References To Race In Comments About New Orleans' "Yat" Dialect

People Like Us - The CNAM Channel, Feb 23, 2008

A sampling of the many neighborhood and class-based accents in New Orleans circa 1983 from the documentary YEAH YOU RITE! by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcase a YouTube video of a 1983 film clip of New Orleans' English dialect called "Yat". 

This post also includes a brief Wikipedia quote about Yat and two comments from a 2011 article about that dialect.

 In addition, this pancocojams post presents a small sample of comments from the above mentioned YouTube video. These selected comments provide some history and examples of Yat, and/or provide some information about New Orleans Black Dialects in comparison to Yat or in and of themselves.

The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and linguistic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who were associated with this 1983 film and thanks to the publisher of this film clip on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
This post is part of an ongoing series on New Orleans dialects. Another pancocojams post in that series is "Some Examples Of Contemporary (2023) Black New Orleans Slang Compiled From Multiple YouTube Discussion Threads" 
 https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/10/some-examples-of-black-new-orleans.html .

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WHAT IS NEW ORLEANS' "YAT" DIALECT?
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_English
"New Orleans English[1] is American English native to the city of New Orleans and its metropolitan area. Native English speakers of the region actually speak a number of varieties, including the variety most recently brought in and spreading since the 20th century among white communities of the Southern United States in general (Southern U.S. English); the variety primarily spoken by black residents (African American Vernacular English); the variety spoken by Cajuns in southern Louisiana (Cajun English); the variety traditionally spoken by affluent white residents of the city's Uptown and Garden District; and the variety traditionally spoken by lower middle- and working-class white residents of Eastern New Orleans, particularly the Ninth Ward (sometimes known, since at least the 1980s, as Yat)

[…]

Often, the term "Yat" refers particularly to the New Orleans accents that are "strongest" or most especially reminiscent of a working-class New York City accent,[1] though others use the term as a regional marker, to define the speech heard in certain parts of the city and its inner suburbs. Used in these narrower senses, Yat is simply one of many sub-dialects of New Orleans. The word comes from the common use of the local greeting, "Where y'at?" or "Where are you at (i.e. in life)?", which is a way of asking, "How are you?"…

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TWO COMMENTS FROM 2011 ARTICLE ABOUT NEW ORLEANS' "YAT
[with numbers added for referencing purposes only]
From http://dialectblog.com/2011/09/01/on-the-hunt-for-the-new-orleans-yat/ "On the Hunt for the New Orleans Yat", Posted on September 1, 2011 by Ben T. Smith

1. Therese says,July 29, 2012 at 6:02 am

"Yat is so terribly different from the rest of Louisiana accents that I as one whose father has a Yat accent and mother has a River Parish Creole accent must laugh — someone has obviously never been to LA. Comparing even a Yat with a NOLA uptowner is a stretch, or a Yat with, say, someone from Mandeville across the lake. And certainly comparing a Yat (almost predominately white) with any of the non-white New Orleanians — a black 9th Warder and a white 9th Warder will sound completely different, even as they share the same vocabulary and social upbringing."

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2.  Rene A. Louviere Jr. says:
December 12, 2012 at 10:48 am

"Lissen, hawt, New Orleans native ‘ere, as wellasa amita linguis, an ah kin tell ya, dere is certinly a difference ya not seein between New Yok and N’Warlins accents. An to it’s the diffrins b’tween white Nint Wawdas and black Nint Wawdas reminz me mora dem people who like ta say dey Creole meanz dey all white. White ‘a’ Black da diffrinz is wunna emvasis and vocablyalerry dat makes it diffrint from New Yok. If ya think dat is jus da whites zu wenta Chalmette an aint dere no more then y’aint lookin back fawnuv. M’mama grew up in Nort Gentilly, m’ Grammaw in Sout’ Gentilly, M’ Granfatha on Banks ‘n’ Broad, and I grew up byda Lake. We all got Yat accens, it’s jus diffrin ones. An dat’s why I kin tellya whaer ya grew up, an probly whaeya wenna School, and prolbly wheaya Mama’nem wenna School.

I can also put on the above accent when I feel like it, and take it off when I feel like it. Not because I have to, but because I want to. I can talk as if I’m from different parts of the city, and if I could, I could discuss the same linguistic topics in the accent or out of them. In fact, with the accent, I have a working inclusive second-person plural, a third person indefinite, and an aspect signifier for habitual action.

