Boston accent
Encyclopedia
The Boston dialect is the dialect characteristic of English
spoken in the city of Boston
and much of eastern Massachusetts
. The accent and closely related accents can be heard commonly in an area stretching into much of Massachusetts, New Hampshire
, Maine
, and areas of south-western Nova Scotia
. Sociolinguists frequently group these regions with Rhode Island
and eastern Connecticut
to form the Eastern New England dialect region.
The best-known features of the Boston accent are non-rhoticity
and broad A. It is most prominent in often traditionally Irish or Italian Boston neighborhoods and surrounding cities and towns. The Boston accent is mainly heard on the eastern part of Massachusetts, North Shore, South Shore, and the Greater Boston area.
s in the International Phonetic Alphabet
(see Help:IPA for English). For example:
/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 park, Harvard and yard are pronounced [paːk], [haːvəd], and [jaːd] respectively. Note that the r in car would sometimes be pronounced in this case, because the following word begins with a vowel (see linking R below).
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 jokes that the Massachusetts
Legislature ratified everything in John Adams
' 1780 Massachusetts Constitution
"except the letter 'R'".
In the most traditional, "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 tuːnərɪz/
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.
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, though the raising of this vowel in Boston tends to be more noticeable and extreme than elsewhere. 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 have lost them. 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 north 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 for 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.
, Good Will Hunting
, Mystic River
, The Departed
, Blow
, The Town
, Blown Away
, The Fighter, and Gone Baby Gone
. In 2001: A Space Odyssey
, a character mentions the accent in parody, giving his "best regahds". Television series such as M*A*S*H had David Ogden Stiers
' character, Charles Emerson Winchester III using it as evidence of the character's Boston origin, and other series based within a Boston setting, like Boston Public
have also featured it. Simpsons
character Mayor Quimby
talks with a Boston accent as reference to the former US Senator Ted Kennedy
and former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci on whom he is mainly based. In the video game Team Fortress 2
, the character Scout talks with a distinct Boston accent. Many elements of the Boston accent can be heard on the animated TV series Family Guy
, which is set in Rhode Island.
Recordings of the Boston accent
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
spoken in the city of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and much of eastern Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. The accent and closely related accents can be heard commonly in an area stretching into much of Massachusetts, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, and areas of south-western Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. Sociolinguists frequently group these regions with Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
and eastern Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
to form the Eastern New England dialect region.
The best-known features of the Boston accent are non-rhoticity
Rhotic and non-rhotic accents
English pronunciation can be divided into two main accent groups: a rhotic speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not...
and broad A. It is most prominent in often traditionally Irish or Italian Boston neighborhoods and surrounding cities and towns. The Boston accent is mainly heard on the eastern part of Massachusetts, North Shore, South Shore, and the Greater Boston area.
Phonological characteristics
All phonetic transcriptionTranscription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
s in the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
(see Help:IPA for English). For example:
- are [äː]
- ah
Non-rhoticity
The traditional Boston accent is non-rhotic; in other words, the phonemePhoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
/r/ does not appear in coda position
Syllable coda
In phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda...
(where in English phonotactics
Phonotactics
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...
it must precede other consonants, see English phonology#Coda), as in some types of British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
; 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
Shibboleth
A shibboleth is a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important...
is park the car in Harvard Yard, where the words park, Harvard and yard are pronounced [paːk], [haːvəd], and [jaːd] respectively. Note that the r in car would sometimes be pronounced in this case, because the following word begins with a vowel (see linking R below).
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
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
's America
America (The Book)
America : A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction is a 2004 non-fiction book written by Jon Stewart and other writers of The Daily Show that parodies and satirizes American politics and worldview...
, in which he jokes that the Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
Legislature ratified everything in John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
' 1780 Massachusetts Constitution
Massachusetts Constitution
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. It was drafted by John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin during the...
"except the letter 'R'".
