Boston English

Boston English is a dialect of American English spoken in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, itself and much of eastern Massachusetts. The Boston accent and closely related accents can be heard commonly in an area stretching into much of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. These regions are frequently grouped together with Rhode Island by sociolinguists under the cover term Eastern New England accent. The best-known features of the Boston accent are non-rhoticity and broad A. It is most prominent in blue collar—and often traditionally Irish or Italian—Boston neighborhoods, such as Charlestown, South Boston, West Roxbury, Dorchester, East Boston and Brighton, as well as in nearby cities such as Somerville, Revere, Saugus, Woburn, and Medford. The accent is also quite prevalent in the South Shore suburbs, as well as working-class cities throughout the Greater Boston area, such as Quincy, Lowell, Dracut, Lynn, Brockton, Worcester, and Haverhill.

Phonological characteristics

All phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (see Help:IPA for English). For example:

are [äː]

ah

Non-rhoticity

The traditional Boston accent is non-rhotic; in other words, the phoneme /r/ does not appear in coda position (where in English phonotactics it must precede other consonants, see English_phonology#Coda), as in some types of British English; card therefore becomes [kaːd]. After high and mid-high vowels, the [r] is replaced by [ə] or another neutral central vowel like [ɨ]: weird [wiɨd], square [skweə]. Similarly, unstressed [ɝ] ("er") is replaced by [ə], [ɐ], or [ɨ], as in color [kʌlə]. A well-known shibboleth is park the car in Harvard Yard, where the words are pronounced [paːk], [kaː], [haːvəd], and [jaːd]. This is exactly like Australian English.

Although not all Boston-area speakers are non-rhotic, this remains the feature most widely associated with the region. As a result, it is frequently the butt of jokes about Boston, as in Jon Stewart's America, in which he states that the Massachusetts Legislature ratified everything in John Adams' 1780 Massachusetts Constitution "except the letter 'R'".

In the most traditional and old-fashioned Boston accents, what is in other dialects [ɔr] becomes a low back vowel [ɒ]: corn is [kɒːn], pronounced the same or almost the same as con or cawn.

For some old-fashioned speakers, stressed [ɝ] as in bird is replaced by [ʏ] ([bʏd]); for many present-day Boston-accent speakers, however, [ɝ] is retained. More speakers lose [r] after other vowels than lose [ɝ].

The Boston accent possesses both linking R and intrusive R: That is to say, a [r] will not be lost at the end of a word if the next word begins with a vowel, and indeed a [r] will be inserted after a word ending with a central or low vowel if the next word begins with a vowel: the tuner is and the tuna is are both [ðə tunərɪz]

Some speakers who are natively non-rhotic or partially non-rhotic attempt to change their accent by restoring [r] to word-final position. For example, on the NPR program Car Talk, hosted by the Boston-native Magliozzi brothers, one host has castigated the other on air for saying [kaː] instead of [kɑɹ]. Occasionally such speakers may hypercorrect and "restore" [r] to a word that never originally had it. This usage is frequent when a word ending in a vowel is followed by a word starting with a vowel. Speakers will say "I have no idea," but add an r if they say "The idea-r is..." (which is an intrusive R). With the hypercorrection, "I have no idea-r" is used even at the end of an utterance.

There are also a number of Boston accent speakers with rhoticity, but they occasionally delete [r] only in unaccented syllables, e.g., mother or words before a consonant, e.g., car hop.

Vowels

The Boston accent has a highly distinctive system of low vowels, even in speakers who do not drop [r] as described above. Eastern New England is the only region in North America where the distinction between the vowels in words like father and spa on the one hand and words like bother and hot on the other hand is securely maintained: the former contain [aː] ([faːðə], [spaː]), and the latter [ɒː] ([bɒːðə], [hɒːt]). This means that even though heart has no [r], it remains distinct from hot because its vowel quality is different: [haːt]. By contrast, the accent of New York uses the same or almost the same vowel in both of these classes: [ɑː]. The Received Pronunciation of England, like Boston English, distinguishes the classes, using [ɑː] in father and [ɒ] in bother.

On the other hand, the Boston accent merges the two classes exemplified by caught and cot: both become [kɒːt]. So caught, cot, law, water, rock, talk, doll, and wall all have exactly the same vowel, [ɒː]. For some speakers, as mentioned above, words like corn and horse also have this vowel. By contrast, New York accents and southern New England accents have [kɔːt] for caught and [kɑːt] for cot; Received Pronunciation has [kɔːt] and [kɒt], respectively.

