I got a kick out of today's pronunciation guide:
Boston marriage (BOS-tuhn MAR-ij, BAW-stuhn -) noun
... shoulda included (BAH-stn)
Please forgive my ignorance:
How is Boston pronounced any differently than BAW-stun?
I seem to recall hearing a nasal twang - (a as in cat) as in BAA-stn.
Is there some other way to pronounce Boston?
Ooof, it's not ignorance CB. Over the years, being here at AWAD, I've learned that every[/] word is pronounced differently somewhere else in the world.
That's fine, belMarduk.
What confuses me a little is that BOS-tuhn and BAW-stuhn sound too much alike to my ear.
Well they way I've heard them is like this
BOS-tuhn: the OS is pronounced like the A in ball.
BAW-stuhn: The AW is pronounced like the AA in BAA (like a sheep's baa-baa)
Acshully, in BOS -tuhn, the "Bos" is pronounced exactly the same as "boss". Course, if you're a USn you'll mispronounce "boss" anyways, saying something which sounds to my antipodean ear like "baws". I've been to your Boston a coupla times, but I've been to the real Boston more often. And that's how they pronounce it. Deepest, darkest Lincolnshire!
Well, Cap, your understanding of the "boss" pronunciation clears the rest of it *up quite nicely.
Yeah, all except for this part...
...if you're a USn you'll mispronounce "boss" anyways, saying something which sounds to my antipodean ear like "baws". I've been to your Boston a coupla times, but I've been to the real Boston more often. And that's how they pronounce it. Deepest, darkest Lincolnshire!
This looks like a jhob for jheem and his bag of magic IPAs!
looks like a jhob for jheem and his bag of magic IPAs!
Thanks, AS. Here it is in SAMPA and IPA (in case the latter doesn't work for you the former should):
/'bO:st@n/ SAMPA Boston in MA
/ˈbɔstən/ IPA Boston in MA
/'bQst@n/ SAMPA how you hear some people from Boston, MA, pronounce Boston
/ˈbɑstən/ IPA for the same
The local pronuciation of the first vowel is a tad bit lower in the local than in the standard USan version. Boss I usually pronoucne /'bO:s/, but in A-H an alternate pronuciation is /'bQs/. The /O:/ is what you all have been writing as {aw}, but which is not a diphthong, it's longer and that's why it has the colon in SAMPA which is like the IPA for macron. (NB, there's no {L} in the IPA transcription because, as it is broad and there's no phonemic distinction between /ɔː/ and /ɔ/, i.e., /ɔ/ -> [ɔː]) It's sort of like the distinction in the US between caught and cot, if you make that distinction, which I do and so do the nice folks up in Boston, MA. If you can play WAV files, the A-H provides pronuciation (at least of the first and more common pronuciation).
Haven't a clue about Boston in Lincolnshire, either RP or local dialect. What's all the hubbub?