Movies like Mystic River and Goodwill Hunting have exposed movie-goers to the Boston accent, or, what the rest of the country thinks is an authentic accent. Most native Bostonians cringe at the attempts of Hollywood to reproduce their unique speech.
Why is it so difficult for non-Bostonians to get it right? One reason may be that accents can vary from city to city and even from neighborhood to neighborhood. The speech of a Beacon Hill Brahmin for example, will differ from a blue collar worker from South Boston. People from the North Shore will have a slightly different accent than those from the South Shore. Combine all of this with "Boston slang" that varies as much as the accent, and you have a wonderful, mixed-up jumble that is often referred to as the "Boston language".
The Linguistics of the Boston Accent
There are three main dialects in New England: The Eastern New England accent, the Rhode Island accent, and the Western New England accent which includes Vermont English. Sociolinguists have grouped the Boston accent together with New Hampshire and Maine into the Eastern New England accent.
The main characteristics of this dialect are non-rhoticity and the broad "A". In non-rhoticity, "the phoneme [r] does not appear at the end of a syllable or directly before a consonant." This is seen in the word car which would be pronounced [cah], and is best demonstrated by the famous phrase, "Pahk the cah in Hahvid yahd."
The broad "A" is the other main characteristic of the Boston accent. This is can be seen in words such as aunt [ahnt], bathtub [bahthtub], and half [hahf]. In some areas however, the use of the broad "A" is in decline.
Sometimes, the "r" that is dropped in some words, seems to be added to the end of others. This often happens with words ending in the "uh" sound such as idea [idear]. It also happens when words are followed by a vowel such as, "I'll take [tuner] and lettuce in my sandwich." ("I'll take tuna and lettuce in my sandwich.")
Non-rhoticity, the broad "A", and the adding of an "r" to the end of some words are the basic characteristics of the Eastern New England dialect; there are variations of this throughout the entire region.
Boston Slang
The area in and around Boston has developed its own unique lexicon. Often called "Boston slang", these terms are often not heard anywhere else outside of the Boston area. The following is a list of some common words:
- Bubbler [bubblah]: A water fountain. "I just had a drink from the bubblah."
- Bang: To make an abrupt left turn. "To get to my house, just bang a left at the cohnah."
- Book: To run away quickly. "We had to really book it outta theyah."
- Breakdown lane: The lane on a highway used for emergencies. "We pulled ovah to the breakdown lane."
- Chowderhead [chowdahead]: Someone who is not too bright. "He's such a chowdahead."
- Directionals: Blinker or turn signal. "You should always put on yoah directionals."
- Down cellar [down cellah]: In the basement. "I had to go down cellah for my toolbox."
- Frappe: What everyone else calls a milkshake. "I drank a coffee frappe."
- Grinder [grindah]: A sub sandwich. "They make wicked good grindiz at that shop."
- Hook: To make a right turn. "Just hook a right at the next street."
- Jimmies: Sprinkles. "Please give me chocolate jimmies on my ice cream."
- Light dawns over Marblehead: This is said when someone finally understands something. "Well, I see that light finally dawns over Marblehead."
- Pissa: Cool, good. "Did you see that Red Sox game? What a pissa!"
- Pocket book: Purse. "I left my pocket book at home."
- No suh!: No way. "No suh, she didn't really eat that whole pizza."
- So don't I: Me too. "We really like the Red Sox." "Yah, so don't I."
- Tonic: Soda pop. "I'll just have a cold glass of tonic."
- Wicked: Great, very. Can be used in many ways such as, "That was a wicked snow storm." or, "The Red Sox played wicked good last night."
The above is but a brief listing of common "Boston slang" words. Like the accent, these words vary in usage from area to area. It is no wonder then, that non-natives find the accent so hard to copy and the lingo so hard to understand.
Bostonians are very proud of their language. Famous Bostonians such as Norm Abram from This Old House, Tom and Ray Magliozzi from NPR's Car Talk, John Kerry, the Kennedy's, and even Aerosmith's Joe Perry all proudly display their unique versions of this rich and varied dialect. So, don't be a chowdahead; the next time anyone tells you that they like Boston, you can say, "Yah, so don't I!"
Sources
Gaffin, Adam, "Pronounciation"
Andrea Ruiz - I am a graduate of Boston University with a degree in International Relations. I was born and raised in the Boston area, and even though I ...
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