"People claim that there is a difference, but no one has been able to show it," said Michael Newman, a linguist and Queens College professor.


The idea of a Queens-specific accent originates with people like "All in the Family " character Archie Bunker or actress Fran Drescher, he said.


"It's not an accurate description of the way people in Queens talk," Newman said, calling Drescher's distinct nasal twang "the classic New York accent."


Drescher, who grew up in Flushing, disagreed.


Her title character on the hit '90s TV sitcom "The Nanny" also hails from Queens. Drescher called the Queens accent "melodic and mellifluous, with just a hint of nasality."


Life-long Astoria resident Panayiota Pharos said only Queens insiders can detect the borough's signature dialect because it's so subtle.


"It's not so different from a generic New York accent," said Pharos, 30. "Words just


take a little longer to come out."


Most linguists said the accent that Queens natives call their own has less to do with location and more to do with other factors.


"It's influenced by ethnic groups, the people in the neighborhood around you and the social group you hang out with," said dialect coach Amy Stoller, who said teaching the Queens accent is one and the same with teaching a New York accent.


"You think you have a Queens accent because you want to believe you have a Queens accent," she said.


This desire has something to do with "positive local identity," said Kara Becker, a doctoral candidate at New York University, who has studied the New York accent on the lower East Side.


"It may be a pride in your borough," she said, adding that people are actually just hearing the different speech patterns of different social classes.


"It makes sense to associate the New York accent with the outer boroughs because there are more working-class people there," Becker said of the accent that has


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