section_path: Culture and contemporary life/Dialect
section_name: Dialect
paragraph_text: Dialect
  
  New Orleans developed a distinctive local dialect that is neither Cajun English nor the stereotypical Southern accent that is often misportrayed by film and television actors. Like earlier Southern Englishes, it features frequent deletion of the pre-consonantal "r", though the local white dialect also came to be quite similar to New York accents. No consensus describes how this happened, but it likely resulted from New Orleans' geographic isolation by water and the fact that the city was a major immigration port throughout the 19th century and early 20th century. Specifically, many members of European immigrant families originally raised in the cities of the Northeast, namely New York, moved to New Orleans during this time frame, bringing their Northeastern accents along with their Irish, Italian (especially Sicilian), German, and Jewish culture.
  
  One of the strongest varieties of the New Orleans accent is sometimes identified as the Yat dialect, from the greeting "Where y'at?" This distinctive accent is dying out in the city, but remains strong in the surrounding parishes.
  
  Less visibly, various ethnic groups throughout the area have retained distinct language traditions. The French-speaking community has had a cultural center, the Alliance Française of New Orleans, since 1984. The association is a chapter of the international Alliance Française organization and promotes French language and culture in New Orleans and the surrounding region. Since Louisiana became the first U.S. state to join the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie in 2018, New Orleans has reemerged as an important center for the state's francophone and creolophone cultures and languages, as seen in new organizations such as the Nous Foundation. Although rare, Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole are still spoken in the city. There is also Louisiana-Canarian Spanish dialect, the Isleño Spanish, spoken by the Isleño people and older members of the population.