Paterson, New Jersey
The Paterson Accent
Paterson 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 79km away.
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What people in Paterson 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 Paterson has all of them — the full New York City profile sets out where the region varies.
Paterson against Boston
Paterson 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 | Paterson | 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 |
How New Jersey 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 Jersey’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | soda 96% · coke 2% · pop 1% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | water fountain 91% · drinking fountain 8% · bubbler 0% |
| Lightning Bug or Firefly? | lightning bug 44% · firefly 12% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crayfish 44% · crawfish 43% · crawdad 2% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 49% · you all 11% · y'all 5% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | catty-corner 47% · kitty-corner 24% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | garage sale 61% · yard sale 34% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | sneakers 95% · tennis shoes 2% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | garbage can 41% · trash can 28% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scrap paper 57% · scratch paper 14% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | service road 46% · access road 15% · frontage road 12% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "hoot" 55% · rhymes with "out" 6% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 57% · with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 21% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievous (3 syllables) 52% · mischievious (4 syllables) 23% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 28% · hair tie 20% · (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 Paterson
Is your accent from Paterson?
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.