The Boston Accent (Revere: living in, town, attractive)

[readymade]

Originally Posted by noland123

So how would you Bostonians pronounce the words mirror,terror and horror or any word for that matter with a lot of r's in it?

I had a friend at church whose name was Carl, who was fron Boston,he pronounced it as Cal or Cow.

This is how my mom pronounces them:

Mirror: Merrah
Terror: Terrah
Horror: Huhruh
Carl (my dad's name): Cahl

My mom also says "Flowah" for "Floor" and "Dohwah" for "Door"

I make fun of her all the time.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I still have a difficult time with those type words especially a word like Carl or even the name Aaron. The other day I caught my self saying zippa for zipper. With me the accent is faint now but still comes out now and then.

Me, too. I haven't been home in 13 years. The other day I said "4-Runnah." I had just got off the phone with my mom.

[cat1116]

Originally Posted by readymade

Also? I don't know if this is a Boston thing or what, but when I moved to SoCal and asked for "Seltzer" everyone looked at me like I was crazy! I had to start asking for "Soda Water."

soder water

[CityGirl52]

Hey, Ya makin fun of me or what? Well, knock it off! I'm from one of the Boston neighborhoods ya know and you guys got it all wrong in here on this. The English language as it's spoken on this continent was stahtid here in the Boston area ya know. Howevah, Bostonians are often treated like foreignahs in r own country when we travel outside the "comtable" confines of area code 617 and ar 508. How Bizzah huh!

"Pak Da Ka By The Haba"
"Decked Out to the 9's"
"Look at that "Bazo" over there drunk as a skunk, hangin off the ba(r) stool"
"The "Gahden" is back where it started as the Gahden! Good it's about time!"
Pat "Bang A U-E here will ya for God sakes, bang a u-e right here now, oh too late, jeez!"
Yes "The Packie's open"
"Wicked Pissa" "time" we went to last night!
"You know where "The Barrel" is, it's down the cellah!"
"Don't drink out of that "Bubblah" ovah there I'm tellin ya, don't!"
"Goin down the Cape this weekend?"
"Gidadaheah" are ya really?" "How longfa this time?"

"Excuse me but how do I get to the State House?"
"Run for Governor what do I look like a map?"
"Hey, where's the Southeast Expressway?"
"What? This time of day? Forget about it!"
"Hey I'm going to New Hampshire want me to get you some fireworks up there?"

Kidding with ya....

[wenzit420]

boston accents rule mine is still prevalent 10 years after I let

[readymade]

What about "I went to whistah to buy a toastah!"
My ex's co-workers (in LA) used to make him say that and "I saw a wicked big shahk!" (shark)

Something super freaky happened to me recently. I was looking at Woburn (Woobin) housing on googlemaps and saw a house near "Horn Pond."

"Horn Pond?" I thought to myself, "I know of Hawn Pond but not.... OH MY GOD!"

I grew up thinking it was "Hawn Pond." I'd never seen it spelled out.

[US-Traveller]

Originally Posted by readymade

I'm moving back to Boston, and I'm terrified my (as yet unborn) kid will pick up the accent. By some kind of miracle, I never got one (for the most part) so hopefully my kid won't either.

My husband is from Chicago (he doesn't have an accent either) and we often discuss which is worse: Boston accent or South-Side Chicago accent. It's still a draw.

The Chicago accent is not unique to the southside and it is quite irritating, as is the Midwest accent.

[ogre]

Originally Posted by justNancy

Ah, chocolate Jimmies....that's right. I guess other folks call them sprinkles. Best ice cream parlor on the planet was Bailey's. Nothing has ever compared to a Bailey's hot fudge sundae with hot gooey marshmallow dripping down the sides of the dish. I used to go there for a treat when I'd shop "in town." That's what my Mom would call it..going into town. Not a lot of strip malls or shopping centers back then.

First, regarding my reference to "the accent" in the post title, I know, I know, as pointed out above, there's more than one Boston accent. But they all have some features ("featchuhs") in common ("in cahwmuhn"), and it's more simple to refer to the Boston accent in general.

JustNancy, oooh yeah, good ol' Bailey's. I gotta agree about their sundaes. Best I've ever had. I was also very partial to their chocalate sodas.

Oh yeah, and "in town," another local speechification. "Downtown" could also mean "in town" as in downtown Boston, or it might refer to the downtown of your local town. But the true old traditional local way to make the distinction is that downtown in your local town is the "center" (or "down centuh"), and going to the city, especially downtown, Back Bay, etc., is going "in town."

Another expression I've never heard anywhere else is one I thought of when I looked back over my earlier post where I mentioned people calling others "dear" ("deayuh"), not just as an intimate term of endearment for someone especially close but as a more general friendly greeting. "Deayuh" seems to have faded some. It seemed to be mostly older people who used it often when I was a kid. Reading back over my earlier reference to "deayuh" reminded me of another expression that may have largely faded out. This one I haven't heard in a long time, and recall being used mainly by old ladies when I was a kid. The term I'm talking about is "cunning." Old ladies would usually use this term to describe cute little girls. The term probably had some nuanced meaning of its own, but to say "Isn't she cunning?" was roughly equivalent to saying "Isn't she cute?" or "Isn't she adorable?" Haven't heard that expression in years, and have never heard it used anywhere outside eastern MA, so I'm guessing it has a very local history.

Readymade, your story about "Hawn Pond" reminds me of something in the campus paper at UMass when I was a student there a few years ago. A girl from Boston wrote that until she had gone to UMass, the first time she had ever spent any significant time away from Boston, she had honestly always thought that one of Santa's reindeer had been named "Donna." She added something to the effect that those who were from the Boston area would understand her mistake.

So, to answer the OP's question, I need a poll option for "It depends." The accent seems to have an inherently hard sound. A linguist could probably go into detail about why this is, but without that expertise I'd just say that it generally has a hard sound to me. If you're raising the question of how this makes the accent sound when spoken by the opposite sex, for me, it depends. To me, the hard quality of the accent can make a shrewish woman sound especially harsh and nasty. However, when I hear a girl with a pleasant personality and a soft voice speak in a Boston accent, then it takes on the quality of having a quirky charm that can make me go a little weak at the knees. So, it really does depend.

[wenzit420]

hahahahaha donna

[tcrackly]

I grew up in Boston and went to Catholic school . I've had people tell me that I have "good diction" or I sound like I "came from the Midwest", whatever the hell that means(maybe it was just a pickup line at the time?).
Now I live in Maine. I am struggling to keep from lapsing into Mainespeak although I find it reinforces my Boston accent. Once someone up here laughed at me because I said "scollops" instead of SKEAH-lops.

But I will always "pahk my cah".

Texas relatives say we sound "propuh; like y'all are from Angland or sompthin"