# New England accent **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 8, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686 "2011-04-08T17:27:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/21 "2011-04-09T00:00:23Z")
Also, it doesn’t help my exposure to know that Irish musicians are usually English born or sing in a completely different accent! Or that “Irish” people on TV are often Scottish or some such. Actually, I’ve come to think that all Irish accents on television are horrible. Without having lived in Ireland or studied that dialect of English…my speculations are limited. Do “elite” Bostonians do the pahk/cah/yahd thing? Leaders of a community will often shape an accent. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/22 "2011-04-09T00:12:24Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Do “elite” Bostonians do the pahk/cah/yahd thing? Leaders of a community will often shape an accent. It depends on what you mean by elite. The long-time mayor of Boston, Tom Menino, speaks in some rudimentary form of a strong Boston accent but nobody ever has any idea what he is saying so he gets reelected based on the benefit of the doubt. Harvard professors don’t do that though. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/LabuH1PnUoo/hqdefault.jpg "Mayor Tom Menino: "As cities go, so goes America"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabuH1PnUoo) The wealthier suburbs especially to the west speak in more standard American English. A strong Boston accent isn’t generally considered to be a good thing so many parents discourage that in their kids. It isn’t like strong Boston accents are everywhere. My daughters certainly don’t speak it and never will. The strongest ones are found in just a few inburbs like Revere, Somerville, and Dedham. I think a strong Boston accent is one of the most powerful forms of birth control ever invented but it obviously doesn’t work on everyone. It is a college city so you mainly hear it in the more blue collar suburbs that are multi-generational. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/23 "2011-04-09T01:29:25Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Speaking of accent oddities, there was a good Explainer in Slate a few years ago about why Sarah Palin sounded like she was from Minnesota. She is absolutely not from here! Never! It’s bad enough to have to admit to Michelle Bachman, without being blamed for Palin too. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/24 "2011-04-09T01:49:37Z")
I lived in Cambridge for a summer and everytime I heard a Boston accent I was a little jilted. I had the same feeling when I stayed in Boston a few years later. Maybe you get a lot of imports. 😉 > [@Shagnasty](#): > > It depends on what you mean by elite. The long-time mayor of Boston, Tom Menino, speaks in some rudimentary form of a strong Boston accent but nobody ever has any idea what he is saying so he gets reelected based on the benefit of the doubt. Harvard professors don’t do that though. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabuH1PnUoo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabuH1PnUoo) > > The wealthier suburbs especially to the west speak in more standard American English. A strong Boston accent isn’t generally considered to be a good thing so many parents discourage that in their kids. It isn’t like strong Boston accents are everywhere. My daughters certainly don’t speak it and never will. The strongest ones are found in just a few inburbs like Revere, Somerville, and Dedham. I think a strong Boston accent is one of the most powerful forms of birth control ever invented but it obviously doesn’t work on everyone. It is a college city so you mainly hear it in the more blue collar suburbs that are multi-generational. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/25 "2011-04-09T01:52:16Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > She is absolutely not from here! Never! > > It’s bad enough to have to admit to Michelle Bachman, without being blamed for Palin too. …read what I said. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/26 "2011-04-09T13:12:02Z")
I don’t have any linguistic knowledge, so please bear with me. To me, there’s something sort of “mush-mouthed” about the way some people with the Boston accent talk. What’s that? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/27 "2011-04-09T15:49:21Z")
The textbook for my History of The English Language class claims that contemporary people in New England and the Appalachias sound more like 17th century English folks did than anyone in the UK currently does. Unfortunately it didn’t specify what part of England though the implication is obviously that it’s the area(s) people left to come to the US. Where was that, generally? Where did the pilgrams come from? Or those who eventually settled Virginia? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/28 "2011-04-09T19:05:54Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > I lived in Cambridge for a summer and everytime I heard a Boston accent I was a little jilted. Your girlfriend left you? Anyway, I don’t think you’re getting the difference between rhotic and non-rhotic. Re. the pronunciation of the word “Ireland”: Irish people say “IRE-lund”. Southern English people say “I-yu-lund”. No trace of a pronounced “R”. We only say the R if it’s on the beginning of a syllable, or if it is on the end of a syllable and followed by a vowel. Thus “pahk the cah”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/29 "2011-04-10T06:27:13Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > …read what I said. A link to the [article you mentioned](http://www.slate.com/id/2201318/) may be of help. Basically, the Minnesota part of her accent comes from having lived near a town full of displaced Minnesotans. Alaska is a mish-mash of accents. