Boston English 101

Main Characteristics Non-rhotic  [r] does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant  park [p ɑ : k], car [k ɑ :] Linking R  [r] retained if the next word begins with a vowel  Car [k ɑ :] park but car [k ɑ r] insurance

Intrusive R  [r] added after a word ending with a non-high vowel if the next word begins with a vowel  "the tuner is" and "the tuna is" pronounced identically

No father-bother merger  Father [f ɑː ðə]  Bother [b ɒː ðə] No horse-hoarse merger  Horse [h ɒː s]  Hoarse ['howəs] Cot-caught merger  Cot, caught [k ɒː t]

Nasal short-a system  short a [æ] becomes diphthongized when followed by nasal consonant  man [meən] planet [pleənət] Broad A  similar to RP  aunt [ ɑ : nt] Clear distinction between short and long vowels before medial [r]  marry [mæri], merry [m ɛ ri], Mary [meəri]

Types of Boston accent Linguist Robert L. Parslow identifies three different Boston dialects  A: Average middle class speech. Heard throughout Eastern New England  B: Brahmin. Most similar to RP, "ee" sound in words like new, suit, dueBrahmin  C: Central city working class. Like A, more intrusive R, more o vowel in words like washed, potatoes becomes p'daydisCentral city working class

Lexicon Wicked; a general intensifier  wicked good Pissah; cool, often paired with wicked  That car is wicked pissah Frappe; milkshake Tonic; carbonated beverage Grinder, spuckie; submarine sandwich

Puck; hamburger Bubbler; drinking fountain Packie; liquor store Spa; convenience store Rotary; traffic circle Parlor; living room Hopper; toilet or toilet seat

History Settlers from East Anglia brought along their distinctive flat-sounding nasal lengthening of vowels in early 17 th century Non-rhoticity adopted in New England when traditionally rhotic British English dialects were starting to "soften".

In Media Movies  The Departed The Departed  Mystic River Mystic River  Good Will Hunting Good Will Hunting  The Friends of Eddie Coyle The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Famous Speakers Matt Damon, Mark Walhberg, Denis Leary, Ben Affleck, Leonard Nimoy, Chick Corea, John F. Kennedy, Michael Bloomberg, John Kerry

Samples Whatayou, retahdid? The Perfect Boston Accent on Youtube The Perfect Boston Accent The Speech Accent Archive The Boston Accent on Boston.comBoston.com

Sources Boston accent. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Last updated 17 November 2008 Boston accent Fitzpatrick, Jim. Beantown Babble. American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast. Eds. Wolfram, Walt, Ward, Ben. Blackwell Publishing, 2006 Irwin, Patricia, Nagy, Naomi. "Bostonians /r/ speaking: A Quantitative look at (R) in Boston". Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 13.2 Selected papers from NWAV 35NWAV

Metcalf, Allan A. How We Talk: American Regional English Today. Houghton Mifflin Reference Books, 2000 Wolfram, Walt, Schilling-Estes, Natalie. American English: Dialects and Variation. Blackwell Publishing, 2006