The Boston Accent (Lowell, Cambridge, New Bedford: high school, college, closing)

[nancy thereader]

How about the Kennedys, then? I guess not everyone on this board even remembers how they sounded (which is kind of sad.....).

[ogre]

The Kennedys present an interesting situation. They almost seem to have their own family accent, but it is definitely a variation on a Boston accent. Their tendency to soften the "r" sound, not only in the classic pronunciation "pahk the cah" for "park the car" but also in other syllables that have vowells followed by r's, such as "peuhrfect" for "perfect" is very much a feature of Bostonspeak. So is the pronunciation of the soft o sound as something resembling "ahw," as in Bobby Kennedy's name being pronounced sort of like "Bahwby."

It's hard to pin down where this accent differs from more typical Boston accents, but what I'm hearing in my mind's ear as I try to picture any of the Kennedys speaking sounds slightly different from the most typical speech patterns of old native Bostonians. I know it's not standard around here to do the hestation in the middle of sentences with, "uh," the way at least the, uh, Kennedy brohthuhs of, uh, Pres. Kennedy's generation did, but there's more to it than that.

You can probably get what I'm talking about if you picture the Kennedys' speech and compare that to Click and Clack. The Kennedys' speech is a bit smoother. I think it's partly that after they moved into the upper crust, the Kennedys may have picked up something similar to the Brahmin accent, though it's not exactly like that either. The Brahmin accent seems to have some hints of a British sound mixed in with a somewhat toned down Boston accent. The Kennedys seem to have the toned down part without so much of the British-sounding part.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by ogre

The Kennedys present an interesting situation. They almost seem to have their own family accent, but it is definitely a variation on a Boston accent. Their tendency to soften the "r" sound, not only in the classic pronunciation "pahk the cah" for "park the car" but also in other syllables that have vowells followed by r's, such as "peuhrfect" for "perfect" is very much a feature of Bostonspeak. So is the pronunciation of the soft o sound as something resembling "ahw," as in Bobby Kennedy's name being pronounced sort of like "Bahwby."

It's hard to pin down where this accent differs from more typical Boston accents, but what I'm hearing in my mind's ear as I try to picture any of the Kennedys speaking sounds slightly different from the most typical speech patterns of old native Bostonians. I know it's not standard around here to do the hestation in the middle of sentences with, "uh," the way at least the, uh, Kennedy brohthuhs of, uh, Pres. Kennedy's generation did, but there's more to it than that.

You can probably get what I'm talking about if you picture the Kennedys' speech and compare that to Click and Clack. The Kennedys' speech is a bit smoother. I think it's partly that after they moved into the upper crust, the Kennedys may have picked up something similar to the Brahmin accent, though it's not exactly like that either. The Brahmin accent seems to have some hints of a British sound mixed in with a somewhat toned down Boston accent. The Kennedys seem to have the toned down part without so much of the British-sounding part.

It's true that I've never met anyone who speaks like the Kennedys do, they really have an accent all of their own. Maybe Boston mixed in with Old Yankee/Brahmin, and possibly even a touch of New York in there.

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I don't know what its like now in the Boston area with different accents. I know when I was a kid my parents called soda, tonic. My parents moved to the southeastern end of the state from Boston via Ireland and everyone in Boston seemed to call it tonic. I found it very confusing but I was a little kid at the time. I remember kids in grade school would laugh at me when I wanted tonic to drink. Does that still go on. Is Boston terminoloygy tonic or has it changed to soda? Or better yet was the word used so long ago, that no one even knows what I'm talking about.

Boston kids always did say tonic, not pop, or soda. floats etc we are Boston,
Only in Boston Yes, the subs are that and Boston is a great place to belive Yes, tonic is what I have always said.
Anyway root for the Bruins! We had out of state cousins who called it pop etc. and we had no clue what they did want?
it was called tonic, not pop or soda to us, and yes tonic was correct? The Boston accent, is part of when moving to a new state, the belief
in Boston teams and wanting them to win. There was a great post to check out you know your from Boston If! Tonic, or Pop Boston always
had the faith in the Red Sox, yes, they did win.

