Do you have a Boston Accent? (Worcester: movies, live, light rail)

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

If I'm in a business meeting somewhere else in the country and "Where are you from?" comes up during exchanging pleasantries, I always ask people to guess. I usually get California or Seattle. Nope. Born in New Bedford. I wasn't allowed to have the local accent. You can tell where I'm from based on a few things. Scallops is pronounced SKALL-ups. Rotary. Frappe. Linguica as a pizza topping. Sometimes I'll slip and call the water fountain a bubbler.

That's not an accent, those are regional expressions. I say those, too including "SKALL-ups".

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by Schwartzmann

I used to have a Maine accent, which is a cousin to the Boston accent and people used to make fun. One friend still does in certain words, but it has mostly been knocked out of me since living away for so long. On my last visit there, people in Haverhill, MA had a strong accent, which is like the Boston accent, but still completely different enough to easily distinguish it from, say, the classic Southie accent. A friend from Nantucket talks the way a lot of Mainers talk... funny. People with this talk seem to also have a distinctive, wry sense of humor common amongst many New Englanders.

Like --"You can't get there from here." Or Calvin Coolidge (NH) I bet I could get three words out of you and he answered, "You lose."

Haverhill people have a strong accent but I can't tell the difference between that and a Maine accent, a NH accent, a Boston accent, or any other. They all just talk funny. At a cat shelter near Haverhill (Salisbury? Amesbury?) they told me to just put my donation under the top. I had to keep asking them, the top of what? Finally--the BLUE top. When I looked, there was a blue TARP.

[stanley-88888888]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

That's not an accent, those are regional expressions. I say those, too including "SKALL-ups".

i am guilty of a lot of these:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/App...f_Boston_slang

[Russbosma]

Though I was born in Stoneham and lived in Arlington as a young child, my formative years were spent in Western Mass just about 10-15 miles from where the Boston accent peters out. So, even though I was born here and have lived here now for almost 30 years, I don't have the accent at all, though I'm sure I use some specific words that out me as a New Englander. It seems every time I take one of those accent tests, as soon I mention bubbler and grinder, it has me pegged quite accurately.

[BostonMike7]

Yes, but being in a professional setting with business client around the world I’ve forced myself to lose it.

It comes back now and then, but I get annoyed when people from out of state ask me to say certain words

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

Like --"You can't get there from here." Or Calvin Coolidge (NH) I bet I could get three words out of you and he answered, "You lose."

Haverhill people have a strong accent but I can't tell the difference between that and a Maine accent, a NH accent, a Boston accent, or any other. They all just talk funny. At a cat shelter near Haverhill (Salisbury? Amesbury?) they told me to just put my donation under the top. I had to keep asking them, the top of what? Finally--the BLUE top. When I looked, there was a blue TARP.

Calvin Coolidge is VERMONT.

Thank you.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

That's not an accent, those are regional expressions. I say those, too including "SKALL-ups".

Understood. My point was that I speak newscaster neutral American English but the local colloquiums drop into my casual speech when I’m talking to someone in southern New England. It’s pretty easy to figure out eastern Massachusetts/Rhode Island from the slang.

[missionhill]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Calvin Coolidge is VERMONT.

Thank you.

Wait a moment-- Calvin Coolidge is Vermont, true, but more importantly Northampton, Mass, where he was mayor. He also occupied the corner office in the Mass State House before becoming Warren Harding's VP.

[cat1116]

Hubby is from there. Even though he has moved and we lived in other areas, people still pick up that he has that accent.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Calvin Coolidge is VERMONT.

Thank you.

Right. I was just testing you.

And his office was on Main St in Northampton. The house they lived in is on Massasoit St. And the bridge that crosses the CT River is named after him. He didn't talk with a Boston accent--mostly you have to live east of the river for that.