Could someone outline for me the distinguishing features of the Boston accent?
Thanks in advance
—
James K. Tauber <jtau…@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
4th year Honours Student, Centre for Linguistics
University of Western Australia, WA 6009, AUSTRALIA












"Paak yuh caa in Haavad Yaad and take the caa to Paak Street" (where "aa" =
the sound of "a" in "at" but longer) translates into Standard English as
"Park your car (i.e., auto) in Harvard Yard and take the car (i.e., subway)
to Park Street (a downtown subway stop)."
The character Cliff on the TV show "Cheers" has the best Bostonia accent
this side of Southie.
—
Rick Turkel (___ _____ _ _ _ _ __ _ ___ _ _ _ ___
rtur…@freenet.columbus)oh.us| | \ ) |/ \ | | | \__) |
rtur…@cas.org / | _| __)/ | ___) | ___|_ | _( \ |
Rich or poor, it’s good to have money. Ko rano rani | u jamu pada.
In article <D288IE….@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v187e…@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
(Patrick J Crowe) wrote:
> In article <3ere21$…@styx.uwa.edu.au>, jtau…@tartarus.uwa.edu.au
> (James K. Tauber) writes…
> >Could someone outline for me the distinguishing features of the Boston
accent?
> More or less having one myself, I can’t resist:
> Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd, let’s think idears while playing cahds.
> Quinte simple, no?
I remember a secretary where I used to work (who was originally from
Boston) who would puzzle me by referring to "Dawn" and "Bobbie." Surely
she wasn’t talking about the president of the company? (First name of
Robert.) It took me a while before I realized she was talking about Don
and Barbie.
– Roy
"The truth is that this quality, this sophrosyne, which to the Greeks was an ideal second to none in importance, is not among our ideals. We have lost the conception of it." (Edith Hamilton, from _Plato: The Collected Dialogues_)