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Tag Archives: Boston accents
Boston “Brother”
While waiting in Boston’s South Station last week, a man with a thick accent asked for information about the coming bus. After hearing my reply, he said “Thanks, Brother!” (That is, “Bruthah” brʌðə). “Brother,” as commonplace as the word may … Continue reading
Fella, Winder, Tomorrah: ‘-Ow’ Reduction
Back in my musical theatre days, I couldn’t get enough of Rogers and Hammerstein’s classic melodrama Carousel. I’m still a fan, but wish somebody would retool the libretto; many of the show’s lyrics and dialogue are penned in a goofy pseudo-New England … Continue reading
Adverbial ‘Wicked’
Growing up in a rural part of New England, ‘wicked‘ was a common staple of the local vocabulary. Not ‘wicked,’ mind you, as in the sense of ‘sinful’ or ‘evil.’ New Englanders convert this adjective to an adverb, creating a … Continue reading
Father-Bother in New England
When people think of New England accents, they tend to think of the fronted /a/ in words like ‘start’ and ‘car‘ (as in ‘pahk yuh car in Hahvuhd yahd’). This /a/ can sound to outsiders somewhat like the ‘a’ in … Continue reading
Place Names
Do place names offer us any insight into the formation of dialects? In a convenient alternate universe, one would be able to make a map of the etymology of place names in America, label which nations or regions these etymologies … Continue reading
‘Aunt’ in a New England Accent
Like many New Englanders, I pronounce ‘aunt’ with a broad-a (i.e. the vowel in ‘father’). This is one of several ways the New England accent retains a linguistic connection to its semi-namesake (for most other Americans, ‘aunt’ and ‘ant’ are homophones). … Continue reading
Mastering the Trap-Bath Split
[Update: I made a few slight revisions to this post based on feedback.] (NOTE: This post uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For information about the IPA, please visit my page of IPA Resources.) What is the #1 thing American actors screw … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged accents for actors, Boston accents, Cockney, Received Pronunciation (RP) 40 Comments
Pahk Yuh Cah: Non-Rhotic in New England
A few years back, I was sitting in a restaurant in my hometown of Willimantic, Connecticut*. A few booths over, a late-middle-aged man was talking to a young woman paying at the counter. Here is my paraphrasing of the conversation: … Continue reading
Why There are Less New York Accents in Movies
I hate how the mainstream media discusses dialects and accents. Journalists routinely fudge basic linguistic terminology, misquote experts, and indulge in all kinds of classist and/or racist assumptions. Case in point is this article Academy Award filmmakers need to make … Continue reading
Jonathan Ross and the Letter R
For many years, Britons have mocked television host Jonathan Ross for his pronunciation of the letter “r.” Ross seems to replace this letter with a “w,” so it appears to oustiders that he pronounces his own name “Jonathan Woss.” In … Continue reading