cmt

This came up on Fodors about a month ago, when someone got insulted by a New Yorker's joking reference to NJ as "joisey." Then I noticed on another travel forum that a lot of people seemed to be calling NJ "joisey." I found it corny and tiresome, but not really insulting. At the time I posted something on the Fodors thread where someone had gotten insulted and on the other forum where the "joisey" thing was so very overused.

It's not an earthshattering issue, but I'm curious what other people here think about this little regional or pseudo-regional expression. Do you refer to NJ as "New Jersey" or as "Jersey," and do you jokingly call it "joisey"? If you do, are you a New Jerseyan imitating the way New Yorkers pronounce the name of our state, or are you a non-New Jersey resident making fun of the way you think people from New Jersey might speak? Or do you just say it for no particular reason?

As a long-time NJ resident (since I was nine) who was born in Brooklyn, I am fairly sure that the playful use of "Joisey" to refer to NJ was originally a way of teasing or making fun of the way NEW YORKERS talked. People in NJ don't normally say "joisey," unless perhaps they are recent arrivals from parts of NYC where NJ is referred as "Jersey" and mispronounced as "joisey." way.

I do remember that when I lived in Brooklyn as a child, people used to say that the "erl man came oily in the mawning." That "oi" sound in "joisey" and "oily" (meaning "early") wasn't quite the "oy" of "boy," but was sort of an "uh" sound with a "y" at the end, so it was like a tired version of the "oy" sound. In any event, that's definitely a NY accent, not a NJ one. Though "joisey" is not the way educated Manhattanites would pronounce "Jersey," it was a common pronunciation in Brooklyn, and perhaps also in some other boroughs of NYC as well.

Most NJ residents probably don't usually refer to the state as "Jersey," but tend to say the whole name, "New Jersey." Many New Yorkers commonly refer to NJ as "Jersey" (even when they pronounce it correctly), and if you hear New Jersey people calling their state "Jersey," there's a good chance that they are originally from NYC or they work and play with New Yorkers so much that they picked up some NewYorkisms.

seetheworld

I was born and raised in New Jersey and I have always referred to the state as New Jersey.

My dear husband, born and raised in the Bronx (accent and all) refers to my birth state as New Jersey not "joisey". My children also refer to the state by its proper name.

I must say, New Jersey gets a bad rap -- there is more to the state than the Turnpike. I am also thin skinned when my New York friends slip and say something derogatory about New Jersey.

I never considered myself to have an "accent". I leave that to my SIL who has lived in the UK for many years -- a Brit with a Bronx accent, now that's an ear full

P_M

I am from Texas and I just call it Jersey. I'm not sure why I call it that, I just do. If this is inappropriate, please let me know and I'll make a point of saying New Jersey from now on. It is indeed a very nice state, no matter what you call it

Patrick

Don't the same people who say "joisey" also say "New Yahwk"?

seetheworld

There was something about your post that bothered me and I finally put my finger on it. Cmt wrote:

"Though "joisey" is not the way educated Manhattanites would pronounce "Jersey," it was a common pronunciation in Brooklyn, and perhaps also in some other boroughs of NYC as well"

I'm not clear on what your point is. Don't assume that articulation and regional accents are directly related to educational achievement/attainment or lack thereof. I view it as slang.

Hi P_M

nytraveler

I say Jersey - but not "joisey" - simply because it's faster - just one less word. I also say DC - not Washington - for the same reason.

I suspect if New Hampshire were near NYC it would be called "Hampshire" for the same reason. I don;t thing there is any disrespect intended.

cmt

My main "point," to the extent that I had any point at all, was that NYers now seem to say "joisey" as a way to gently make fun of people from NJ, but originally, it was a way of mimicking the way some NYers spoke, which sounded funny to non-NYers.

Used as a joke, maybe "joisey" is slang. But if that's really the way someone pronounces Jersey, without trying to be funny, I think it's a mispronunciation of American English (that is, unless you simply don't believe there is any such thing as standard/correct speech and substandard/poor speech, but instead believe that all accents, all grammar, all vocabulary is "correct" in its own way). The pronunciations I described that I heard in Brooklyn when I was growing up, e.g., "the erl man came oily in the mawning," were not just slang. They really were bad speech, and I was aware of that even as a little child of four. It was something that was worth trying NOT to say, or worth UNlearning. Since I moved around a little as a child, from Brooklyn to PA to Brooklyn to NJ, I learned to hear my own accent when it was different from the local one, so I managed to drop the more extreme Brooklynism wqhen I moved to PA and the extreme PAisms when I moved back to Brooklyn, even though my accent remained regional, in a general northeastern/mid-Atlantic way.

I know there are plenty of educated people who speak with EXTREME local accents, but I do think that's not considered standard, and many people, through schooling or professional training or business experience, make an effort to unlearn some of the more extreme local pronunciation they picked up as children. A slight to moderate New York City or Boston or West Virginia or Alabama or rural Indiana accent isn't substandard speech, or at least I hope it isn't considered substandard. I like regional accents and enjoy regional differences in words, but I do think there is such a thing as speech that is more extreme than just a regional variation. People who do not live their entire lives in the city or locality where they were born have an easier opportunity to recognize some of the really extreme local speech patterns, as do people who have more schooling. It's true that some people who move far away from their home towns and who get Ph.D.s may still have extreme accents, but they had plenty of opportunities to lose them, and I think usually do. Or at least that's my observation, but not really a "point."

cmt

I don't think there's any disrespect at all intended when people say "Jersey" either. When I first moved to NJ when I was nine, it seemed that just about everyone in Brooklyn referred to NJ as Jersey, and NYC friends usually do as well. But I've never hear a native-born NJ resident refer to the home state that way. I was wondering, though, about this stale joke of referring to the state as "joisey," because I saw that so much (in print) on another travel board and didn't know what to make of it. I didn't think it was insulting, just kind of silly and "old" as jokes go.

seetheworld

"Unlearn". No. Code-switch, yes.

