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#105564 06/13/03 03:47 PM
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wow Offline OP
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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




#105565 06/13/03 04:05 PM
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wwh Offline
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Dear Wow: Why did the old Boston Post building resemble a woman's navel?


#105566 06/13/03 07:02 PM
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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.



#105567 06/14/03 12:22 AM
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No one knows where Massetchusets Avenue is. But they all know Mass-av or even Mass-av street.


#105568 06/15/03 04:54 PM
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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.


#105569 06/15/03 07:36 PM
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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!


#105570 06/15/03 11:35 PM
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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).


#105571 06/16/03 12:00 AM
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the sauce

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


#105572 06/16/03 12:10 AM
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Then there's the booming metropolis (from the Greek, mother city) of Leominster. Pronounced lem'nstih.


#105573 06/16/03 12:13 AM
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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.


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