A "Rochester accent" can be described as a form of Inland Northern American English, like a "Chicago accent" or a "Detroit accent". It has also been described as "nasally", most easily recognized by the vocalization of the short "a" (æ) sound: "and" is delivered as something closer to "i-uhnd" ([ˈɪənd]).

It is often described as including the pronunciation of the city itself as "Rach'str" ([ˈɹatʃ.stɚ]) or describing something as "faen-teas-tic."

The accent of Philadelphia and nearby parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, is probably the original ancestor of General American. It is one of the few coastal accents that is rhotic, and one of the first to merge the historical [oɹ] of hoarse, mourning with the [ɔɹ] of horse, morning. It also maintains the cot-caught contrast, unlike New England and western Pennsylvania. Nevertheless there are differences between modern Philadelphia speech and General American, some of which will be outlined here.

* "Water" is sometimes pronounced /wʊdɚ/, that is, with the vowel of wood
* As in New York English/New Jersey English, but unlike General American, words like orange, horrible, etc., are pronounced with [-ɑɹ-]. See English-language vowel changes before historic r: "Tory-torrent merger"