The Miami accent developed amongst second- or third-generation Miamians, particularly young adults whose first language was English, but were bilingual. Since World War II, Miami's population has grown rapidly every decade, due in part to the post-war baby boom. In 1950, the U.S. Census stated that Dade County's population was 495,084. Beginning with rapid international immigration from South American countries and the Caribbean, Miami's population has drastically grown every decade since. Many of these immigrants began to inhabit the urban industrial area around Downtown Miami. By 1970, the census stated that Dade County's population was 1,267,792. By 2000, the population reached 2,253,362. Growing up in Miami's urban center, second-, third-, and fourth-generation Miamians of the immigration wave of the 1960s and 1970s, developed the Miami accent. It is now the customary dialect of many citizens in the Miami metropolitan area.
Phonology
The Miami accent is a native dialect of English, not learner English or interlanguage. It is possible to differentiate this variety from an interlanguage spoken by second-language speakers in that the Miami accent does not generally display the following features: there is no addition of before initial consonant clusters with, speakers do not confuse with,, and /r/ and /rr/ are pronounced as Alveolar approximant|alveolar approximant instead of alveolar tap or alveolar trill in Spanish. The Miami accent is based on a fairly standard American accent but with some changes very similar to dialects in the Mid-Atlantic Unlike Virginia Piedmont, Coastal Southern American, and Northeast American dialects, "Miami accent" is rhotic; it also incorporates a rhythm and pronunciation heavily influenced by Spanish. Some specific features of the accent include the following:
A lack of goat-fronting resulting in a backed /oʊ/ vowel
No goose-fronting except for after coronal consonants in which case there is heavy fronting
Extreme foot-lowering from ʊ to a vowel somewhere between /ʌ/ and /ɔ/. This is possibly a new dialect feature.
Miami was previously a transitional area for the cot-caught merger but has recently been found to completely merge /ɑ/ and /ɔ/
Phonology and sounds of the Miami accent as reported in the Miami Herald: Features of the Miami accent from a report on the Miami accent from WLRN Radio:
Lexical characteristics
Speakers of the Miami accent occasionally use "calques": idioms. For example, instead of saying, "let's get out of the car," someone from Miami might say, "let's get down from the car". Other Miami terms especially common among Miami youth, often called "slang," include:
Chonga: a particular South Florida Hispanic female fashion and associated youth.
"Took the light": Running a yellow light in traffic.
"Open a hole": While most Americans say "Tear/tore a hole in" or "puncture", it's literally "opened a hole" in Spanish and Miami-accent English.
"Throw/threw a fart.": Resulting from the Spanish verb 'tirar' which means to throw or release.
"Otter Bond": The 'outer band' of a hurricane, used in Miami-accent English to describe the outer band of Hurricane Irma in 2017.
"Drink a pill": Take a pill, a direct translation of the Spanish phrase "tomar una pastilla", because the Spanish verb "tomar" can mean either to drink or to take depending on context.
"Come mierda": Literally "shit eater," a Spanish slang term generally equivalent to calling someone an idiot, fool or dumb ass.
"Eating shit": Literal translation of the Spanish term "comiendo mierda" which typically means that one is not doing anything of importance.
"Going on a mission": An exaggerated form of expressing exasperation over a difficult, time-consuming or annoying task.
"Getty": A shortening of "get together" commonly used by Miami millennials.
"Que bolá?": A slang term from Cuba which has no direct translation, but essentially means "What's up?"
"Fresco": The word "fresh" used as an insult by older Cubans, to describe younger people who they deem to be "impudent and disrespectful".
"Could" in place of "can": The word "could" is conditional, but in Miami it's often used in place of "can" to describe something that one is allowed to do or able to do.
