Greetings from New Jersey!
Yes, I am from New Jersey. And no, we don't say "Joisey". And there are trees in the part of the state where I live and many other places. And absolutely, I am extremely proud to be from New Jersey, land of Springsteen, the Parkway, and the Jersey shore. Does that cover everything? You see, people from New Jersey get used to these things after being questioned about their state over and over again. Frankly, we're flattered by the attention. We just wish that so much of it wasn't so negative. We think some of it can be chalked up to possible jealousy. After all, we're the home of Bruce Willis, Stephen Colbert, The Sopranos, Kevin Smith, and numerous other awesome individuals. Check out the big list here. You're welcome.
Anyway...a New Jersey accent is interesting because it is one of the most imitated accents. Unfortunately, it's also an accent that people exaggerate to the point where native Jerseyans become offended. This is difficult for us, especially since we have immense Jersey pride. What most people think is a Jersey accent is actually a New York accent. And yes, the further north you live in New Jersey, the more New York-ish you will sound. But for the most part, our accent is different than a New York accent in many ways. The purpose of this article is to give a short lesson on the New Jersey accent so that everyone who thinks they know what it is can be educated on the real deal and we don't have to be irritated by it anymore.
First, us Jerseyans tend to drop the "g" sound and the hard "r" sound (but not in an annoying Midwestern way). For instance:
"Whaddya doin?"/"What are you doing?"
"I hadda go there"/"I had to go there."
"Are you kiddin me?" or "Ya kiddin me?" is a phrase often used
"Gunna"/"Going to"
We also have a tendency to mush our words together. For instance, the most well known example is this: "Jeet yet?" (Did you eat yet?") to which someone would answer "Naa jew?" (No, did you?). Here are more examples of word-mushing:
"Wooden a got to"/ "Wouldn't have got to"
"Wooda hadda go"/ "Would have had to go"
And yes, we do have a funny accent when saying certain words, but not as overemphasized as some people like to make it out to be. Examples:
Brawt, Thawt, Tawt/ Brought, Thought, Taught
Acshally/Actually
Cran/Crayon
Sammich or Sanwich (Drop the "d")
Mout-in/ Mountain
Awfice/Office
Yer/Your
A lotta/ A lot of
Besides these simple things, we also say "Sub" (short for Submarine) instead of "Hoagie" or "Grinder" or anything else. If you come to New Jersey and call a sub a hoagie, you will be made fun of. Just to let you know.
I know that many people from the Northeast make fun of Southern accents. I understand that this is annoying to Southerners. So let me point out that I like Georgia and Louisiana accents, and I like to imitate them, but in a nice way. Keep in mind, Southerners, that when we make fun of you it's not because we're being mean- unless you're racist, and then we are. We don't like racists.
Nope, Southern accents are not the ones that we make fun of the most. The ones we really make fun of are Boston and Midwestern/Canadian accents. Since we have a rivalry with New England (see Patriots, Red Sox) we like to make fun of how they say car, park, and lots of other things. Making fun of the weird Midwestern/Canadian accent used to be good natured but then Sarah Palin came along and now we're just really tired of it because we associate it with bad things.
So now you know! Spread the knowledge, or someone from Jersey might flip you the state bird! See ya!