I'm too tired to debate the issue.

cmt

Not a "debate".... I don't know what "cose-switch" mean. I do remember when I was 4 1/2 and moved to PA from Brooklyn, I could hear something funny about my accent and I lost the more extreme aspects of it, like saying Longgallin for Long Island or chimminy for chimney. Then when I moved back to Brooklyn at 7 1/2 I could hear that I said "myin" for "mine" and the other kids didn't, so I lost that. then I picked up certain very NJ very ethnic pronunciations in college, which I could hear when I went to grad school in a different part of the country and I tone them down. So whatever it was, I did it, and it was at least partly a deliberate and cosncious effort. I can turn on and imitate various accents just for fun, but they're not my accent. However, I know that I have a kind of generic NE/Mid-Atlantic/NJ-PA accent and would never be mistaken for a Bostonian or a Chicagoan or a Georgian.

seetheworld

"I think it's a mispronunciation of American English (that is, unless you simply don't believe there is any such thing as standard/correct speech and substandard/poor speech, but instead believe that all accents, all grammar, all vocabulary is "correct" in its own way)"

"Bad speech" or dialect versus standard English? Hmmm...It seems that I've been down this road once before.

Wayne

Now I myself was somewhat offended by a comment from a former acquaintance when he called it "Jew Nersey." Makes you laugh and cry all at the same time.

buongiorno

Actually, I think the popularity of calling it "joisey" came from a Joe Piscapo skit on Saturday Night Live where he used to say "are you from joisey? I'm from joisey"

bear900

Chuckling at this post....

As a native Californian, I often find the subject dialogue of easterners (as in this post) as entertaining as their accents, IF they have one. I can't explain why….

I recall with some humor, an incident in a NJ coffee shop. We had asked our waitress for more coffee. Without stepping away from our table, she shouted loud enough to be heard clear in the back, "Hey Diana! Bring some more coiffee ovah heah!"

She then turned her attention back to us and asked with a sneer why we were giggling! I think she knew why, but still enjoyed drumming an answer out of us anyway.

I'm sure "Joisey" has been around for some time. The first time I heard it was from watching the Three Stooges on television, and of course we understood that was meant to be comical!

Speaking of accents, once while in Boston I asked a shop owner if I had a "Californian" accent, and he said, "Of course!" He didn’t elaborate, perhaps seeing me smile at his accent. I enjoy regional accents and think they add a measure of spice…and sometimes comedy. I bet I’m not alone however, in only catching half of what is said in British movies! (crossing eyes..)

Reminds me of the scene in “Joe Dirt” when the southern neighbor was telling Joe, “Home is what you make it.” “What?” asked Joe, “You like homeless people naked?!”

Just a Californian, who sometimes draws my words out long and pauses ...and other times speaks faster then I can catch my breath!

jersey

I've lived in various parts of NJ since I was five years old. Despite my Fodors moniker, when asked where I'm from, I reply, New Jersey. Both my eldest son and my eldest daughter (both grown) significant others are from Seattle and both were really surprised the first time they visited us. They had no idea that New Jersey was so lovely. And no, we don't speak like the stereotype.

Mcat

Not born in New Jersey, but raised there and still reside, and have mostly called it New Jersey, occasionally Jersey, and never "joisey." No one I know from the state has ever pronounced it joisey. My parents are from Brooklyn and have never called it "joisey." I do however, pronounce water as "wudder", rhymes with butter.

travelinwifey

We say joisey but that is because that is what my Uncle calls it that had lived there for 50 years with his accent With family it's "joisey", with strangers it's "jersey"

suzanne

My grandfather, born and raised in the Bronx, said "Joisey", "erl", and my favorite, "terlet." We got a big kick out of it as kids. My parents were also born/raised in the Bronx but their accents are much less extreme. Oh, though my dad doesn't pronounce the Ts in "bottle"!

I was also born in the Bronx, then moved an hour north to a town where everyone was from some outer borough of NYC, and my accent (if I even have one?)is even less noticeable than my parents'. Regional accents are definitely changing with time, whether due to the advent of television years ago, or immigration or relocation or whatever. You just don't often hear young people saying "joisey" anymore unless they're kidding around.

And I say "Jersey" (like I say "DC").

annikany

Okay -I had to think about it but this is what I do. If I'm talking seriously I say New Jersey. If the conversation is light hearted or comical I might say Joisey and I beleive it is a comical version of the way you would expect someone from New Jersey to pronounce it. I know people don't actually speak that way from New Jersey . However we have been led to believe that they do mostly through comic relief. That is why I might say it joisey if the conversation were comical. It's not meant to be offensive to people from New Jersey. Just comical to the group I am speaking with at the time. Although - here in upstate NY we know people from New Jersey are well educated and hard working people. We also know it is more than a turn pike. It is a very beautiful state! In upstate NY people deal with a lot of the same misconceptions. So many people think New York is one big city and we all have NY accents. People make fun of our accents too and I believe it is in a comic relief sort of way. I'm from Syracuse and I've been told I have a Syracuse accent when I travel. So it all depends on who you talk to and what they have been exposed to.

SAB

So an unscientific poll of posters reveals that people from New Jersey, do not call their home state Jersey or joisey, but some New York residents do. I think as with all matters regarding names, people and places should be referred to by the name --or nicknames--they, not others, use.