In the most traditional, "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 tuːnərɪz/
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 EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
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
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
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
Nasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
: thus man is [meən] and planet is [pleənət]. Boston shares this system with the accents of the southern part of the Midwest, though the raising of this vowel in Boston tends to be more noticeable and extreme than elsewhere. 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
English-language vowel changes before historic r
In the phonological history of the English language, vowels followed by the phoneme have undergone a number of phonological changes...
] 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 have lost them. 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
Canadian raising
Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varieties of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which certain diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants...
, though it is less extreme in New England than in most of Canada
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
. 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 the New England area
Due to the constantly evolving nature of dialects, contemporary speakers of Boston English show distinct similarities in pronunciation (though not necessarily accent) with New Jersey English and the New York dialect.Non-rhoticity north of the Boston area decreased greatly after World War II. Traditional maps have marked most of the territory east of the Connecticut River
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
as non-rhotic, but this is highly inaccurate for 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 The Friends of Eddie CoyleThe Friends of Eddie Coyle
This is an article about the movie. For information about George V. Higgins' 1970 novel, go to The Friends of Eddie Coyle .The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a 1973 crime film starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. Directed by Peter Yates, the screenplay was adapted from the novel by George V. Higgins...
, Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
, Mystic River
Mystic River (film)
Mystic River is a 2003 American drama film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood, starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney and Emmy Rossum. The film was written by Brian Helgeland, based on Dennis Lehane's novel of the same...
, The Departed
The Departed
The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...
, Blow
Blow
Blow may refer to:*Exhalation*Strike *Cocaine-In film and television:*Blow , a 2001 American film about drug trafficking*"Blow" , an episode of My Name is Earl...
, The Town
The Town
The Town is a novel written by Conrad Richter in 1950. It is the third installment of his Awakening Land trilogy. The Trees and The Fields were the earlier installments in the series. The Town was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1951.In September 1966, Alfred A. Knopf reissued the...
, Blown Away
Blown Away (1994 film)
Blown Away is a 1994 action film starring Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins.-Plot:Ryan Gaerity , an Irish terrorist, escapes from his cell in a castle prison in Northern Ireland....
, The Fighter, and Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American crime drama-mystery film directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck. The screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island...
. In 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
, a character mentions the accent in parody, giving his "best regahds". Television series such as M*A*S*H had David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...
' character, Charles Emerson Winchester III using it as evidence of the character's Boston origin, and other series based within a Boston setting, like Boston Public
Boston Public
Boston Public is an American drama television series created by David E. Kelley and broadcast on Fox. It centered on Winslow High School, a fictional public high school located in Boston, Massachusetts. The show was named for the real public school district in which it takes place...
have also featured it. Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
character Mayor Quimby
Joe Quimby
Mayor Joseph "Joe" Quimby, nicknamed "Diamond Joe," is a recurring character from the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, and first appeared in the episode "Bart Gets an F". A member of the Democratic Party, Quimby is the mayor of Springfield, and is a...
talks with a Boston accent as reference to the former US Senator Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
and former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci on whom he is mainly based. In the video game Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
, the character Scout talks with a distinct Boston accent. Many elements of the Boston accent can be heard on the animated TV series Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, which is set in Rhode Island.
Well-known speakers of/with the Boston accent
Lexicon
Some words used in the Boston area are:- banger - a wicked bad headache
- barrel - a trash can, garbage can
- blinkers - automobile directional signals
- breakdown lane - the shoulder on a highway
- bubblerBubblerBubbler is a trademarked name that refers to what some may call a drinking fountain.-History of device:The Bubbler' was developed in 1889 by the then-small Kohler Water Works in Kohler, Wisconsin, which was already well-known for its faucet production...
or water bubbler drinking fountain. This term is also used in WisconsinWisconsinWisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
- bullshit - has a second meaning of "very angry"
- bundles - full bags of groceries from the supermarket
- carriage - shopping cart
- clambake - clams, corn on the cob, lobster and other seafood
- clamboil - clams, quahogs, mussels, linguica, chourico, potatoes
- clam diggers - short pants worn in the summer time
- "clicker/channel changer" - a television remote control
- coffee regular - coffee with milk and 2 sugars.
