is combined with a characteristic quick way of speaking, the speaker has a rather sharp, musical pitch to their voice
- A tendency to pronounce initial 'y' as 'j'
- Stressing of the intervocalic 's' or 'z' (i.e. - characterize may be pronounced 'character-ice')
- Over-pronunciation of 'n'
- Omission of the 't' in a word ending in '-ont'
- The accent is considered non-rhotic, but slightly more rhotic than typical New York standards
- In some individuals, the initial 'r' is slightly tapped against the front teeth, giving it a somewhat harder sound than what is usual in American English
Chicano English also shares some of the above features