Boston English
Introduction
The Boston accent is an influential and well-known dialect of the Eastern New England region which consists of Maine, New Hampshire, eastern Massachusetts, eastern Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
These areas may share many accent and dialect features so are often grouped together and called the “Eastern New England” Accent. Here we will be specifically discussing features of the Boston accent that a speech pathologist may come into contact with and should be aware of, but similar features may be applicable for others from Eastern New England.
Background
British English accents were rhotic from the Anglo-Saxon period until the 17th century when the <r> sound started to soften in some regions. Massachusetts was settled by Puritans from East Anglia in 1630, right when this change was happening. The Puritans’ accents made their way to Boston, as well as other parts of New England. The patterns of accents that we see around New England today reflect how settlers moved throughout the area during this time period. Linguists typically view the English of that region as an Eastern New England accent vs Western New England due to this movement. Boston is a ‘hub’ for language changes as it was the central place that other settlements expanded from. The groups that settled in Boston, along with local pride, have made the Boston accent what it is today.
Pronunciation
Dropping of post-vocalic [ɹ]
TRAP raising
BATH-TRAP split
NORTH/FORCE distinction
No PALM/LOT merger
Intrusive R
FACE as [iə] or [eə]
Below are listed some phonological or pronunciation differences that you may hear in a speaker from Boston:
This is when a person drops the /ɹ/ at the end of words, leaving the word ending with a sound most commonly pronounced [ə].
(5:09, years [jiəz])
(3:06, mother [‘mʌðə]
(0:03, store [stɔə])
Some words that fit within Well’s TRAP lexical set are raised to become a diphthong.
(4:07, back [bæək])
(4:12, cats [kæəts])
(0:09, slabs [slɛæbz])
There is a difference in vowel sound between words in the BATH lexical set and the TRAP lexical set, so BATH has a low central vowel [a] while TRAP has the [æ] vowel (Schneider et al., 2008).
4:42, Massachusetts [mæsəˈtʃuːsɪts] (TRAP category); 4:47, aunts [ɑnts] (BATH category).
While some dialects have a NORTH/FORCE merger, Boston has a different vowel for these well’s lexical sets so NORTH tends to have the [ɒ] vowel and FORCE tends to have [oə].
(1:44, force [foəs] 2:23, warned [wɒənd]).
(1:34, force [foəs]; 2:50, north [nɒ:θ]
(0:27, north [nɒəθ]; 0:34, more [moə].
Words that contain the vowels found in PALM and LOT are not pronounced the same: PALM is pronounced with a vowel [a:] while LOT has a [ɑ:] vowel.
(1:35, palm [pam]; 2:03, lot [lɑt] (the vowel in palm is fronted).
(1:31, odd [ɑd] (LOT category); 1:45, palm [pa:m] (PALM category)
The intrusive r or linking r occurs when speakers of non-rhotic varieties of English insert [ɹ] into words between vowels in a word or between two words where one ends in a vowel and the other begins with a vowel.
(4:38, drawings [dɹɑɹiŋz])
(0:37, ma [mɑɹ])
FACE changes from [ɛj] to [iə] or [eə].
(0:16, daily [deəli])
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Grammar
So Don't I
I'm Done My Homework
The Boston Dialect of English has relatively few grammatical differences and we have not found any audio or video clips.
This is a grammatical construction that occurs in Eastern New England and it is used to assert that a previous statement (by a different speaker) applies to another group or individual as well. The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project gives the following example:
A: I play basketball.
B: Yeah, so don't I.
“Speaker B's utterance means ‘Yes, and I play basketball too.’”
It can occur in many forms, and the equation is as follows:
So + negated auxiliary verb + subject noun phrase.
Other examples include “so shouldn’t the Americans” and “so couldn’t my brother.”
The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project has done a great job describing this grammatical feature. The full article can be found here
This feature occurs in canada and North Eastern New England. Some speakers from Boston may use this construction to show that something has been completed.
This grammatical construction is built as follows:
BE+ done/finished + noun phrase
The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project gives the following example:
“By the time I am done dinner, I don’t want my side snack."
Lexicon
Wicked
Grinder
Bubbler
Triple Deckers
In Boston, the word wicked is an intensifier or adverb meaning super or very. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines wicked being used as an intensifier meaning “to an extreme or impressive degree” in various Northeastern dialects.
Ex. “That assignment is wicked hard.”
In Boston, the term grinder used to refer to a hot sub sandwich and the term sub is used to refer to a cold sub sandwich.
In most regions of the United States, the term drinking fountain or water fountain is preferred. In Boston, the term bubbler is preferred.
The term triple deckers is used to refer to three family homes that have three front porches that are stacked on top of one another.
References
1. Schneider, E. W., Nagy, N., & Roberts, J. (2008). New England Phonology. In Varieties of English (pp. 255–266). essay, Mouton de Gruyter.
2. Navarro, S. (2020). A Study of Rhoticity in Boston: Results from a PAC Survey. In S. Navarro, A. Przewozny, & C. Viollain (Eds.), The Corpus Phonology of English: Multifocal Analyses of Variation (pp. 238–255). Edinburgh University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv177th25.18
3. Schneider, 2008, 255-266
4. Stanford, J. N. (n.d.). New England English. Academic.oup.com. https://academic.oup.com/book/33613
5. Schneider, 2008, 255-266
6. Massachusetts 8 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-8
7. Massachusetts 9 (2005, November). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-9
8. Weinberger, Steven. (2015). Speech Accent Archive. George Mason University. Retrieved from http://accent.gmu.edu
9. Schneider, 2008, 255-266
10. Massachusetts 7 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-7
11. Massachusetts 7 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive
12. Weinberger, Steven. (2015)
13. Schneider, 2008, 255-266
14. Massachusetts 7 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive
15. Massachusetts 7 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive
16. Massachusetts 15 (2019, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-15 (2019, July)
17. Massachusetts 7 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive
18. Massachusetts 15 (2019, July). International Dialects of English Archive
19. Johnson, D. E. (2010a). PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN DIALECT SOCIETY (R. Bayley & C. E. Carson, Eds.; 95th ed.). American Dialect Society.
20. Massachusetts 12 (2019, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-12
21. Massachusetts 8 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive
22. Navarro, 2020, 238-255
23. Massachusetts 8 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive
24. Cordon, James. (2015, September 30). Boston Accent Lesson w/ Matt Damon [Video]. The Late Late Show with James Cordon. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXSjCJvN5Zc
25. Massachusetts 8 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive
26. Zanuttini, Raffaella, Wood, Zentz, Horn. (2018). So Don’t I | Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America. Yale University. https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/so-dont-i
27. Zanuttini, Raffaella, Wood, Zentz, Horn. (2018). Done my homework | Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America. Yale University. https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/done-my-homework
28. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). A Wicked Awesome List of New England Words. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved December 9, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/a-wicked-awesome-list-of-new-england-words
29. Vaux, B. (2003, July). American dialects. https://www.choicesmagazine.org/UserFiles/file/article_115.pdf
30. Vaux, 2003
31. Vaux, 2003
Recordings
Massachusetts 7 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-7
Massachusetts 8 (2005, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-8
Massachusetts 9 (2005, November). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-9
Massachusetts 12 (2019, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-12
Massachusetts 15 (2019, July). International Dialects of English Archive [Speech Audio Recording]. https://www.dialectsarchive.com/massachusetts-15 (2019, July)
Weinberger, Steven. (2015). Speech Accent Archive. George Mason University. Retrieved from http://accent.gmu.edu