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/30 "2011-04-10T15:28:19Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Your girlfriend left you? > > Anyway, I don’t think you’re getting the difference between rhotic and non-rhotic. > > Re. the pronunciation of the word “Ireland”: > > Irish people say “IRE-lund”. Southern English people say “I-yu-lund”. No trace of a pronounced “R”. We only say the R if it’s on the beginning of a syllable, or if it is on the end of a syllable and followed by a vowel. Thus “pahk the cah”. At the time New England was settled the English accent was rhotic too. (The Elizabethans called r the ‘dog letter’ because of the growl in pronouncing it.) It wasn’t until the 18th/19th century that the English accent became non-rhotic. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/31 "2011-04-10T21:29:48Z")
Doesn’t answer the GQ, but interesting > **[The New England Accent | Dialect | Ayuh | Wicked](http://www.theheartofnewengland.com/lifeinnewengland/Essays/accents.html)** > > As a very basic overview of the New England accent (northern New England), you'll note a few things -- we don't seem to have the letter "r" it's usually replaced as though the word was spelled with an "a-h." We also say "ayuh" and "wicked" a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/32 "2011-04-10T22:04:49Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Your girlfriend left you? > > Anyway, I don’t think you’re getting the difference between rhotic and non-rhotic. > > Re. the pronunciation of the word “Ireland”: > > Irish people say “IRE-lund”. Southern English people say “I-yu-lund”. No trace of a pronounced “R”. We only say the R if it’s on the beginning of a syllable, or if it is on the end of a syllable and followed by a vowel. Thus “pahk the cah”. 🙂 I’m a girl. I meant to write something like, “I felt jolted”, as in, felt a jolt, but I accidentally wrote “jilted”. :smack: Both sound bad! Although I \*was \*jilted by a lover in Cambridge. He was French. Here’s a discussion on the topic. [Rhoticity in Scotland and Ireland | Antimoon Forum](http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t16030.htm) and [http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~nejf100/Academic/RhoticityProject.pdf](http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~nejf100/Academic/RhoticityProject.pdf) talks about the /r/ in working and middle class Dubliners. I think my friend’s accent is closer to “I-yuh-LIN”. Now _everything_ is sounding alike! Like I said in another post, accents are on a continuum. When I hear a Bostonian accent that has some rhocity in it, I just think of it as less Boston-y. Maybe I should have said “less” and “more”. So I take the fall for that one. When I think of ‘rhotic’ in Ireland, I think of the IRE versus the ‘ar’ or the ‘ahr’ or the ‘aih’ or any other variable that has a very soft, if at all noticeable, _r_ sound at the end of a syllable. Etymology is extremely interesting, but not my thing. I’m partially deaf, anyway. I may not always know an /r/ when I hear one, so tracing of accents will never be a strong point. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/33 "2011-04-10T22:11:58Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > At the time New England was settled the English accent was rhotic too. (The Elizabethans called r the ‘dog letter’ because of the growl in pronouncing it.) It wasn’t until the 18th/19th century that the English accent became non-rhotic. There’s still rhotic English accents. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/34 "2011-04-10T22:26:00Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > There’s still rhotic English accents. Indeed. I should have specified that I was talking about Received Pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/35 "2011-04-10T22:30:03Z")
Although checking [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents#Development_of_non-rhotic_accents) it seems they are a dieing breed! Just a small holdout in Lancashire and most of the South West. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/36 "2011-04-11T00:34:00Z")
Where does “New England Lockjaw” (aka Katherine Hepburn accent) fit in in all this? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/37 "2011-04-11T01:01:21Z")
I thought the roots of Massachusetts speech were in East Anglia. I’m not familiar with any East Anglian accent that I can recall. If someone is acquainted with both, maybe they could post a comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/38 "2011-04-11T01:51:48Z")
What I ought to have said was a valid comparison between the two would look at 17th-century Massachusetts and 17th-century East Anglian pronunciations, not their modern descendants. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/39 "2011-04-11T14:45:01Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > …the English may have more to do with the Boston accent than the Irish. I remember someone wondering why Fraiser Crane had an english accent, and I tried to explain the upper-crust Beacon Hill Boston accent. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686/40 "2011-04-11T15:17:03Z")
Does New Hampshire have a distinct accent - that is, distinct from Maine, Massachusettes, and Vermont? I’m _from_ southern New Hampshire, but whenever someone tries to guess where I’m from, they say I sound like a New Yorker. (Mostly because I tend to talk fast). And most of my friends from NH don’t seem to have anything other than a generic East Coast accent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-england-accent/577686.md?page=3)