Baltimore Accent ~ Explaining (Dundalk, Towson, California: living in, airplane, rail)

[Woodlands]

One thing that I can say is totally unique to baltimore is the "index finger pointing down at the ground' thing at bus stops...which I believe is our form of hitch hiking. I have seen people get picked up an wisked away without a blink of the eye.. I personally would not do it or offer anyone a ride for that matter.. People "slug" in Northern VA but there is clearly a common destination, usually an employer, where the driver is headed and they want to take advantage of the HOV Lanes.. How does one negotiate a fare to hitch hike in Baltimore, since people jump in the car and its underway before a conversation can even begin? Its a strange subculture that must work since people do it all the time despite Baltimore' reputation for high crime and homicides.....

.The term "hackin" is not unique to baltimore.. I have been at a light and someone knocked on my window and asked if I was "hackin"....LOL.. I also stopped one time by a grocery store where a 'NO HACKING' sign was posted. A cab driver was almost run over as he tried to confront a "Hacker"... I thought to myself.. is it worth getting running over or shot to stop someone from picking out a car to ride in at their own risk... geez...I guess those guys really cut into their business....

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by ToneGrail

I find that it's most prevalent in the white blue collar areas like Hampden, Essex, and Dundalk. I lived in Pittsburgh for a while and I notice a striking similarity to that accent. They both have that Appalachian twang.

I agree. I know some folks from Pittsburgh (many down here for work) that have thick Pittsburgh accents (house pronounced haus).

I hear a lot of the long o sound in white working class Baltimore. My son's nanny was a local born adn raised Catholic lady adn my son has the long o (Mooommy, toooast).

[Eugene80]

People from other places definitely notice when I say "Baldimore" and correct me with "Bal-ti-more" with the popped "t."

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Originally Posted by Woodlands

One thing that I can say is totally unique to baltimore is the "index finger pointing down at the ground' thing at bus stops...which I believe is our form of hitch hiking. I have seen people get picked up an wisked away without a blink of the eye.. I personally would not do it or offer anyone a ride for that matter.. People "slug" in Northern VA but there is clearly a common destination, usually an employer, where the driver is headed and they want to take advantage of the HOV Lanes.. How does one negotiate a fare to hitch hike in Baltimore, since people jump in the car and its underway before a conversation can even begin? Its a strange subculture that must work since people do it all the time despite Baltimore' reputation for high crime and homicides.....

.The term "hackin" is not unique to baltimore.. I have been at a light and someone knocked on my window and asked if I was "hackin"....LOL.. I also stopped one time by a grocery store where a 'NO HACKING' sign was posted. A cab driver was almost run over as he tried to confront a "Hacker"... I thought to myself.. is it worth getting running over or shot to stop someone from picking out a car to ride in at their own risk... geez...I guess those guys really cut into their business....

Woodlands, city paper wrote an extensive article on hacking, its history, its participants, etc, some years ago. I'd find a link but I'm on my phone.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by dogpark

I agree. I know some folks from Pittsburgh (many down here for work) that have thick Pittsburgh accents (house pronounced haus).

I hear a lot of the long o sound in white working class Baltimore. My son's nanny was a local born adn raised Catholic lady adn my son has the long o (Mooommy, toooast).

Both are Midland dialects, both influenced by Appalachian English, Pittsburgh because it is in Appalachia, Baltimore because of the large migration in the 1940s. They share much in common, the fronted long O being one of them (tooost as you put it.)

The other vowel (Mommy aka short "o") should be seen as a point of difference in the dialects. The Pittsburgh dialect has the caught/cot merger in full effect, the two vowels have collapsed to one sound. Most Baltimore natives I know still have a distinction between these two vowel sounds.

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map1.html

[nurider2002]

Originally Posted by Tallybalt

The Baltimore metropolitan region is large and home to many different cultural groups. It's amusing to see that the accent of one or two of the groups has been elevated into the "Baltimore accent" when in reality it was never spoken by the majority of the population.

