Newark, Delaware
The Newark Accent
Newark sits inside the Philadelphia dialect area, which covers Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, United States. The nearest other area is New York City, about 128km away.
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What people in Newark sound like
- The long sandwich is a hoagie.
- “Cot” and “caught” stay distinct.
- Rhotic R — “car” keeps its R.
- Plural “you” is often “youse”.
These are the markers of the Philadelphia accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Newark has all of them — the full Philadelphia profile sets out where the region varies.
How Delaware 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 Delaware’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in Delaware |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | soda 96% · coke 2% · pop 0% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | traffic circle 55% · roundabout 14% · rotary 7% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | water fountain 96% · drinking fountain 5% · bubbler 0% |
| Lightning Bug or Firefly? | lightning bug 48% · firefly 5% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crawfish 43% · crayfish 39% · crawdad 14% |
| Roly Poly or Potato Bug? | roly poly 27% · potato bug 16% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 35% · y'all 21% · you all 16% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | catty-corner 52% · kitty-corner 23% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | yard sale 48% · garage sale 43% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | sneakers 91% · tennis shoes 7% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | trash can 52% · garbage can 14% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scrap paper 50% · scratch paper 21% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | service road 39% · access road 11% · frontage road 9% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "hoot" 46% · rhymes with "out" 4% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 38% · with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 27% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievous (3 syllables) 65% · mischievious (4 syllables) 19% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 23% · hair tie 21% · (hair) elastic 18% |
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 Newark
Is your accent from Newark?
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 Philadelphia English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.