Greetings from the Great Northern Capital of the Creole Carribean Empire, New Orleans.

See ya onda Neutral Groun’, Hawt"

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THE VIDEO THAT IS EMBEDDED IN THIS POST 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpFDNTo4DNg

The selected comments from that discussion thread are given in relative chronological order with the oldest comment given first except for replies.

2008

1. @yes4albert
"Thanks for this informative vid.  On three separate occasions I've mistaken people from New Orleans for Brooklynites.  Now I understand they were speaking Yat.  Fascinating"

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2. @omfgCantGetaUsername
"I agree with you! I'm from the NE part of the country myself and I would never confuse this accent with ours. I know what our accents sounds like whether it's Bos/NY/Philly but this does sound like a NY'er that traveled south. LOL

This was the first time I ever heard of the varieties of New Orleans accents besides when the Katrina victims where being interviewed on tv and I seriously coudln't understand them at all."

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3. @omfgCantGetaUsername
"Sorry I don't mean to rant*

 I forgot to mention, another thing you gotta remember pple is that some parts of the south are "non-rhotic" meaning they don't pronounce R's as well as NY, Boston, and the non-whites from Philly. The reason I say non-whites b/c the white natives were never able to develop R-less speech except the Italians here. Look it up!

Only thing is, the parts of the south that are non-rhotic drop their R's in a different way or atleast it doesn't sound the same as up here."

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2009

4. @frau4bzna
"i appreciate the friendly engagment and will end by just stating that i didn't want black dialects to be grouped together due to an unsophisticated ear; kind of how many whites think all blacks/asians look alike-yeah, to you."

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5. @macco360
"Its amazing how the "YAT" dialect of some New Orleans whites is so close to the New York street dialect".

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6. @thomasward00
"Because New Orleans was always THE port city of the South,  which had roughly the same makeup of immigrants as NYC, Boston and Philly.  The NOLA accent has more in common with the upper east coast than the rest of the South,  the one difference being that we still use some southern slang like Ya'll.  Our culture is very, very unique even in the South but make no mistake we are southerners."

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7. @IslenoGutierrez
"Let me speak in the New Orleans "Yat" dialect for you... "hey bay let me gitta muffaletta an put a lil' lagniappe on'ere, aw betta yet, gimme a roas' beef awn french, dressed. Ya wouldn't  a had ta go out ta eat if ya mama'an'em woulda made groceries. I'll be awn'a otha side of the neutral ground if ya need me. Yeah ya rite. I'm a New Orleans native. Oh, I can speak proper if I need to. We can speak in both New Orleans dialect and standard American English too."

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8. @0franko9
"What whites hear when they hear blacks speak is the texture of the voice, not the accent. I went to an historical black college in Louisiana and black kids from all over the country attended the school. We use to make fun of each  due to are different dialects.  Because I was from Detroit, I was told I sound "proper" to southerners, both black and white. African Americans from New Orleans sounded very different from other blacks from the South as did blacks from Lake Charles and Lafayette, LA."

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9. @drelle504
"I'm glad that everybody can see(or hear in this case)that the N.O. has more than 1 accent. This has been an argument of mine for 3 years. I live in Houston(no thanks to Katrina)and when I speak, people never suspect I'm a native New Orleanian. I always get "East Coast!" or even a Chicago accent. IDK why! I make groceries, stand on the neutral ground during Mardi Gras and drink cold drinks like everyone else. LOL

 #35 Roneagles 4 LIFE!!! ST. BERNARD PROJECTS R.I.P."

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2010

10. @sportyguyusa
"Yats RULE!!! There are MANY New Orleans accents- at least 2 different white ones and 3 different black ones, but us poor whites, THE YATS, have the REAL NEW ORLEANS one! LOL!"

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11. @CalifaJohn
"I was never aware of a Brooklyn-sounding accent in New Orleans. Does anyone know the historical explanation? I would be very surprised if the accents evolved independently and ended up coincidentally sounding the same. There must be some connection but it sounds just as crazy to hypothesize an exodus of Brooklynites migrating en masse to Louisana. What's the story??"

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Reply
12. @cdandrade92, 2021
"Check out Erik Singer's videos! He says the most likely reason they sound alike is due to the shipping routes. NYC and NOLA Are connected."

