Boston English

Ah, that's bettah

adamg — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:26:08 +0000

A quick guide to a key part of the local patois.

Via Boston Reddit.

Somewhere in Shanghai, a class of kindergarteners is going "Yooouk!" and doing the Gronkowski Spike

adamg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:54:18 +0000

Put some ear buds in if you watch this at work.

Via Boston Reddit.

A Dot rat explains being a Dot rat

adamg — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:40:07 +0000

Meet George the Dot rat. No word if he knows Spikey Em the Dot rat.

You can take the boy out of Boston, but ...

adamg — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:52:12 +0000

Robert Corry moved away almost a decade ago and finds himself increasingly drawn to the accent he once rejected - even to the point of taunting his young son, who has a Philadelphia accent. Of course, he realizes that's mean:

So tonight, when everyone's asleep, I'm going to kneel down next to his crib and tell him that I love the way he speaks. I'll pat his sleeping head, blink away a tear and turn out the light.

Then, under cover of darkness, in one final act of nerdy, passive aggressive rebellion, I'll find his set of wooden alphabet blocks and remove all the R's, because where I come from, they're optional.

Via Reddit Boston.

Class promises to teach local actors how to lose their Boston accents

adamg — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:51:38 +0000

If only local faves Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had taken this course, why, they might be major stars by now.

Car keys or khakis?

adamg — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:46:44 +0000

The perpetual Boston question.

Via Jillian.

Producer of New York TV show defends worst attempt ever at Boston accent as authentic

adamg — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:57:46 +0000

I believe the word they use in New York is chutzpah.

Via Carly Carioli, who doesn't believe it for a second.

Worst movie versions of a Boston accent

adamg — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:29:00 +0000

The AMC Movie Blog compiles a list, unfortunately, with its own stupid headline that suggests the author is not really from Boston, either. Also, they left out Kevin Costner in that Kennedy movie.

The I-93

adamg — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:23:10 +0000

Sam Baltrusis posts a copy of the trailer for the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz movie, which features some cool mayhem on local highways, and includes shots of Diaz talking about her escapades on "the I-93" and Tom Cruise wearing the worst imitation of a Sox hat ever (guys, you're not in California, anymore).

Have Yourself a Wicked Hahdcaw Christmas

adamg — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:41:54 +0000

From Left Bank of the Charles (headphones on if at work, people):

English as it is spoken here

adamg — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:48:07 +0000

Two interesting videos: In one, Germans try to pronounce "Massachusetts" (it's an ad for a new German technical university in Karlsruhe, which Germans seem to find easier to pronounce, which makes it better than MIT; via Blogorelli). In the other, members of Red Sox Nation West out in San Francisco contribute "Pardon My Boston Accent:"

New York Times declares Boston accent dying because Michael Bloomberg no longer has one

adamg — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:17:40 +0000

Also seems to take umbrage that Bostonians wouldn't accept William Buckley or Katherine Hepburn as having a Boston accent.

Because, um, they didn't?

The article, which acknowledges halfway down that many people thought Ted Kennedy had a "Kennedy" accent, rather than a Boston one, also has a handy pronunciation guide for morons:

For many Bostonians with the accent, the r is replaced by "ah" or "aw" when the letter follows a vowel: "Color" becomes "cuh-lah," "square" becomes "skway-ah," and, of course, "car" becomes "caah." The letter a, meanwhile, is often pronounced broadly: "father" becomes "faaa-thah," and so on.

It's not just actors who can't get the Boston accent right

adamg — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:12:30 +0000

CNN talks up Boston as a great place to visit (thanks!), but gives this advice:

Pahk your cahr: Here's the secret of why Bostonians "pahk their cahr in Hahvid Yahd" -- because it's too expensive to park it in the city.

As Charlie Brown might say if he lived around here: AHHHHHG! Dear CNN: Ditch the extra R and the advice to pahk in Hahvahd Yahd - which nobody does because they don't want to get towed away by Hahvahd Police.

If the Globe ever actually linked to things they write about, they'd be dangerous

adamg — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:33:47 +0000

UPDATE: The Globe has linked the online article to the guide. Yay.

This was a fun article in yesterday's Globe about Boston English (And here is a cool video presentation on Boston English by two native speakers).

The article happens to mention the Wicked Good Guide to Boston English, but, of course, this being the Globe and all, they didn't provide a link, because that might give them cooties, or something (the slideshow, however, does provide a link).

Fortunately, if you search Google on "Wicked Good Guide to Boston English," or "Wicked Good Guide" or "Boston English," it comes up pretty high, which is good, because yesterday, 707 people did just that, and they must've liked what they say, because they then looked at a total of 6,000+ pages on the site. And a lot of them added their own thoughts to the pages, which is wicked cool, given that the whole thing is almost entirely written by contributors.

Say it with her: BAY-gill

adamg — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:15:34 +0000

Queen Dee takes a bite out of Bostonians who don't know how to pronounce the name of that roundoid food substance and shmears people for other mispronunciations. But she lox up the Boston English Speakah Awahd with a list of local pronunciations she wishes her poppy would use.