Regional accents and oddments are always good for a poke-and-prod (of the kindest kind of course) So, here's the take on Boston. Please feel free to add your regional accent-tricities and such.

Bawston
Getting around Boston:
-Pay no attention to the street names.
-There's no school on School Street, no court on Court Street, no dock on Dock Square, no water on Water Street.
-Back Bay streets are in alphabetical odda: Arlington, Berkeley,Clarendon, Dartmouth,etc..
-So are South Boston streets: A, B, C, D,etc..
-If the streets are named after trees (e.g. Walnut, Chestnut, Cedar), you're on Beacon Hill.
-If they're named after poets, you're in Wellesley.
-Southie is South Boston.
-The South End is the South End.
-Eastie is East Boston.
-The North End is east of the West End.
-The West End and Scollay Square are no more, a guy named Rappaport got rid of them one night. (They are now Government Center.)

Definitions:

-Frappes have ice cream, milkshakes don't.
-If it is fizzy and flavored, it's tonic.
-Soda is CLUB SODA.
-Pop is Dad. (your Fatha)
-When we mean Tonic water we will ask for Tonic WATER.
-The smallest beer is a pint.
-Scrod is whatever they tell you it is, usually fish.
-If you paid more than $6 a pound, you got scrod.
-It's not a water fountain; it's a bubblah.
-It's not a trashcan; it's a barrel.
-It's not a shopping cart; it's a carriage.
-It's not a purse; it's a pockabook.
-They're not franks; they're haht dahgs. Franks are money in France.

Things not to do:

-Don't pahk your cah in Hahvid Yahd ... they'll tow it to
Meffa'd (Medford) or Slumaville (Somerville).
-Don't sleep in the Common.
-Don't wear Orange in Southie on St. Patrick's Day

Things you should know:

-There are two State Houses, two City Halls, two courthouses, two Hancock buildings (one old, one new.)
-Route 128 is also I-95. It's also I-93.
-The underground train is not a subway. It's the "T" and it
doesn't run all night (fah chrysakes, this ain't Noo Yawk!)

Bostonians...
-think that it's their God-given right to cut off someone in traffic.
-think that there are only 25 letters in the alphabet (no R.)
-think that three straight days of 90+ temperatures is a heat wave.
-refer to six inches of snow as "a dusting."
-always "bang a left" as soon as the light turns green, and oncoming traffic always expects it.
-say everything in town is "a five-minute walk."
-believe that using your turn signal is a sign of weakness.
-think that 63-degree ocean water is warm.

> Enjoy BAWSTON

Dear Wow: Why did the old Boston Post building resemble a woman's navel?

Bostonians...
-think that there are only 25 letters in the alphabet (no R.)

Course there is, silly. Just ask my sister-in-law Nahmer. She's named after the heroine in that Bellini opera.

No one knows where Massetchusets Avenue is. But they all know Mass-av or even Mass-av street.

Funny thing about the Boston R. And actually it's common to most of New England. It's there good and strong in the final position when the next word starts with a vowel sound. I grew up saying the idear is... And my good friend refers to his wife as Reeterann.

And if you're from Boston then you live in Ameriker! I know 'cause I had a German teacher for 3 years in high school who had a thick Bawston accent. Fun!

The best pizza I *ever tasted was on the North End of Boston. Someone said they use the Neopolitan style of cooking there. And the crust was scrumptious!

Don't ever pronounce Worcester like the sauce in Massachusetts! It's Wooster! A cardinal sin there almost as bad as saying Noo OR-leans in Loosiana (it's Nyawlins...and they'll let ya know it, even in the middle of Mardi Gras!) Mass. folks will let you know it, too!...repeatedly.

The best home run I ever saw hit was at Fenway Park when Bucky Dent inexplicably connected in the '78 one-game playoff between the Red Sox and Yankees, God bless him!

Brits also commit that R between two words, when the former ends in a vowel and the latter begins with one. I think they do this in Zild, as well. Thus, when they (or Bostonians) are described as having non-rhotic speech, well, it's all relative.

Also, Juan, how do *you pronounce the Worcester(shire) as in the sauce? I pronounce it Wooster, just like the town(s).

the sauce

Everyone in our neck of the woods always pronounced it WORSE-te-sheer.