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Reply
13. @donquixotedoflamingo5510, 2021
"That's because they had a similar immigration pattern as Brooklyn, around the same time and same type of immigrants, (Working class, Italian, German, Irish, Eastern European etc...)"

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14. @Mindraker1
"@kazoopilot Oh yeah New Orleans used to be such that you could pinpoint people down to their streetcorner by their accent when my Dad was a kid (1950s).  New Orleans has diversified a lot, and with the mass exodus of people since Hurricane Katrina to Saint Tammany Parish and new influx of Hispanic immigrants, this has changed."

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2011

15. @IslenoGutierrez
"Those girls talking about the "Yatty" girls that work in their office are Yats themselves, just to a lesser degree. They still have the Yat accent with the exception that they pronounce their R's. They don't sound that far off of the the last 2 girls, which is considered full on Yat, which today, is found in St. Bernard Parish (Chalmette), because of White flight of the 9th Ward"

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16. @IslenoGutierrez
"@tmaz0126 Now wait a minute. I am born and raised in the New Orleans area. My family are Whites of French and Spanish descent from the 9th Ward that moved to the suburbs in the 1970's. And I am telling you that all native born White people in the New Orleans area have a similar yat speech. From the Whites of the city to the Whites of the suburbs, it's all variations on the same Yat accent. The same goes for the Black accent of the metro area. The non-yat Whites are not native to N.O.."

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17. @IslenoGutierrez
"@tmaz0126 This video was filmed at the time when New Orleans was majority White. That changed with White flight to the suburbs. Now the city is majority Black. Its been majority Black for about 30 years now."

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18. @IslenoGutierrez
"@LaHunny09 The first chick (White chick) was from the 9th ward. St. Bernard Parish and the old White 9th Ward accents sound alike. Most White 9th warders moved to St. Bernard back in the 70's-80's."

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19. @IslenoGutierrez
"@tmaz0126 The 9th ward was majority White until about 1980. My dad is from the 9th ward when it was a White area. Most White 9th warders moved to Chalmette."

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20. @IslenoGutierrez
"The first four accents. The first girl's accent from the 9th Ward, is the most common accent in the New Orleans area amongst Whites. The Second girl's accent is now what the majority of people in the City speak due to increase of the Black population due to White flight of the 1970's. The third guy's accent is still present in upper class Garden District living amongst the out of towners who flooded uptown. Also, the last guy's accent is still in the 7th Ward amongst the mixed race population."

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21. @TheEmilio16
"@numberonealcove Yes there is an African American dialect. It's called African American Vernacular English. AAVE."

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22. @TheEmilio16
"@tmaz0126 I am from the South. My grandmother and her parents spoke with a non-rhotic accent. I really hate to see this type of accent disappear. I recently listened to interviews of former slaves which were recorded in the 1940's. I really could not tell that they were black or white based on their accents. My grandmother was white and sounded almost exactly the same. The speakers of modern day AAVE sound nothing like the former slaves. Not better or worse, just very different."

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23. @andybpiano
"@tmaz0126 To answer your questions: 1) I can say with the utmost confidence, 95% of NATIVE New Orleans all have French, Cajun, English, Spanish, Italian, Irish, AND probably a little Haitian. New Orleans is NOT like any other city anywhere, let alone any Northern ones. You simply cannot compare them to "most Northeastern cities." Ancestry is largely irrelevant to New Orleans dialects. It's not a question of blood, it's the influence those ethnicities had on others near to them."

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2012

24. @IslenoGutierrez
"@Rachulie That accent some people think sound like a Ny/Nj accent is known as the New Orleans Yat accent which was usually associated with Downtown New Orleans, but also existed as well in Mid City/Gentilly and parts of Uptown like the Irish Channel and Carrolton, which it was the most widespread accent. It is the old White New Orleans accent which still exists in parts of the city today, but is extremely strong in the suburbs now, due to White flight of the city in the 60's, 70's and 80's."

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25. @IslenoGutierrez
"@dmoney450 Wait a minute there. Across the river accent? You mean a Westbank accent? Well, first off, many of the people on the Westbank are the children of White New Orleanians leaving the city in the 70's, if not being the ones who left the city themselves. Much of the downtown Whites split in two between going to St. Bernard and the Westbank. Also, the Westbank is metro New Orleans, maybe not N.O. proper, but still metro. The Westbank is a yat accent, which yat came from the city."