- elastics - rubber bands
- frappe 'a blend of ice cream, milk, and syrupMilkshakeA milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce....
' (In Boston milkshake refers to a concoction without ice cream, but merely with milk blended with flavored syrup by shaking.)
- gonzo - crazy, bizarre; the term originated in South Boston but is now used nationally
- grinder - pronounced "grinda"; a baked submarine sandwich, but not the equivalent of a toasted sub.
- guzzle - a small inlet on a beach creating a tidal pool. Also a term used to describe drinking beer or an alcoholic drink quickly.
- Hoodsie A small cup of ice cream, the kind that comes with a flat wooden spoon (from HP HoodHP HoodHP Hood LLC is an American dairy company based in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Hood was founded in 1846 in Charlestown, Massachusetts by Harvey Perley Hood. Recent company acquisitions by HP Hood have expanded its reach from predominantly New England to the broader United States...
, the dairy that sells them.) Also (very offensive slang), a teenage girl. Elsewhere occasionally known as a dixie cup.
- The Hub - Boston, short for Hub of the Universe
- jimmies – 'chocolate ice cream sprinkles
- nylons - women's pantyhose
- packie – liquor storeLiquor storeIn the United States, Australia and Canada, a liquor store is a type of store that specializes in the sale of alcoholic beverages. In South Africa and Namibia these stores are generally called bottle stores....
(from "package store")
- parlor - living room
- piazza - a porch, typically on the back of a three-decker house.
- pissa - means something akin to "great" either realistically or sarcastically. Also spelled 'pissah'.
- quahogHard clamThe hard clam , also known as a quahog , round clam, or hard-shell clam, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk which is native to the eastern shores of North America, from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula...
- a large clam-like seafood
- rotary – 'traffic circleTraffic circleA traffic circle or rotary is a type of circular intersection in which traffic must travel in one direction around a central island. In some countries, traffic entering the circle has the right-of-way and drivers in the circle must yield. In many other countries, traffic entering the circle must...
' (although rotary has a more precise definition than traffic circle, and these high-speed circular intersections are unusually common in Greater BostonGreater BostonGreater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...
, especially as one moves toward Cape CodCape CodCape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
). These are common in England, as well.
- spa - A convenience store that (usually) sells sandwiches.
- ice cream soda - ice cream and soda water (or soft drink, for example Coke) served in a large wax paper cup with a long plastic spoon and a straw.
- spuckie - 'submarine sandwichSubmarine sandwichA submarine sandwich, also known as a sub among other names, is a sandwich that consists of a long roll of Italian or French bread, split lengthwise either into two pieces or opened in a "V" on one side, and filled with various varieties of meat, cheese, vegetables, seasonings, and sauces. The...
'; used in some older inner-city neighborhoods.
- steamers - clams
- Staties - Massachusetts State Troopers
- triple-decker - house having three apartments, one on each of three levels.
- a time - a social event, usually a retirement party or political function
- tonic – soft drinkSoft drinkA soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...
; known elsewhere as soda
- whiffle - a crew cut or male haircut done with electric clippers.
- wicked - 'very', in the extreme; as in 'wicked pissa' meaning 'very good'.
See also
- New England EnglishNew England EnglishNew England English refers to the dialects of English spoken in the New England area. These include the Eastern New England dialect , the Western New England dialect , and some Subdialects within these two regions...
- Boston Brahmin accentBoston Brahmin accentThe Boston Brahmin accent is a New England accent associated with the Boston Brahmins.In popular culture, users of this accent include the characters Charles Emerson Winchester on M*A*S*H, Walter Gaines on Cheers, Tracks on Transformers and George Feeny on Boy Meets World.-External links:*, from...
- North American English regional phonology#Northeastern dialects
- Regional vocabularies of American EnglishRegional vocabularies of American EnglishRegional vocabularies of American English vary. Below is a list of lexical differences in vocabulary that are generally associated with a region. A term featured on a list may or may not be found throughout the region concerned, and may or may not be recognized by speakers outside that region...
Further reading
- 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
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.