Then there's the booming metropolis (from the Greek, mother city) of Leominster. Pronounced lem'nstih.

that R between two words, when the former ends in a vowel and the latter begins with one. I think they do this in Zild, as well.


You think? Do you not have evidence to support that belief? Oh, and btw, I never insert an R in kia(r) ora two words of NZ English that match the description you give above.

Actually and anywayz ® ®, I guess most folks are more prone to pronounce the town WER-chester, rather than like the sauce. But you'll get corrected for that quick, too.

"Does the bus go to WORSE-te-sheer?" Hmmm...must've looked at the map too fast when I was knocking around Plymouth, huh?

the idear is... And my good friend refers to his wife as Reeterann.

this is not unknown in NYC, either.. sometimes we add a R, sometimes we drop it, and sometimes we do neither.. of course i can't think of a single example, because it all sounds normal to me.. except of course for the famous archie bunker one... turlit.. toilet- which i don't say, but i certain heard often enough as a kid, (and still hear from older NYer's)

Everyone in our neck of the woods

Yeah, well, turnpike or no yer still in New Jersey.

Ya kin get in free, but ya hafta pay to get out.

What about *your regional speech? I miss Jackie - I'm sure she'd have some interesting Kentuckyisms. But I do hope she is having fun tootlin' around Scotland and Ireland!

Jackie and I met up and had dinner (she had "supper", but) in a pub in a little town called Orlingbury last night. She's off down into deepest, darkest Wales today ...

It was always "Wustesher" Sauce at our place and always on the table.

Well, as a resident of Worcester (Massachusetts) for the last 30 years I can tell you that old-time Mass residents, speaking Boston, pronounce it with no R at all ("Woo -stah"; that's "-oo-" as in "foot") but most people give it one ("Woo-ster"). But then I'm a transplanted New Yorker - from the Bronx, at that - so what do I know.

Well, Doc, at least you learned to pronounce Worcester kharekly!

...and don't forget that most prevalent orthographic lapse: to insert a gratuitous "h" and spell it "Worchester."

I can tell you that old-time Mass residents, speaking Boston, pronounce it with no R at all ("Woo -stah"; that's "-oo-" as in "foot")

Which is how we say it up here too, unless you go way up south, to the area around the Clinton-Gore highway.

thee ant erd owt tha'dunt noe nowt tek a shufte at this http://www.nyt.co.uk/seawndot.htm

A nice set of verse, dody - I especially like the first one!

Just to maintain the flow:-
A student of mine has just sent me this poem, in East Lancashire dialect. It took me a while to fathom it, but I only had to ask for translation of two words in the end.
I guess dody won't need even that! But how do the rest of youse get on wi'it?


Childhood I'Bongs

'Wheer as t'bin, mi Johnny lad,
Ah thowt they'd ner cum back;'
'Ah've bin a walk wi Tum un Ned,
O'er Withins, then up Shack;
Past Pilwood Pit, reauwnd Cumbermere,
Clod bricks in t'water faw;
Yeard Mother Hulme's donkey,
Shrikin' eauwt he, haw.'

'Ah'm werrit t'dee'uth, mi Johnny lad,
When tha seets off unknown;
Last wick tha geet a pastin',
Wilt not bi towd er shown?
Tha went deauwn t'bank, seet off o'er t'rucks
Past Gin Pit, Meanleys, Nuk;
Thi feyther welly kilt thi,
They'd fawn in t'yellow bruk.

'A fortnit sin, mi Johnny lad,
Tha ner cum whoam til dark;
Feeshed in t'moat reauwnd Dicky Beefs,
Pogged a neestin lark;
Stopped i'Shutt Street playin swap,
hen they 'ad a feight,
Fergeet tha'd birds eggs i' thi cap,
Cum in, un stunk mons height.

Just like thi Dad, mi Johnny lad,
That's like thi Granny ses;
Just doo'in things thi feyther did,
Same places, moo'r er less;
T'Bluebell Hollow wander off,
Fotch'er back sum flar's:
As 'er loved 'im, so whey love thee,
God bless thee las, tha't 'ars.'

Jimmy Jones