The gem in this video from the New York Times is nine-year-old Sienna Jayde from Staten Island at 2:55. “I dunno what a dag is, I know what a dowg is. I dunno what caffee is, I know what cawffee is.”
She actually won the prize for best accent in the NYT competition. But the most New Yorky thing about her is not her accent itself; it’s that at nine years old she already understands the social and cultural difference that surrounds her, and is conscious of where she fits into the scheme of things. A grand and rare gift of the city.
And the Nyuyorican or Dominican woman (it’s starting to get hard to tell as both groups’ speech is starting to approach that of Black New Yorkers) @princessnokia (and I think — from her dress and color choices — an Ọṣun devotee/santera) that comes right after Sienna is great too, though hardly comprehensible to even me in parts, except for one of her these-are-a-few-of-my-favorite-things: “Me, I like a good time; I like long walks in the pawk, hangin’ out with my cousins, and blowjobs on the FDR… “
“…and not for nothing, let’s be real: you flew here and I grew here.”
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Jadde: from Bosnia to Bengal 
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