As a true African American New Yorker with Jewish influences, Bob combines spoken word poetry with New York’s direct conversational style with full dexterity. “It’s not just the accent that makes us different”, says The New York Times best-selling author Deborah Tannen, referring to New Yorkers. Indeed, inhabitants of the Big Apple are vocal, talkative and opinionated, using a direct, almost combative approach when arguing or making a statement. They are known for “telling it like it is”, as Queens College’s linguistic professor and author Michael Newman puts it.
Newman’s description of New Yorkers sums it all: “[They] tend to have a different conversational style than other Americans. New Yorkers usually favor being more direct. We speak over one another, particularly to show our engagement with what our interlocutor is saying. We like to tell long stories. And we don’t mind arguing as long as it is not too personal.”
With its sing-songy style, rhythmic cadence and cooperative overlapping technique, the American Jewish accent complements the New York accent very well. Dan Nosowitz, a writer and member of global discovery platform Atlas Obscura, explains: “[T]here are some groups whose speech, long having been described as sing-songy, is suddenly of interest to researchers breaking new ground in the study of prosody. Appalachian English is one of those. And Jewish English is another” (Nosowitz, Why Linguists are Fascinated by the American Jewish Accent).
These traits are well alive in Bob who makes good use of his Jewish-influenced Brooklyn heritage.