How to pronounce New-York, Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx and Staten Island

123,356 views ・ 2018-08-16

Accent's Way English with Hadar


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Yo, yo, wassup!
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It's Hadar, and this is the Accent's Way.
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And today we're going to talk about how to pronounce the name of my
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favorite city in the whole world
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New York, and it's five boroughs: Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn,
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the Bronx, and Staten Island.
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So, let's begin with the name New-York.
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A lot of you might be saying '/N/j/ew York', 'njuw'.
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And N sound and then a /j/, and then the 'uw' as in food - 'njuw'.
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But to be honest, you don't have to add that /j/ sound.
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You can just say 'nuw', 'nuw' - and 'n' sound and then 'uw' - 'nuw'.
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Then you have a Y sound and the 'or' as in 'four' - 'York', 'York'; and
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end it with a K sound - New York.
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The stress falls on the second word, but 'New' is kind of stressed too,
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because it is an important word.
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New York.
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The first borough is going to be Manhattan.
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Here you may find several pronunciations of the same word
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- MAnhattan, M'nhattan, ManhaTTan.
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But we'll talk about the way people usually pronounce it in New York.
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Which is kind of a generalization because there are so many different dialects.
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So, it would be a lie to say that there is only one way to say it.
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But anyway.
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Let's begin with the first syllable: m'n, m'n - it's an M sound, then
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a schwa, and an N - m'n, m'n.
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A reduced vowel, so technically there is no vowel between the M and the N - m'n.
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The second syllable is HA: an H sound - and you have to pronounce it,
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so it's not m'n-A-t'n, but 'm'n-HA-', and drop your jaw for the A as in cat.
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'm'n-HA-t'n'.
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And then - that's the trick - we have a T-schwa-N.
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And when there was a T, a schwa - a reduced vowel - and then an N, we
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release the T through the nose.
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I call it the nasal T - t'n, t'n.
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'm'n-HA-t'n'.
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So, I bring the tongue up, block the air in the mouth, but instead of releasing it
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here, I block the air with my tongue and I release it through the nose - t'n, t'n.
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'm'n-HA-t'n'.
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It's the sound when you have a cold - 'm'n-HA-t'n' - you can't make it.
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You have to have open passages there in your nose.
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Manhattan, Manhattan.
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However, you'll notice that a lot of people pronounce it slightly different.
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And that is because they're not even wringing the tip of the tongue up
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here, they block the air in the throat.
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It's called the glottal stop.
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A glottal stop is when you abruptly stop your breath with your vocal chords.
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It sounds something like this, when you're about to say something like 'ahead' - 'ʔ',
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'ʔ', that's the sound, 'ʔ', 'ahead'.
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Or when you agree with someone.
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My daughter always does this when she understands something.
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That 'ʔ' sound is the glottal stop.
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And some people substitute the T with the glottal stop.
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And you keep the tongue up as you do it, so you do hear something that
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resembles the N at the end - m'n-HA-ʔ'n.
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So it's not 'm'n-HA-t'm', right, I cannot close my lips.
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The tip of the tongue needs to be up - m'n-HA-ʔ'n.
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But I block the air here.
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It wasn't a real T.
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m'n-HA-ʔ'n.
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So, m'n-HA-t'n [through my nose] - m'n-HA-ʔ'n.
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Let's talk about the word Queens.
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Queens.
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Here we have a K sound and a W - kw, kw.
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And then we shift to a high E as in 'see' - 'kwee'.
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It's not 'kwinz', 'kwinz', but 'kweenz'.
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So it needs to be a little longer than what you're used to, probably - 'kwee'.
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Then we have an N sound and a Z - 'kweenz', 'kweenz'.
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Not 'kweenS' - 'kweenZ'.
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Following that, we have my favorite borough - Brooklyn.
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Here we have a B sound and an R - round your lips, pull the tongue back.
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Not 'bRuk', but 'brrr', so you need to be able to hold out the sound
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forever - 'brrrruk', 'brrrruk'.
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It's not uw', it's not 'bruwk' - 'bruk'.
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It's somewhere between 'uw' and 'oh' and 'ah'.
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'bruk'.
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Imagine like you have a hot potato in the back of your mouth - 'bruk', 'bruk'.
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And then from that K sound that is in the back of your throat, you move
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to the L immediately - 'bruk-lin'.
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You don't release the K: it's not 'bruK-lin' - 'bruk-lin',
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you release it into the L.
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And for the L, the tip of the tongue has to touch the upper palate - Brooklyn.
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If you tend to confuse the L with the R, and then it sounds something
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like 'Brookryn', 'Brookryn', right, make sure that the tip of the
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tongue touches the upper palate.
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Hold it out if you need to - 'bruk-LLL', to make sure that you
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actually pronounce the L correctly.
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'BrookLLLin'.
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Then it's the relaxed 'i' sound and an N.
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Brooklyn.
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The Bronx.
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For the word 'Bronx' we start with the B sound, then the R - 'br-', and open
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it to the 'aa' as in 'father' - 'braa'.
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Then we move on to the 'ng' - 'braan-', that is then released
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to the K sound - 'braank-'.
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And then immediately you want to shift to the S - 'braanks',
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'braanks', the S consonant sound, right, not in the spelling.
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'braanks'.
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Don't add any vowels.
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I know it's sometimes difficult to move from one consonant
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to another, but practice it.
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'braan-', hold out the consonant - 'braanks'.
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Bronx.
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And lastly, Staten Island.
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Staten.
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Staten.
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Here we have an S and then a T right after - 'sta'.
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And we open it to the A as in cat - STA, STA.
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Drop your jaw, pull the lips to the sides a bit.
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The tip of the tongue is pushing forward, and the back of the tongue
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is up; the front of the tongue is flat - STA, like 'staff' or 'stack'.
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STA.
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And then, again, we have the T-schwa-N.
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We already know how to pronounce it: 'STA-ʔ'n', 'STA-ʔ'n', or 'STA-t'n',
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when I release it through the nose - 'STA-t'n'.
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Do whatever is easier for you.
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Staten Island.
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Island.
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Of course, there is no S here.
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We begin with 'AI' as in 'I am' - 'AI'.
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And then 'l'nd', 'l'nd'.
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Not 'lend', not 'land' - 'l'nd'.
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It's an L sound, a schwa, and ND - 'l'nd'.
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'AI-l'nd'.
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'STA-'n 'AI-l'nd'.
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'STA-'n 'AI-l'nd', stress falls on 'Island'.
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Staten Island.
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Okay, that's it.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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Let me know in the comments below, which of the five is your favorite borough?
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And if you live in New York, let me know in the comments as well,
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so I know where you live when I come visit, so we can hang out.
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Okay.
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Thank you so much for watching again.
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Have a lovely lovely week and I'll see you next week on YouTube -
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not in New York, unfortunately - in the next video.
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