Vowels

New York speech was historically non-rhotic but has become increasingly r-pronouncing over the last half century. The presence or absence of postvocalic /r/ typically has profound effects on vowel quality in dialects of English. In New York City, however, these effects seem to be less significant. For example, the inglides that are typical of non-rhotic speech (e.g.,  near; [skwεə] square) may remain in New York speech even among rhotic speakers (e.g.,  near;  square) (Wells 1982: 506). In this overview whatever differences of vowel quality exist between rhotic and non-rhotic speakers are ignored and interested readers may refer to the specialist literature for further details.