The rich variety of accents we use here in New England has always fascinated me. Neither of my folks were from Massachusetts, so I grew up speaking with a far more generic sounding accent than I would have otherwise, however there's enough Yankee-speak in me that most people from elsewhere can peg me as a Bostonian in moments. Eventually, in college at UC Berkeley I had my Boston accent almost entirely teased out of me. Children can be so cruel. Sniff sniff.
This week our friends at Bostion's WBUR's "Radio Boston" broadcast a superb episode about the whys and wherefores of the great varieties of accents in Eastern Massachusetts.
[Bonus #1: Name the park in which the photo at the top of this post was taken.]
[Bonus #2: Name the architect who designed the blue-glass building at the center of the photograph.]
Did I win? Do I get a prize? How about dinner at the Union Oyster House.
Let's do some hole shots on the paakway, then we'll go to the Hong Kong in Haaahvud Sqwaeh and get wicked tanked.
Is there a less intelligent sound accent in 'Merika? Doubt it. Unless the words foil-age and new-kew-lur are in your vocabulary.
You got the second question correct, but the first is INCORRECT. The park within which that photograph was taken is NOT the Boston Commons.
Try again!
Oh man, now I'm homesick.
That link to different local dialects left out Rhode Island... which TOTALLY has (horrible) accents all of its own.
weak.
HoolaGirl and Vinnie have the architect correct.
I don't blame you for being homesick, Ali. Boston is one of the world's most special cities! Certainly in the Top 100.
The link is to an hour-long radio program. Did you miss that?
The first time I rode the T, I thought the conductor said "Knott's Station." It was "North Station."
But I was in Ohio last week and picked up a prescription for my youngest sister. Asked to verify her address, I gave the house number on Harvard Street...and pronounced Harvard with only .5 "r"s.
Spoiled for life, I am.
I've always thought that it was neat that the States have so many accents from different pockets across the nation.
Newfoundland is similar to that because accents vary from town to town. Bay Roberts and the Bonavista Bay area have very strong accents in comparison to other towns.
There are so many New England accents like someone above mentioning RI ones.
"Jeet yet?" Providence RI-speak for "did you eat yet?" They also have some New York influence in their dialect. (Went to college in Prov)
Or the redneck ones in Maine and NH which oddly also show up a little bit in the Kennedy accent.
Bostonians are VERY LUCKY to have such a BEAUTIFUL CITY!
Indeed, my wife is from Thailand. We have been together for twenty years. Several years ago we built a house in the village she grew up in. Just as we live together in Massachusetts and she can call Kingston, Massachusetts "her town," I have earned the right to refer to the village in Thailand where we maintain a second residence as "my village."