Place Names: Answers
- Berlin: BER-lin.
- Billerica: Bill-ricka or B'ricka
- Cochituate: Co-CHIH-chew-it
- Concord: CON-cud
- Leicester: Lestuh
- Leominster: Lemon-stuh
- Norfolk: Norfork, Nor-F'K or Nor-folk
- Peabody: Pea-B'dee
- Quincy: QUIN-zee
- Waltham: Wall-tham
- Woburn: WU-bin
- Worcester: Wuhstah
SCORING: 11-12: Native (special bonus if you pronounce Worcester as Wihstah).
7-10: Resident alien. 1-6: New TV reporter from out of state.
Comments
Naw-f'k
Norfolk: Norfork, Nor-F'K or Nor-folk
Naw! Naw-f'k
I've heard a LOT of
I've heard a LOT of Bostonians call it WALL'um, not wall-tham. I've also heard locals, including some from Waltham, call it wall-thum (not -tham).
Yeah, growing up we always
Yeah, growing up we always said it as "wall-thum"
Newburyport
Newburyport: New-bree-port
A few more from a Ro-dilanda!
Naa Bedfid
Rahobith
South Attlebura
Dotmith
Wespawt
Maatha's Vinyid
Ruh-Veeyah, NEED-um, Mahble-head, Nuh-HAHNT
Revere - Ruh-Veeyah
Needham - NEED-um
Marblehead - Mahble-head
Nahant - Nuh-HANT
I can't belive you left off
I can't belive you left off haavrull (Haverhill)
Yes, Waltham is pronounced
Yes, Waltham is pronounced wall-thum, but that's just the schwa that happens to a short vowel in such an unstressed syllable in English--nothing special to Boston.
I really don't see that point of some of these. How else would you pronounce Waltham? "Walt-ham"? Come on, be serious. And is there some other way that you would expect Cochituate to be pronounced? I think its an odd enough spelling that most people just wouldn't be sure how to pronounce it, but Co-CHIH-chew-it makes at least as much sense as anything else I can come up with.
And the ones where the only difference from what a non-native would say are the dropped R shouldn't count; is the dropped R really a surprise? And if a non-local says "Con-cord" the reaction of a local isn't that you he is saying it wrong, he's just saying it without there accent.
Worcester is actually pronounced closer to Wihstah some places.
Concord
The problem isn't the dropped R, the problem is that the vast unenlightened from outside New England tend to pronounce it like they don't know the difference between a critical Revolutionary War location and a supersonic jet.
Waltham
I've always pronounced it Walth-Amm, with a short but nasal A (like "ham") in the second syllable.
Yep
Same here, but apparently in spite of having grown up in Boston as the child of two locals, I fail in quite a few local pronunciation shibboleths.
There is no "thumb" in
There is no "thumb" in Walthaaam.
Swampscott = Swam-skit
Swampscott = Swam-skit
Norton
pronounced "Noa-tun"