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#131199 08/10/04 12:10 PM
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I got a kick out of today's pronunciation guide:

Boston marriage (BOS-tuhn MAR-ij, BAW-stuhn -) noun

... shoulda included (BAH-stn)


#131200 08/10/04 03:21 PM
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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?


#131201 08/10/04 03:32 PM
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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.


#131202 08/10/04 07:02 PM
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That's fine, belMarduk.

What confuses me a little is that BOS-tuhn and BAW-stuhn sound too much alike to my ear.


#131203 08/10/04 07:23 PM
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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)


#131204 08/15/04 06:57 PM
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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!


#131205 08/16/04 03:27 PM
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Well, Cap, your understanding of the "boss" pronunciation clears the rest of it *up quite nicely.


#131206 08/16/04 06:37 PM
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żIt *does?


#131207 08/16/04 07:01 PM
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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!


#131208 08/17/04 09:24 AM
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This looks like a jhob for jheem and his bag of magic IPAs!


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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?


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