Beautiful Boston figures prominently in US history and continues to stand tall as one of the East Coast’s major metropolises. Outsiders may traditionally know it for the food, beer, and passionate sports fans, but Boston has also gained a bit of recent notoriety for its unique accent. The Boston accent is of course nothing new, but it has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to recent movies and media. Saturday Night Live commonly riffs on the accent, as do late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and other celebrities. Here we’ll take a peek at what makes that one-of-a-kind accent so special, plus some key words and phrases to know in Boston.
Bye-Bye to that Ending -r
Linguists call this feature non-rhoticity,and it simply means not pronouncing the final sound in a word ending in -r. This Bostonian distinction can be traced back to the town’s colonial roots and original English settlers. Consider, for example, the word “water.” Many British pronunciations would be akin to “wah-tuh,” whereas a good Boston pronunciation would sound like “wahtah.” They are not the same, but both have dropped the final -r sound.
O’s to Ah’s
Oh my Gahd, the vowels are changing too. Part of what gives Boston its charm is the changing of the short -o sound to an “ah” or “aw” sound. This stems in part from the various waves of immigration throughout the centuries, especially Irish and Italian, that have left their indelible mark on how Boston speaks.
Fronting of the Ah Sound
To further differentiate the vowel sounds, we can look at words that already have a natural “ah” sound like “father” or “car.” Bostonians take this a step further by pronouncing the sound in the front of their mouths rather than deeper. This is called “fronting” the sound, and when combined with the non-rhotic trait, means you drive a “cah.”
Add -r in Other Places
This one is a bit trickier because it’s usually not just throwing an -r on the end of a word ending in a vowel, but rather adding that -r in between two vowel sounds. So if the phrase was simply, “Ask, Ma,” then “Ma” would end in an -a sound, but if the phrase were “Ask Ma-r if she’s at the packie,” then it’d have that little -r sound tacked on like “Ma-r.” This linking is part of what contributes to that rapid-fire Boston accent.
Boston Slang to Know
Bagged
Aarrested by the police, who are also known as “The Boys.”
Bang a Uey
The “Uey” here is a U-turn, and can be of the legal or illegal variety. You can also “bust,” “pop,” or “whip” a uey.
Barney
A derogatory word used by working-class Bostonians for Harvard students, allegedly from an old nickname for the Harvard campus – “the Barnyard.”
Bubbler
A “bubbla” is a water fountain.
The Cape
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where the upper class and preps like to summer.
Down cellar
A contraction of “down in the cellar,” meaning something in the basement.
Frappe
This is indeed a drink, but not pronounced the fancy Starbucks way. This is a Boston milkshake and it’s pronounced “Frap.”
The Garden
The Gah-den is Boston Garden, now formally known as TD Garden. It’s where you can watch the Bruins and Celtics play.
Packie
A packie is a package store, or more colloquially, a liquor store.
Ripper
A ripper is a wild party, one for the ages.
So don’t I
This is exactly the same as “So do I.”
Southie
Someone from the South Boston area, usually depicted as working class with Irish heritage.
Statie
A State Patrolman or Patrolwoman, as in “Watch out for the staties!”
Supper
The third meal of the day, preferably enjoyed with family. This is what other cities would call “dinner.”
The T
Boston’s subway system is “The T.”
Wicked
This regionalism means “Very” and can be used to refer to something good or bad – wicked awesome, wicked cold, wicked ugly, etc.
How to Talk with a Boston Accent
Decide if you’re going for the John F. Kennedy upper-crust Boston accent or the gritty Southy style. To prime the pump a bit, you can watch some famous media depictions of Boston accents in classics like The Departed, The Holdovers, or Good Will Hunting, or get a quick crash course in Hyundai’s “Smaht Pahk” Super Bowl ad. Now all you’ve got to do is lose that ending -r, say your “ah” sounds in the front of your mouth, and not get bagged by the language chaps.
