"Where y'at?" is a New Orleans greeting that means "how are you?" and has nothing to do with where you're standing. The right answer is "awrite," and the people who say it most gave their name to a whole accent: Yat.
Someone will say it to you within an hour of landing, maybe across the counter at a po-boy shop, maybe from a front stoop as you walk by. Don't give them your location. Say "awrite," nod, and you've passed the first test.
We've spent twenty years behind the counter on Magazine Street and Chartres Street, and we hear it every day. Here's everything else that comes with it.
What "Where Y'at" Means
Strip out the accent and it's "where are you at," which in plenty of places would be a question about your location. Here it's closer to "how's it going." Chuck Taggart's Yat lexicon at the Gumbo Pages, one of the longest-running local references on New Orleans speech, calls it the traditional New Orleans greeting and the source of the word "Yat" itself.
The answer is "awrite," sometimes stretched out to "awriiite" if things are going especially well. You can also answer with "where y'at," and the two of you can just stand there being pleasant. If you need more, "how's ya mama an'em" is the follow-up.
What Is a Yat?
A Yat is a New Orleanian who talks like this. The term covers the accent and, depending on who you ask, an entire worldview. Some people use it for the thickest working-class accents. Others use it for the way whole neighborhoods talk.
According to the Wikipedia summary of research on New Orleans English, the accent grew up in neighborhoods like the Ninth Ward and the Irish Channel, and today some of the strongest versions are heard in Chalmette, in St. Bernard Parish. You'll hear lighter traces all over the metro area.
It's worth knowing that the accent isn't owned by any one group. Writing for 64 Parishes, Eleanor Stern points out that while Yat gets marketed with a nostalgic white working-class image, Black New Orleanians still widely use many of its features. Any honest guide to Yat should say that.
The Brooklyn Comparison
A lot of visitors who hear a real Yat accent for the first time say the same thing: wait, are you from New York?
They're not crazy. Linguists have documented real overlaps between New Orleans English and New York City English, including dropped R's and the old "coil-curl" merger that turns "oil" into "earl" and "boil" into "berl." The writer A.J. Liebling noticed it decades ago, and his passage about it became the foreword to John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces."
Why the two cities sound alike is still argued over. Both took in big waves of European immigrants in the 1800s, Irish and Italian families among them. But the Wikipedia summary notes that many linguists think the link is more direct, with features spreading through commercial and family ties between the two port cities by the late 19th century.
What it isn't is Southern in the way most people expect. That's why every movie with a thick Georgia drawl set in New Orleans sounds so wrong to us. We made a whole list of movies that missed the mark.
Talk Like a Yat: The Essential Phrases
Awrite. The answer to "where y'at." Also works as a greeting, or a general signal that all is well.
How's ya mama an'em? "How's your family doing?" It's one word, really: mamaan'em. The Gumbo Pages defines "ya mamma'n'em" as your immediate family. The correct answer is "she good," whether or not you've spoken to your mother this week.
Makin' groceries. Going grocery shopping. The Gumbo Pages suggests it may come from the French "faire le marché," possibly mistranslated along the way. Carry it on our Makin' Groceries Tote Bag. If you're old enough, you made your groceries at Schwegmann's.
Dawlin'. The all-purpose term of address. Women use it for anybody. Men mostly use it for women.
Neutral ground. The median. Nobody here says median.
Yeah you right. Total agreement. Sometimes it's sincere, sometimes it's a polite way to end an argument.
Earl and berl. Oil and boil, in the old-school accent. "Berl some crawfish" is a sentence you will hear every spring.
Ax. Ask. "Lemme ax you something."
Notice how many of these are about family and food. The language here grew up on front stoops and in corner stores.
Wearing It
The greeting has been a Dirty Coast staple for years. The Where Y'at? Patch goes on a jacket or a bag so you can greet people without opening your mouth. And if you're the one at the party who still says "berl," you've earned the Yat Club Long Sleeve.
Want more? Our hub post, The New Orleans Alphabet, runs through the whole local vocabulary letter by letter, and our guide to how not to look like a tourist covers what to do once you've got the words down.
Where Y'at Meaning: FAQ
What does "where y'at" mean?
It's a New Orleans greeting that means "how are you?" It isn't asking where you are.
How do you respond to "where y'at"?
Say "awrite." You can also reply with "where y'at" right back, or ask "how's ya mama an'em?"
Why does the New Orleans accent sound like Brooklyn?
Linguists have found shared features with New York City English, like dropped R's and "oil" sounding like "earl." The causes are debated, from shared immigrant groups to direct commercial and family ties between the two ports in the 1800s.
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