louisiana and new york accents

i wanted to know if anyone else has noticed this. it is NOT a joke. i am originally from south louisiana. many people love to copy what they think is a "cajun" accent. i can spot them a mile away. they are not speaking in a cajun accent.

but what i have notice is that there are parts of new york where the accent is very close to parts of south louisiana. is this because of a french influence or what?

the pronunciation of cawfee for coffee is a good example but it is much more. the dropping of r's at the word end. the overall accent itself. i knew a man from new york, i can'r remember what part who was trying to tell people he was from south louisiana. a lot of people believed him. after a minute of talking to him, i told him he was not from LA. i could tell.

any help please?

p.s. i meant i met a man instead of i knew a man.

I think I've heard some people from the New Orleans area pronounce words like "burn" with a diphthong [3I], which was a traditional New York characteristic.

Here's the wikipedia article about "Yat," the New Orleans dialect. It's definitely different than the Cajun dialect in sound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yat_%28New_Orleans%29

as for New York dialects:

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~dinkin/Proposal.pdf

I live in the NY metro area and I'm friendly with a guy from NO. I thought that he was a NY native when I first met him.

thanks for the info. it's kinda funny when you grow up all your life around something and don't realize until you begin to travel as an adult that people actually study the way you talk.

i'm glad to finally know what to call this because i've told this to some people who apparently haven't been around and they thought i didn't know what i was talkin about.

later,

chico