Some older Boston speakers – the ones who have a low vowel in words like corn [kɒːn] – do not undergo the so-called horse-hoarse merger, i.e., they maintain a distinction between horse and for on the one hand and hoarse and four on the other. The former are in the same class as corn, as [hɒːs] and [fɒː], and the latter are [ˈhowəs] and [ˈfowə]. This distinction is rapidly fading out of currency, as it is in almost all regions of North America that still make it.

Boston English has a so-called "nasal short-a system". This means that the "short a" vowel [æ] as in cat and rat becomes a mid-high front diphthong [eə] when it precedes a nasal consonant: thus man is [meən] and planet is [pleənət]. Boston shares this system with the accents of the southern part of the Midwest. By contrast, Received Pronunciation uses [æ] regardless of whether the next consonant is nasal or not, and New York uses [eə] before a nasal at the end of a syllable ([meən]) but not before a nasal between two vowels ([plænət]).

A feature that some Boston English speakers share with Received Pronunciation is the so-called Broad A: In some words that in other accents have [æ], such as half and bath, that vowel is replaced with [aː]: [haːf], [baːθ]. (In Received Pronunciation, the Broad A vowel is almost identical to [ɑː].) Fewer words have the Broad A in Boston English than in Received Pronunciation, and fewer and fewer Boston speakers maintain the Broad A system as time goes on, but it is still noticeable. The word aunt, however, remains almost universally broad.

Laferriere (1977) also reports a productive, phonological process raising TRAP and BATH to [ɛə] demonstrated by her younger speakers.

Boston accents make a greater variety of distinctions between short and long vowels before medial [r] than many other modern American accents do: Boston accents maintain the distinctions between the vowels in marry [mæri], merry [mɛri], and Mary [meəri], hurry [hʌri] and furry [fɝri], mirror [mɪrə] and nearer [niərə], though some of these distinctions are somewhat endangered as people under 40 in neighboring New Hampshire and Maine blend the vowel sound. Boston shares these distinctions with both New York and Received Pronunciation, but the Midwest, for instance, has lost them entirely.

The nuclei of the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ may be raised to something like [ɐ] before voiceless consonants: thus write has a higher vowel than ride and lout has a higher vowel than loud. This effect is known usually as Canadian raising, though it is less extreme in New England than in most of Canada. Furthermore, some Boston accents have a tendency to raise the /aʊ/ diphthong in both voiced and voiceless environments and some Boston accents may raise the /aɪ/ diphthong in certain voiced environments.

The nuclei of /oʊ/ and /uː/ are significantly less fronted than in many American accents.

Non-rhoticity elsewhere in New England

Non-rhoticity outside of the Boston area decreased greatly after World War II. Traditional maps have marked most of the territory east of the Connecticut River as non-rhotic, but this is highly inaccurate of contemporary speakers. The Atlas of North American English, for example, shows none of the six interviewed speakers in New Hampshire (a historically non-rhotic area) as having more than 10% non-rhoticity.

Use in media

As a conspicuous, easily identifiable accent, the Boston accent is routinely featured in Boston area films such as Good Will Hunting, Mystic River, The Departed, and Gone Baby Gone. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, a character mentions the accent in parody, giving his "best regahds". Television series like Boston Public have also featured it. Simpsons character Mayor Quimby talks with a Boston accent as reference to Ted Kennedy on whom he is mainly based.^{[citation needed]}

