When you travel do people laugh at your boston accent ? (New Bedford: upper-class, high school)

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by bostonguy1960

Not from here, so I don't and won't pronounce "scallops" properly, at least by local standards.

Seems much of the country says "scale-ups" whereas Boston or even a college roommate from West Springfield says "scahhl-ups." It may even be a New England thing? That sounds so educated, so Brahmin -- like Sen. John Kerry may pronounce it.

How do you all pronounce it?

"Scauhll-ups".

[BostonMike7]

Laugh? No. When I was younger I'd go to bars in other cities and girls used to love the accent.


Today, I've managed to lose the accent from dealing in the corporate world. It still comes out from time to time. Once in a while someone wants to hear me say car again...but not to poke fun at it.

I hear accents all the time from all over the world. Really doesn't phase me

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by massnative71

That is all Boston just as much as it is RI.

Bubbler may not be the best example (I've heard that in Boston, though at college in Maine, people thought I was talking about drinking from a water bong). I've mentioned stuffies in Boston and most people don't know what they are. If they do, it's not because it's commonly used in Boston. Frappe is much more common in RI/SE Mass than in the Boston area. I also rarely hear or see "grinder" on a menu in the Boston area even though they're everywhere in the Taunton/Fall River/New Bedford area. They're subs up here. Cabinets, Dells, and coffee milk are another food related RIisms that don't travel well beyond RI and the South Coast (though I never hear "cabinets" being ordered on the South Coast).

If you're talking South Coast of MA, the accent is certainly closer to RI and distinctly different from Boston. And I find the local accent to be more widespread in the South Coast than I hear the Boston accent in Boston. If I didn't work with an old school DOT (now Milton) guy, I'd probably rarely hear the actual Boston accent. But I used to hear the difference on a daily basis living in Fall River and Dartmouth and commuting to Boston for work. My girlfriend, from Vermont, picked up on the difference right away. My South Coast friends (some of whom have thick accents), sound very different from people with thick Boston accents. When we travel, people typically guess they're from New York rather than Boston. It's arguably closer to a Long Island accent than to a Boston accent. Jerry Remy is probably the best example of a South Coast accent I can think to reference, though I think his has mellowed a bit over the years.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by massnative71

A decade or so of Hollywood plastering us with false and outdated stereotypes, and often phony accents to go along with it; hasn't done us any favors.

No, especially when "Sully" from "Dorchester" or "Southie" (actually Marshfield) goes bar hopping with his bros around Faneuil Hall and turns up the accent to appear tough like he's straight out of the Departed or The Town.

Really though, I hear the actual accent very rarely.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by lrfox

Bubbler may not be the best example (I've heard that in Boston, though at college in Maine, people thought I was talking about drinking from a water bong). I've mentioned stuffies in Boston and most people don't know what they are. If they do, it's not because it's commonly used in Boston. Frappe is much more common in RI/SE Mass than in the Boston area. I also rarely hear or see "grinder" on a menu in the Boston area even though they're everywhere in the Taunton/Fall River/New Bedford area. They're subs up here. Cabinets, Dells, and coffee milk are another food related RIisms that don't travel well beyond RI and the South Coast (though I never hear "cabinets" being ordered on the South Coast).

If you're talking South Coast of MA, the accent is certainly closer to RI and distinctly different from Boston. And I find the local accent to be more widespread in the South Coast than I hear the Boston accent in Boston. If I didn't work with an old school DOT (now Milton) guy, I'd probably rarely hear the actual Boston accent. But I used to hear the difference on a daily basis living in Fall River and Dartmouth and commuting to Boston for work. My girlfriend, from Vermont, picked up on the difference right away. My South Coast friends (some of whom have thick accents), sound very different from people with thick Boston accents. When we travel, people typically guess they're from New York rather than Boston. It's arguably closer to a Long Island accent than to a Boston accent. Jerry Remy is probably the best example of a South Coast accent I can think to reference, though I think his has mellowed a bit over the years.

The accents are definitely different. I used to say that the Fall River accent is "more Rhode Island than Rhode Island'. New Bedford's is a little more subdued in my experience, but still there. Even on MV, there are traces of it.

Frappe is more commonly used down there (especially coffee flavored), but you won't find anyone from Boston who doesn't know what a frappe is. Even in Maine you'll see it on a menu occasionally, in addition to awful awful. I can't recall last time I heard "cabinet", anywhere.

I heard the term "Italian grinder" used by some people in the Boston area, anything else it's "sub" ie. "meatball sub", "steak and cheese sub"...

[LLCNYC]

Originally Posted by lrfox

No, especially when "Sully" from "Dorchester" or "Southie" (actually Marshfield) goes bar hopping with his bros around Faneuil Hall and turns up the accent to appear tough like he's straight out of the Departed or The Town.

Really though, I hear the actual accent very rarely.

Lol. I grew up right outside of Boston. Everyone spoke like they had a starring role in the Departed Everyone. I had cousins in CT that used to ask me to speak: "Say "car"!" Laughter ensued.


I learned to lose the accent as I grew up and entered the real world. I still sometimes cringe when I hear people using an over the top Boston accent. Lol.

And it's: yahhd sale
Frappe
Sub

[GeePee]

My cousins from Philly would always laugh at me when I said certain things. Then I would ask them to say Wooooooter and game over.

[Cape Cod Todd]

Yes. When my wife first dragged me back to Ireland to meet her family she had her young nieces and nephews convinced that I was the voice of Mayor Quimby in the Simpsons.

Many years later they still get a kick out of me saying "People of Springfield"





Closer to home when we meet new people they will ask me how long I have been in America because I guess I have picked up a bit of the Irish speak and when I tell them I have been in Mass all my life they then recognize that "I park my car".



Everyone gets a good laugh especially my wife.

[CaseyB]

My daughter was laughed at in college when she asked where the bubbler was. Apparently, it's said in parts of Wisconsin, too.

[Pilot1]

Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd

Yes. When my wife first dragged me back to Ireland to meet her family she had her young nieces and nephews convinced that I was the voice of Mayor Quimby in the Simpsons.

Many years later they still get a kick out of me saying "People of Springfield"


Closer to home when we meet new people they will ask me how long I have been in America because I guess I have picked up a bit of the Irish speak and when I tell them I have been in Mass all my life they then recognize that "I park my car".


Everyone gets a good laugh especially my wife.

LOL! Errrrrr, ahhhh, errrrrr……..

My older neighbor across the street, I'll call her Mrs. Kravitz, is from Boston, and has a very thick Bostonian accent. I avoid her.