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26. @MsChel79
"Eh..I live south of New Orleans, and just came across this vid.  Sorry, I get this video wasn't on race, but man..it does come across a little racist and snobby on notes of status and such.  VERY dated."

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27. @IslenoGutierrez
"I'm proud of my Yat accent. My dad's family was originally from the 9th ward back in the day when it was mostly Whites and my mom's family was from St. Bernard Parish. My family was from the Bywater neighborhood of the 9th ward and the Marigny neighborhood of the 8th ward, but now most moved out to the suburbs in Metairie, the Westbank, St. Bernard and Slidell"

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28. @IslenoGutierrez
"@nigelholland3 Nothing wrong with blacks. But I won't let the tourists, media and local blacks not credit us yats for any culture or traditions that we started in New Orleans. It took us all to make this gumbo pot culture (instead of melting pot), so I don't like it when people try to discredit us or try to make us out to be something we are not. There is nothing wrong with the black dialect, but for an out of towner to say that yat sounds black is ridiculous. It don't, NY maybe."

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29. @IslenoGutierrez
"I'm proud of my Yat accent. My dad's family was originally from the 9th ward back in the day when it was mostly Whites and my mom's family was from St. Bernard Parish. My family was from the Bywater neighborhood of the 9th ward and the Marigny neighborhood of the 8th ward, but now most moved out to the suburbs in Metairie, the Westbank, St. Bernard and Slidell"

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30. @IslenoGutierrez
"@LaHunny09 I lived in both the 9th ward and St. Bernard, and much of the people in St. Bernard are from the old white 9th ward or the children of white 9th warders who fled the city in the 70's and 80's. I'm one. In St. Bernard, most people originally from the Parish were of Spanish descent, like my mom's family, but my dad's family were 9th warders. The old white 9th ward accent lives on in Chalmette. Almost like it's frozen in time. St. Bernard is the strongest yat dialect period."

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2013

31. @lalan099
"I thought the girl in the barber shop was the best representation of the "black" accent to my knowledge, but the two girls at the end were great representations of the "white" dialect that my entire family speaks."

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32. @firstnamelastname-nc9qh
"The "black accent" IS New Orleans. It's the one I hear most often and it's the best one. I am black yet I don't speak the "black accent". I got made fun of for it and was called "white" or people assumed I was from another state. Wtf"

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33. @tristan01101
"It frustrates me to see movies completely screw up New Orleans accents.  We do NOT sound like Mississippians"

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2014

34. @anthrocoon
"Some accents are charming and interesting like my own Boston, or New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Baltimore etc. Took bus tour of N.O. and the driver/guide, a local, said in some ways the accent can sound a bit like New Yorkers--kinda like how All in the Family characters would go to the "terlet"."
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Reply
35. @barnabydodd8956, 2017
"Not anymore. But some older people in New Orleans still say that. My grandpa talks like that. "Terlet" for toilet. "Berl" for boil. "Earl" for oil. "Vej-a-tibbles" for vegetables. Etc."

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36. @lostindiancamp
"Everyone speaks differently. I have noticed for example, nearly every black person I have ever known says "she stays over on 5th street," instead of "she lives on 5th street.""

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2015

37. @taino20
"I used to live in New Orleans. Later, I was aware of the accent difference, but when I first arrived, I knew nothing about it. I got into a cab in the French Quarter. When the driver asked me where I wanted to go, I was shocked that he sounded as if he were from Brooklyn, New York. When I asked him which part of Brooklyn he was from, he answered, "Brooklyn? I 'm from New Orleans and I have never been outside of the city." Yes, some people in New Orleans speak like they're from Brooklyn, New York, and not with the stereotypical Southern  accent."

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2016

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2017

38. @nola305
"New Orleans IS in the south, BUT the accents (and speech patterns) are DIFFERENT from ANY OTHER city and States that are southern. You have to make a distinction between New Orleans and other southern cities of the south because of mannerisms and dialect (and even other parts of Louisiana)."

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39. @laurabratcher-page1854
"In NOLA, there area at least 5 or 6 "black" dialects!  :)"

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Reply
40. @tyoung3982, 2019
"She’s not wrong. It’s different. I’m black and from New Orleans. It’s a separate New Orleans accent. Especially 7th Ward."