Excuse me but if you were born and raised in Baltimore, you more than likely have THE Balmer accent hon, as do most native Baltimorians. I absolutely HATE it and believe it is the worst accent I've heard anywhere. As another poster stated, Pink Flamingos captures it as it's worst. I have made an effort to rid myself of it but I'm sure it slips through. I was ten years old before I knew that "Blair road", was actually Bel Air Road. I remember looking at the street sign and being amazed. Same with Highlandtown - I think I was twenty before I drove through the area and realized Hollantown was actually Highlandtown. I still hear it pretty much everywhere I go, except from younger folks and non natives. The nasal pronouciation of the letter "O" is the worst.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by nurider2002

Excuse me but if you were born and raised in Baltimore, you more than likely have THE Balmer accent hon, as do most native Baltimorians. I absolutely HATE it and believe it is the worst accent I've heard anywhere. As another poster stated, Pink Flamingos captures it as it's worst. I have made an effort to rid myself of it but I'm sure it slips through. I was ten years old before I knew that "Blair road", was actually Bel Air Road. I remember looking at the street sign and being amazed. Same with Highlandtown - I think I was twenty before I drove through the area and realized Hollantown was actually Highlandtown. I still hear it pretty much everywhere I go, except from younger folks and non natives. The nasal pronouciation of the letter "O" is the worst.

Funny, I try my best to keep as much of my native dialect as possible and fight the outside influences that have eroded much of it away since I was a kid.

I have lost the natural use of plenty of commonly used lexical terms with mainstream alternatives like "running the sweeper," and "pocket book," but have fought hard to hold to ones like:

Sled riding - we don't "go sledding" in Allegany County
The snow is laying - snow doesn't "stick" in Western Maryland either
Going to the market - going to a big grocery store
Stoving your finger or hand - Jamming your finger would be the downstate equivilant
need washed - grammatical, not lexical, but I have won my wife over to this one
toboggan - knit hat, I think you guys would call it?
Dippy Eggs - fried eggs with soft yolk


The only thing I would get rid of is that darned pull/pole/pool merger. I have reason to believe this dialectal trait is creeping into Western Maryland from Pittsburgh (I can't be sure because I can't hear the difference!) but it isn't universal. My parents, both multi-generational natives, grew up about 2 miles apart near Frostburg and my mom has it, I don't think my dad does. My friends with Cumberland parents certainly don't have it and give me grief for it all the time.

I laugh and tell them their kids or grandkids will probably pick it up regardless of what they do. I am on the leading edge! (maybe)

[P47P47]

Originally Posted by nurider2002

As another poster stated, Pink Flamingos captures it as it's worst.


The nasal pronouciation of the letter "O" is the worst.

Actually, "Pink Flamingos" doesn't capture the Baltimore accent at its extreme because most of the actors in it were from the Towson/Lutherville suburbs, not the city itself (and in the case of Edie Massey, not from the Baltimore area at all). My own accent isn't all that pronounced, either, but to a Californian, I'm sure I did sound like the cast of the movie.

The pronounciation of a long "o" as "ao" is known as the "Mid-Atlantic vowel glide", and is common to the entire Mid-Atlantic area, although I'd say that it is most extreme in Baltimore, and definitely is a part of my accent.

[Tallybalt]

I can't claim to be born and raised in Baltimore but I have lived here for quite a few decades. Most of my neighbors grew up in the area and certainly don't have the accent, whatever it may be.

While many local residents do have variations of the working class/Appalachian accent that we're discussing on this thread, most people have never sounded like that. Do you think the accents of old Canton and Dundalk and Highlandtown were the same as the accents in Roland Park or the old Jewish areas of Northwest Baltimore? Likewise for Hamilton, Charles Village, Bolton Hill. Are the Dundalk accents the same as those in Cockeysville or Ellicott City? Prevalence in one part of the Baltimore region doesn't equivalent prevalence across the entire city or region.

Likewise when you go to New York you will hear people with the infamous Jersey/Brooklyn accents but there are many more people, all from New York, who sound quite differently. It's the same in Philadelphia. South Philadelphia has a distinctive accent that's become famous but it was never spoken by the majority of Philadelphians.

Originally Posted by nurider2002

Excuse me but if you were born and raised in Baltimore, you more than likely have THE Balmer accent hon, as do most native Baltimorians. I absolutely HATE it and believe it is the worst accent I've heard anywhere. As another poster stated, Pink Flamingos captures it as it's worst. I have made an effort to rid myself of it but I'm sure it slips through. I was ten years old before I knew that "Blair road", was actually Bel Air Road. I remember looking at the street sign and being amazed. Same with Highlandtown - I think I was twenty before I drove through the area and realized Hollantown was actually Highlandtown. I still hear it pretty much everywhere I go, except from younger folks and non natives. The nasal pronouciation of the letter "O" is the worst.

[GunsMass]

Don't know why you guys seem to think the Baltimore accent derives from anything Appalachian. It's a Mid-Atlantic dialect that shares traits with Philadelphia/South New Jersey and Delaware. (Ever wonder why Joe Flacco has it?) It exists now mostly in S, E, and NE baltimore county since the white working class long moved out of the city.