Central New York

The major colleges and universities in the region include Wells College, Cornell University, Colgate University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Hamilton College, Le Moyne College, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Cortland, Utica College, Ithaca College, Syracuse University the SUNY ESF, Cazenovia College, Morrisville State College, and SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

Major newspapers in the region include the Oneida Daily Dispatch, Syracuse Post-Standard, Auburn Citizen, Rome Daily Sentinel, Ithaca Journal, and Utica Observer-Dispatch.

The region is served by several television stations based in Syracuse (including ABC affiliate WSYR-TV, NBC affiliate WSTM-TV, CBS affiliate WTVH, Fox affiliate WSYT and PBS member station WCNY-TV) and Utica (NBC/CBS affiliate WKTV, ABC affiliate WUTR and Fox TV affiliate WFXV).

Note: Cortland County and Tompkins County are often considered part of the New York State region called the Southern Tier; the ski country demarcation line runs through Cortland County. Tompkins County, which features Ithaca at the end of Cayuga Lake, is also considered part of the Finger Lakes. Oneida County and Herkimer County are often considered part of the New York State region called the Mohawk Valley, although the "Central New York" and "Mohawk Valley" definitions overlap, and neither definition is mutually exclusive. Therefore, Tompkins County, Cortland County, Oneida County, and Herkimer County are only Central New York in the broader sense of the phrase "Central New York".

Only Onondaga County, Cayuga County, Oswego County and Madison County are always considered "Central New York".

The New York State Department of Transportation's definition of the Central/Eastern region includes the counties of Albany, Broome, Chenango, Columbia, Cortland, Delaware, Fulton, Greene, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster, and Washington, but does not commit itself to a definition of Central New York per se.[2]

During the early historic period, the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee, Five Nations) successfully excluded Algonquian tribes from the region.

The Central New York Military Tract (land reserved for soldiers of the American Revolution) was located here. Many towns derived from the tracts have classical names.

Central New York is near the eastern edge of the dialect region known as the Inland North, which stretches as far west as Wisconsin. The region is characterized by the shift in vowel pronunciations known as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, although in recent decades the shift has begun to fade out among younger generations.

Many Central New Yorkers pronounce words like elementary, documentary and complimentary with secondary stress on the -ary, so elementary becomes /ɛləˈmɛntˌɛri/, instead of the more widespread pronunciations of /ɛləˈmɛntəri/ and /ɛləˈmɛntri/. This feature is shared with the rest of Upstate New York.[3]

The word soda is used for soft drink in Central New York; this distinguishes it linguistically from Western New York, where pop is used.[4]

• Syracuse metropolitan area