Boston English

English as it is spoken here

adamg — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:48:07 -0400

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:"

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

adamg — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:17:40 -0400

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 15:12:30 -0500

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 18:33:47 -0400

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 15:15:34 -0500

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.

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Richie from Reveah retuhns

adamg — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:18:43 -0500

David Boeri interviews local voice impressario made good Billie West on the Boston accent and asks him why Hollywood can't get it right.

Accentuate the positive

adamg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:07:36 -0500

This Friday at 1 p.m., WBUR's David Boeri will spend an hour discussing the Boston accent.

If you want to hear my non-Boston accent, well, you could fly to Rochester to hear me on the Bryant Park Project on WXXI tomorrow around 7 a.m., or you listen to a copy of the program later in the day. I'll be talking about Boston crime maps and how people are now using them as online memorials (and, ugh, online taunting grounds, which I need to do something about).

To the people who record radio ads for local companies

adamg — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:29:43 -0500

Gnomi has some requests, including:

... There's no such thing as "the 93" in this area unless you're continuing with "tunnel" or "backup" or "cloverleaf." If you want to put articles with interstate route numbers, you're going to have to look west. Waaaaaaaaay west. Which is where you're probably from if you're saying "We're located right off the 93." ...

Bostonians abroad: Packies

adamg — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:28:57 -0400

Noelle reports:

I just moved to San Fran, and I asked what time the packies closed - my coworker told me that the airport will ship packages 24/7.

A wicked wicked question

adamg — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:56:24 -0400

In a discussion on candlepin bowling, John Smith wonders:

I love the Boston area language. Especially the use of the word wicked. I'm from Nova Scotia Canada and we have our share of odd language up here. But my question is this. I know wicked can be tagged on to almost anything...wicked awesome, wicked good, wicked bad etc... My question is this can wicked be combined with wicked to describe something that's super-wicked? Like could I say "that was wicked wicked"? or is one wicked as good as it gets?
Go Patriots.