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by Finocchio

You don't have a proper Boston accent. You have a Southie/Revere/Medford, etc. accent. That's not the original Boston accent before it was corrupted. Marky Mark grew up speaking just that way.

Me also I was Born in Boston and love the city and most of of
all the Red Sox!

[lukec]

I once remember a linguist stating that there are something like 30 distinct accents in Eastern Massachusetts and I believe it. I'm from Fall River and New Bedford, and there is a strong distinction between those two even though they are right next door. I remember some people that sounded little like the Kennedys.

Its not just the "ah" sound, its where its placed and high the pitch is. Thick accents place the "ah" in place of regular "o" like cahps and rahbbers. I actually knew some people from Taunton that sounded like the Kennedys. There pitch on the "ah" though was so high, they would literally sounded more like "caps and rabbers".

I've always been interested in these demarcation points. There are parts of Boston that pronounce yes with two syllables - yee-es, but most promounces it conventionally. When I try to pinpoint it, I cant. I know people from Medford to Quincy who say yee-es.

South and west of Boston, towards Fall River, the accent almost takes on a New York flavor. All my family from Fall River pronounces orange like it is spelled, but that sounds funny to me because everyone else pronounces it "are"ange instead of "or"ange. And they say dawg instead of dog and walk comes out wawk.

[wxjay]

Growing up in RI, there is most definitely a distinct accent difference between Bostonians, SE MA-ites, and RIers. I used to have a thick RI accent when I was growing up but it waned substantially as I moved around the country for college. It creeps back up every so often, and now that I am living back in MA, some of it is coming back.

That said, I still love the accent.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by Finocchio

I wish the new people coming into this area would respect our proper Bostonian accent. It's a part of our heritage. And it's closer to the English mother tongue than any other part of these United States. They also need to learn we don't all speak like Mark Wahlberg prior to the changing of his South Boston (Southie) accent. That accent's a disgrace and is decidedly not the proper Boston accent.

And how are you the arbiter of what's a disgrace and what's proper? I can't understand how an accent used by 2 percent of the population's the "proper" one and an accent used by 20 times more people is not. You realize you Yankees lost City Hall in the the 1880's, right?

[meriadoc]

I grew up in Boston and as a child had "the" Boston accent, but by the time I reached middle school I had moved to the North Shore and it seemed that I had lost it in the process. It's more of just an eastern Massachusetts accent now. However, going down to visit family in the south everyone said I had an accent, specifically a Boston one. I've always sort of noticed that people from other places lump most New England accents together as Boston. Perhaps they all seem equally shocking, since they are not very exposed to them. Almost all newscasters in the US are trained to talk like they are from the Midwest, esp. Chicago, so we are familiar with that. I prefer any New England accent, to be honest. I think Midwesterners talk painfully slow, have funny intonation, say certain words very strangely (for example aunt and route), and say Rs very harshly. It's like, "I'mmmm goooingggg toooo theeee liiiiiibeRRRRRyyyyyy" (It kills me how they say library like "lie-berry") or "Passsss theeeee buddddddeRRRRRR". But, no offense to Midwesterners, I'm friends with many and they're generally great people, it's just the accent that I can't don't like.

[Finocchio]

Originally Posted by holden125

And how are you the arbiter of what's a disgrace and what's proper?

Easy does it. Everything I post here is my opinion. You're not obliged to agree. But I am resolute about the real Boston accent as opposed to how we're represented in the movies by example.

I can't understand how an accent used by 2 percent of the population's the "proper" one and an accent used by 20 times more people is not. You realize you Yankees lost City Hall in the the 1880's, right?

Yes. Pity too. I do realize that. James Michael Curley was elected to Mayoral status from JAIL. That ought to take care of the propriety question. And of course you see what's become of Boston since?

I thought you'd see what I meant. And kindly when using the collective (since you appear to want to be confrontational) do NOT use an apostrophe when pluralizing dates. PROPERLY written it's "1800s". There's nothing possessive about your use of a slice of time.

Right.