A New Jersey Rant: The Accent

One of the greatest stereotypes of Jersey is the “Accent”. Nobody can ever ignore the Accent. It’s the basic all-in-one, take-no-prisoners Jersey stereotype besides the pollution and driving.

But the truth is, the Accent is hardly as prevalent in NJ as people think. Take it from one who’s been born and raised in Jersey all his life—besides some Jerseyans who might have the occasional hint of it in such words like “gone” and “on”, the Accent is a pretty rare in Jersey.

As far as I know, I don’t have much of the Accent (see my video entries in case you want some voice samples) and hardly any of my Jersey friends have the Accent. How and when this stereotype began to apply to all Jerseyans completely eludes me.

Maybe somewhere in Jersey there are specific regions where the Accent is more present, but I hardly ever run across them at all.

So why do some people still cling to this Jersey stereotype like grim death? Two words—spite and ignorance. That’s usually the case with nearly all stereotypes (or at least a majority of them). But that’s just me.

What say you out there?