Mary

Question

There was a show on television last night with Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper in their old roles as Mary and Rhoda. In my opinion, an incredibly bad show unless it got better after the 10 minutes I watched before I turned it off in disgust. Listening to MTM is like listening to a concerto of fingernails scraping on a blackboard.

I was hoping that Areff was watching. I'd like an opinion on Valerie's accent. I would think that the JDL would send in hit men for this parody of NY Jewishness. It was like "this is what people in Kansas think NY Jews talk like". If it was an accurate accent, NY Jews should be muffled at birth.
I am also interested in the pronunciation of "Mary" by Valerie. Is that in the Mary reference that I see here so often? It was almost "mee-airy".
I am not a fan of hunting. I don't hunt, and I do look at it as shooting Bambi. OK, food for the table, thinning out the herds, and all that...but I just don't like the idea of doing it.

I would favor an open season on television writers, though. That's a herd that does need thinning out.

Tony Cooper aka: tony (Email Removed)
Provider of Jots, Tittles, and Oy!s

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]There was a show on television last night with Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper in their old roles as ... in Kansas think NY Jews talk like". If it was an accurate accent, NY Jews should be muffled at birth.[/nq]
Sorry, Coop, but I wasn't watching. I've seen Valerie Harper as "Rhoda" on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda , but I never watched Rhoda more than a couple of times, and I watched The Mary Tyler Moore Show when I was like 2 or 3 so I didn't really get much out of it.
But, yes, my recollection from the Rhoda shows I've seen is that she had a familiar sort of "fake Hollywood postwar New York proletarian" sort of accent. Not 'Jewish' especially.
Mary Tyler Moore herself is a homegirl; she's from my home town of Flatbush (The Heart of Brooklyn (Fourth Largest City in America)), also the home town of AUE luminary Garry Vass IINM. But Moore spent part of her childhood in Los Angeles too.
Moore's accent on The **** Van Show , at least, seems "New Yorkish" to me.
[nq:1]I am also interested in the pronunciation of "Mary" by Valerie. Is that in the Mary reference that I see here so often? It was almost "mee-airy".[/nq]
Dunno what you're talking about, Coop. The New York region MINMINM pronunciation of "Mary" seems to me to approximate the MIMIM pronunciation of the whole set. "Mee-airy" doesn't sound especially accurate.
Googling tells me that Harper was born in Suffern, NY, which is somewhere in that New Jersey-ish part of New York state. If that's where she was raised, it's sufficiently far from city influence that she'd probably not have grown up in her day with a New York city region type accent, though today things might be different. I understand that Rhoda Morgenstern was supposed to be from the Bronx.
Regarding Bronx accents, though, I don't have such a good handle on them. I once heard someone who was Italian and from the Bronx say that "Everyone from the Bronx sounds Jewish", but I can't tell you I'm completely sure I know what she meant.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Dunno what you're talking about, Coop. The New York region MINMINM pronunciation of "Mary" seems to me to approximate the MIMIM pronunciation of the whole set. "Mee-airy" doesn't sound especially accurate.[/nq]
I think he's trying to describe a very nasal a, stretched almost to two syllables.

John Varela

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Regarding Bronx accents, though, I don't have such a good handle on them. I once heard someone who was Italian and from the Bronx say that "Everyone from the Bronx sounds Jewish", but I can't tell you I'm completely sure I know what she meant.[/nq]
I was under the impression that everyone from the Bronx *is* Jewish. Well, almost everyone. My dad's cousin lived there, and he was Lavian, but he was the superintendent in an all-Jewish apartment building. Every time I walked from the subway (elevated there) to the his place (on Jerome) I saw many Orthodox Jews with their black coats and long sideburns.
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/ I speak English well I learn it from a book!
Manuel (Fawlty Towers)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Regarding Bronx accents, though, I don't have such a good ... tell you I'm completely sure I know what she meant.[/nq]
[nq:1]I was under the impression that everyone from the Bronx *is* Jewish. Well, almost everyone. My dad's cousin lived there, and he was Lavian,[/nq]
Washed his hands a lot?
[nq:1]but he was the superintendent in an all-Jewish apartment building. Every time I walked from the subway (elevated there) to the his place (on Jerome) I saw many Orthodox Jews with their black coats and long sideburns.[/nq]
Tony Cooper aka: tony (Email Removed)
Provider of Jots, Tittles, and Oy!s

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I was under the impression that everyone from the Bronx *is* Jewish. Well, almost everyone. My dad's cousin lived there, and he was Lavian,[/nq]
[nq:1]Washed his hands a lot?[/nq]
You got that to a T.
[nq:2]but he was the superintendent in an all-Jewish apartment building. ... many Orthodox Jews with their black coats and long sideburns. [/nq]
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/ I speak English well I learn it from a book!
Manuel (Fawlty Towers)

Mary

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