New York City worldwide. New York City is situated in the Northeastern United States, in southeastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston. The location at the mouth of the Hudson River, which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbor and then into the Atlantic Ocean, has helped the city grow in significance as a trading port. Most of New York City is built on the three islands of Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island. The Hudson River flows through the Hudson Valley into New York Bay. Between New York City and Troy, New York, the river is an estuary. The
New Jersey English New Jersey, plus Middlesex and Monmouth Counties. Therefore, the short-"a" system of these areas of New Jersey is most similar to the New York City split-"a" system, however with some variation. East of the Hackensack River, Labov finds the short-"a" system to occurs with no more variation than in New York City proper. However, west of the Hackensack River, he finds that the normal function word constraint of New York City English is lost and the open syllable constraint becomes variable. While most of the New York metropolitan dialect heard in New Jersey is rhotic, that of Newark and Jersey