Well-known speakers of/with the Boston accent

• Norm Abram^[1][2]
• Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck^[3]
• Dicky Barrett, frontman of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and announcer for Jimmy Kimmel Live
• Michael Bloomberg^[4]
• Ray Bolger, Hollywood actor and dancer, The Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz
• Matt Bonner, NBA basketball player with the San Antonio Spurs
• William J. Bratton^[4][5]
• William Michael Bulger, former President of the Massachusetts State Senate
• Howie Carr radio talk show host
• Michael Chiklis, actor, portrays detective Vic Mackey on the "The Shield"
• Andy Brickley, sports commentator for Boston Bruins
• Andrew Card, first White House Chief-of-Staff of the George W. Bush administration
• John Cazale, actor, most notably in the role of Fredo Corleone in "The Godfather".
• Lenny Clarke^[6]
• Roger Cook, co-host and landscaper on PBS show "This Old House"
• Chick Corea^[7][8]
• Matt Damon^[9][10]
• Dangerous Danny Davis, former professional wrestler and referee in World Wrestling Entertainment
• Peter DeFazio, US House Representative from Oregon's 4th congressional district
• Mark DellaGrotte, MMA trainer
• Bill Delahunt, US House Representative from Massachusetts's 10th congressional district
• Nick DiPaolo^[11]
• Rick DiPietro, NHL goaltender for the New York Islanders
• Eliza Dushku, actress
• Sully Erna, singer of Godsmack
• Carlton Fisk, Major League Baseball catcher
• Loyd Grossman, chef and presenter on British television
• Jack Haley^[12]
• Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, late member of Howard Stern's Wack Pack
• Bob Kraft, Owner of the New England Patriots
• John F. Kennedy^{[13][14][15][16]}
• Robert F. Kennedy^[4]
• Ted Kennedy^[17]
• Don Kent (meteorologist)
• John Kerry^[16]
• Mel King, South End community organizer
• Charles Laquidara, radio personality
• Denis Leary^[18]
• Jay Leno^[19][20]
• Christopher Lydon, syndicated public radio talk show personality
• Tom and Ray Magliozzi^[21][22]
• Rob Mariano, reality television contestant
• Ed Markey, US House Representative from Massachusetts's 7th congressional district
• Joe McIntyre^[23]
• John McLaughlin, political news pundit
• Thomas Menino, current mayor of Boston
• Christy Mihos^[24]
• George J. Mitchell, former Senator from Maine
• Brian Moran^[25]
• Jim Moran^[25]
• Leonard Nimoy^[26]
• Conan O'Brien, current host of The Tonight Show on NBC
• Tip O'Neill, late Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• Joe Perry, lead guitarist of Aerosmith
• Ellen Pompeo, actress on Grey's Anatomy
• Jerry Remy, Boston Red Sox color commentator for Fox and NESN
• J. P. Ricciardi, Major League Baseball general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays
• Alex Rocco^[27]
• Jeremy Roenick, NHL hockey player with the San Jose Sharks
• Tom Silva^[28]
• Fred Smerlas, former football player for the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots
• Steve Spagnuolo, head coach of the Boston College football team.
• Slappy Squirrel, Cartoon character voiced by Sherri Stoner.
• Kevin Sullivan, retired professional wrestler
• Jimmy Tingle, Comedian, political satirist, former correspondent for "60 Minutes II".
• Richard Trethewey
• Donnie Wahlberg, American actor and producer, member of New Kids on the Block.
• Mark Wahlberg^[9][29]
• Barbara Walters, journalist, writer, and media personality
• Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric
• Kevin White, former mayor of the city of Boston
• Jermaine Wiggins^[30][31]
• Kenny Wormald, Professional Dancer, MTV's Dancelife
• Steven Wright^[32]

Lexicon

Some words used in the Boston area but not in many other American English dialects (or with different meanings) are:

• bubbler or water bubbler – 'drinking fountain'.^[33][34] This term is also used in Wisconsin (and Australia).

• blinker (pronounced "blinka") - a directional on a car

• barrel - a trash can, garbage can

• cellar - basement

• clicker - Remote control

• elastic - rubber band

• frappe (pronounced /fræp/) – 'a blend of ice cream, milk, and syrup'^[35] (In Boston milkshake refers to a concoction without ice cream, but merely with milk blended with flavored syrup by shaking.^[36])

• Hoodsie – A small cup of ice cream, the kind that comes with a flat wooden spoon (from HP Hood, the dairy that sells them.)^[37] Elsewhere occasionally known as a dixie cup.

• "Is that right?"  – Used to confirm a notable point during conversation, in place of "Really?" or "You don't say!"

• jimmies– 'chocolate sprinkles'^[38]

• milk shake – 'drink composed of milk, iced milk and flavored syrup, without ice cream^[39]'

• packie– 'liquor store' (from "package store")^[40]

• rotary– 'traffic circle'^[38] (although rotary has a more precise definition than traffic circle, and these high-speed circular intersections are unusually common in Greater Boston).

• tonic– 'soft drink'; the term has retreated in favor of soda among younger speakers.^[41]

• wicked- 'very' ^[42]

• moosh– 'friend' (pronounced "muush") used primarily in the Nonantum, or "The Lake", region of Newton by the largely Italian community.^[43]

• shopping carriage - known as a shopping cart everywhere else

• clicker- 'remote control' (pronounced "clicka") A common term for a remote control in most of Massachusetts.^{[citation needed]}

Recordings of the Boston accent

• 37-year-old female
• 73-year-old male
• Medford City Councilor
• 'Hover & Hear' a Boston accent, and compare with other accents from the US and around the World.

See also

• New England English
• Boston Brahmin accent
• Australian English

References

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

• McCarthy, John (1993).
• How We Talk: American Regional English Today. Metcalf, Allan, Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

External links

• Guide to Boston English
• Glossary of Boston English
• Article on Boston accent
• "So don't I" - a unique grammatical construct
• Boston Slang Dictionary

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