How to Speak in a New York Dialect : New York Dialect: Long I

The long I changes almost to an "oy" sound, but don't take it too far. Learn how to speak in a New York dialect in this free video.

Expert: Tracy Goodwin
Bio: Tracy Goodwin has received numerous public speaking awards and has been a college professor of public speaking, interpersonal communications, voice and diction, and business speech for over a decade.
Filmmaker: MAKE | MEDIA

Alright, we're going to move on to the long
"I".

It is written as an "I" and it sounds like "I", as in the word "Friday". Now what
we're going to change this vowel to is something

similar to an "OEY", but not as extreme as
an "OEY", and that would be a typical mistake

that someone would make, is they would turn
"Friday" into "Fr-OEY-day", alright, that's

to harsh. But what happens is we're going
to turn it into a dipthong. And a dipthong

is where we're going to hear two sounds, "Fri-day",
we're going to hear almost an "OEY", but more

of an "AI" combination; "Fr-OEY-day", "Fr-OEY-day",
so you hear an "AI", "AI", rather than just

a straight "I", or an "OEY", it's "Fr-OEY-day"
night, okay. Now this one has a rule, this

change, meaning change long "I" into "OEY",
and you can really feel it if you drop your

jaw, "OEY", "Fr-OEY", drop your jaw, you change
it, prior to voiced consonants, so "D", as

in "F-R-I-D-A-Y", "D" is a voiced consonant,
so we're going to make the change, "Fr-OEY-day,

alright. If it was a voiceless consonant,
the ones that make air, rather than sound,

you don't change it.

Voiced, change it to where we hear "Fr-OEY-day", drop the jaw.

Voiceless, it's just a long "I". lets try some examples.