New York State Culture & Language

Almost everything the world recognises as New York culture comes from the city: the theatre district, the jazz and hip-hop that were invented there, the museums, and a pace and directness visitors either enjoy or do not.

Upstate has a different character entirely — slower, more rural, more Midwestern in feel than coastal. The county fair in late summer is a real institution, and so is high-school sport in towns that have lost their industry.

Winter sport runs deep in the north: Lake Placid has hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1932 and 1980, which is unusual for a village of under three thousand people.

The state's food identity splits the same way — delis and pizza in the city, and upstate a set of dishes almost unknown outside it.

English, with several distinct accents — the city's is not one thing, and upstate sounds closer to the Great Lakes than to Manhattan.

New York City is among the most linguistically diverse places on earth, with several hundred languages spoken; Spanish is effectively a second language across much of it.

Local usage: the subway is the train, standing in line is standing on line, and the city means Manhattan and its boroughs to anyone in the state.