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41. @AneudiD78
"That Yat accent is perfect! I would in fact almost compare that accent to people who live deep in Brooklyn NY, some from Long Island and a little bit in Staten Island, but the older generation"

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2018

42. @MacGuffinExMachina
"That's not surprising, but what did surprise me was hearing my mom, who has a very heavy "Yat" accent tell me about when she first moved to where I live now. It is just about an hour away, across the lake from New Orleans, but someone from here thought she was from New York. There are lot of people, usually white, on the older side, and from the more rural parts of my town (Hammond) who have not taken the hour trip to New Orleans. I'm not sure if people here could be that sheltered now. After Katrina, a lot of people from NOLA moved here. It's probably more common to hear the accents now."

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43. @leeleerocks3616
"New Orleans does not sound a bit of Brooklyn more like country Jamaican's."

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Reply
44. @xtremej2575
"We DO NOT sound Jamaican. Maybe New Yorkish, or kinda Bostony"

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Reply
45. @leeleerocks3616
"Xtreme J Yall don't sound anything like us. Im from Bk and when someone from New Orleans talk I hear a country accent"
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"Bk" =Brooklyn (a borough of New York City)

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Reply
46. @xtremej2575
"I think it depends on who you talk to. Mind you, there is no one absolute New Orleans accent"

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47. @leeleerocks3616
"Xtreme J Yall sound like my family from Charleston Sc but nowhere near NY smh whoevr think that need to clean thm ears baby"

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Reply
48. @iangraber-stiehl461
"Hell no we don't. The Yat accent you hear from white New Orleans people has a bit of Brooklyn in it. Not uptown though."

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49. @shaunw638
"The white people sound like country east coast people.  The black people have a different accent."

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50. @shaunw638
"Tony C I meant a Southern east coast.  I grew up in New Orleans and St Louis.  I have heard that accent all my life.  They sound almost bostonish to me.  You are correct the black accent is different.  Trust me I know I get asked to repeat so many things."

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51. @shaunw638
"Tony C Lmao.  I’m tellin you y’all sound like Boston folks with a clear southern twist.  Idk why y’all talk like that 🤣 it’s very different from how us black people talk.  It’s amazing how people from the same city can have 2 different accents based on race.  I told you I lived in St. Louis to and the black people have a very southern accent but the white people dobt have one at all really."

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2019

52. @englishlanguagewithnina5965
"I lived in New Orleans for a few years and I have never been somewhere with sooo many accents. Sometimes people sounded more like New Yorkers than Southerners. I loved all of them. A few people made me feel like I was from another country because I had a northern accent and spoke with larger words. Such an interesting place."

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2020

53. @samblackwood4690
"Now you gotta leave Orleans Parish to hear a true Yat accent. Slidell is more New Orleans than New Orleans these days."

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54. @Shebrighteeh
"We don’t sound alike. I love the New Orleans accent but we do not sound alike the least bit."

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55. @melissas4874
"@Shebrighteeh  People who actually study linguistics and dialects have written journal articles on the similarities of the NY and N.O. accent.  It is mainly the pronunciation of the lettter "R" (or lack therof).  The papers are because, apparently, no other area south of NJ has this similarity in pronunciation.  Many linguists actually study how these 2 distant cities came to speak similarly."

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2021

56. @mrtony80
"I grew up a bit in Brooklyn too, and they really do have a version of the old school Brooklyn accent"

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57. @IslenoGutierrez
"But it must be noted that black New Orleanians and white New Orleanians have different accents from each other while still sharing many dialect and accent features. There are a range of local black accents and a range of local white accents plus white transplant accents (whites that moved to New Orleans since Katrina). When I say New Orleans, I mean greater New Orleans which includes the suburbs of New Orleans too where these accents exist also. Local black accents are strongest in the city and local white accents are strongest in the suburbs. It has been this way since the 1970’s-1980’s when white flight from the city turned the city from majority white to majority black. And the transplant white accents are strongest in the city because that’s where they have been settling since Katrina and they rarely exist in the suburbs. These are distinctions that people should know about when discussing New Orleans area accents."

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2022

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2023

58. @justynjonn
"Is this still true today in 2023? It seems everyone is turning into a Californian."

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