Jackson Heights, New York
The Jackson Heights Accent
Jackson Heights sits inside the New York City dialect area, which covers New York City, Long Island and northern New Jersey, United States. The nearest other area is Philadelphia, about 83km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Jackson Heights sound like
- A raised, gliding vowel in “coffee”, “talk” and “dog”.
- Variable R-dropping: “car” can end in a vowel.
- “Cot” and “caught” stay firmly distinct.
- A raised “trap” vowel before nasals — “man” towards “meh-an”.
These are the markers of the New York City accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Jackson Heights has all of them — the full New York City profile sets out where the region varies.
Jackson Heights against Boston
Jackson Heights is close enough to the Boston area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Jackson Heights | Boston |
|---|---|---|
| When you say “car” by itself, do you pronounce an R sound at the end? | the R at the end of “car” is pronounced | “car” ends in a vowel, with no R sound |
What 17 people from around Jackson Heights told the survey
17 people who grew up within 25 km of Jackson Heights have taken the DialectGuessr quiz. These are the answers where they differ most from everyone else who has taken it.
| Question | Their answer | Here vs elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| What do you call a long sandwich in a split roll? | Hero | 80% vs 0% elsewhere · 4 of 5 |
| What do you call shoes worn for sport or exercise? | Sneakers | 88% vs 32% elsewhere · 15 of 17 |
| Which is closest to how you naturally say “tune”? | “Toon” — without a Y sound | 100% vs 46% elsewhere · 17 of 17 |
| What do you usually call a sweet carbonated drink? | Soda | 88% vs 41% elsewhere · 15 of 17 |
| What do you call the wheeled basket used in a supermarket? | Shopping cart | 88% vs 46% elsewhere · 15 of 17 |
| What do you call a small neighbourhood shop selling everyday items? | Deli | 41% vs 1% elsewhere · 7 of 17 |
From people who chose to take the quiz and pinned where they grew up, so a self-selected sample rather than a random one. The figures are recalculated daily as more people answer.
How New York answered the Harvard Dialect Survey
The Harvard Dialect Survey, collected by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder in 2002–2003, recorded how respondents in every US state answered the same questions. These are New York’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in New York |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | soda 82% · pop 12% · coke 1% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | traffic circle 57% · rotary 15% · roundabout 13% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | water fountain 79% · drinking fountain 19% · bubbler 1% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crayfish 45% · crawfish 40% · crawdad 4% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 48% · you all 9% · y'all 5% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | kitty-corner 52% · catty-corner 22% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | garage sale 53% · yard sale 34% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | sneakers 93% · tennis shoes 2% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | garbage can 47% · trash can 16% |
| Frosting or Icing? | frosting 33% · icing 20% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scrap paper 64% · scratch paper 11% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | service road 57% · access road 14% · frontage road 9% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "hoot" 50% · rhymes with "out" 7% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 55% · with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 24% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievous (3 syllables) 63% · mischievious (4 syllables) 16% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 31% · hair tie 19% · (hair) elastic 13% |
Data from the Harvard Dialect Survey (Bert Vaux and Scott Golder, 2002–2003), used under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence. A self-selected sample from two decades ago: how people spoke then, not a census.
Dialect areas near Jackson Heights
Is your accent from Jackson Heights?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the New York City English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.