Boston accent

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "about". Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Hatnote list' not found. Template:IPA notice A Boston accent is a local accent of Eastern New England English, native specifically to the city of Boston and its suburbs. Northeastern New England English is classified as traditionally including New Hampshire, Maine, and all of eastern Massachusetts, while some uniquely local vocabulary appears only around Boston.[1][2] A 2006 study co-authored by William Labov claims that the accent remains relatively stable,[3] though a 2018 study suggests the accent's traditional features may be retreating, particularly among the city's younger residents, and becoming increasingly confined to the historically Irish-American neighborhood of South Boston.[4]

Phonological characteristics

Vowels of the traditional Boston accent
Front Central Back
lax tense lax tense lax tense
Close ɪ i ʊ u
Mid ɛ eɪ ə ʌ oʊ
Open æ a ɒ
Diphthongs Script error: No such module "IPA".

Boston accents typically have the cot-caught merger but not the father-bother merger. This means that instead of merging the historical "short o" sound (as in Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.LOT) with the "broad a" (as in Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.PALM) like most other American accents, the Boston accent merges it with the "aw" vowel (as in Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.THOUGHT). Thus, lot, paw, caught, cot, law, wand, rock, talk, doll, wall, etc. all are pronounced with the same open back (often) rounded vowel [ɒ] <phonos file="PR-open back rounded vowel.ogg"></phonos>, while keeping the broad a sound distinct: [a] <phonos file="PR-open front unrounded vowel.ogg"></phonos>, as in father, spa, and dark. So, even though the word dark has no Script error: No such module "IPA". in many Boston accents, it remains pronounced differently from dock because it belongs to Boston's Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.START–Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.PALM class of words versus the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.LOT–Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.THOUGHT one: dark Script error: No such module "IPA". versus dock Script error: No such module "IPA"..[5][page needed] Thus, while New York accents have Script error: No such module "IPA". for paw and Script error: No such module "IPA". for lot, and Standard British accents have a similar distinction (Script error: No such module "IPA". versus Script error: No such module "IPA".), Boston accents only have one merged phoneme for both: Script error: No such module "IPA"..

In general, Eastern New England accents have a "short a" vowel Script error: No such module "IPA"., as in Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.TRAP, that is extremely tensed towards Script error: No such module "IPA". when it precedes a nasal consonant; thus, man is Script error: No such module "IPA". and planet is Script error: No such module "IPA".. Boston shares this system with some of the American Midwest and most of the West, though the raising in Boston tends to be more extreme. This type of modern General American Script error: No such module "IPA".-raising system is simpler than the systems of British or New York City accents. However, elements of a more complex pattern exist for some Boston speakers; in addition to raising before nasals, Bostonians (unlike nearby New Hampshirites, for example) may also "raise" or "break" the "short a" sound before other types of consonants too: primarily the most strongly before voiceless fricatives, followed by voiced stops, laterals, voiceless stops, and voiced fricatives, so that words like half, bath, and glass become Script error: No such module "IPA"., Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA"., respectively.[6] This trend began around the early-mid to mid-twentieth century, replacing the older Boston accent's London-like "broad a" system, in which those same words are transferred over to the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.PALM class Script error: No such module "IPA". Template:Crossreference printworthy.[7] The raised Script error: No such module "IPA". may overlap with the non-rhotic realization of Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.SQUARE as Script error: No such module "IPA"..

Boston accents make a greater variety of distinctions between short and long vowels before medial Script error: No such module "IPA". than many other modern American accents do: hurry Script error: No such module "IPA". and furry Script error: No such module "IPA".; and mirror Script error: No such module "IPA". and nearer Script error: No such module "IPA"., though some of these distinctions are somewhat endangered as people under 40[<span title="Script error: No such module "decodeEncode".">clarification needed] in neighboring New Hampshire and Maine have lost them. In this case, Boston shares these distinctions with both New York and British accents, whereas other American accents, like in the Midwest, have lost them entirely.

The nuclei of the diphthongs Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". (Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.PRICE and Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.MOUTH. respectively) may be raised to something like Script error: No such module "IPA". before voiceless consonants: thus write has a higher vowel than ride and lout has a higher vowel than loud. This phenomenon, more famously associated with Canadian accents, is known by linguists as Canadian raising.

The nuclei of Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". (in Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.GOAT and Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.GOOSE) are significantly less fronted than in many other American accents. The latter may be diphthongized to Script error: No such module "IPA". or Script error: No such module "IPA"..

The weak vowel merger is traditionally absent. This makes Lenin Script error: No such module "IPA". distinct from Lennon Script error: No such module "IPA"..Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.

Speakers of the more deeply urban varieties of the Boston accent may realize the English dental fricatives Script error: No such module "IPA". as the dental stops Script error: No such module "IPA"., giving rise to a phonemic distinction between dental and alveolar stops; thus, those may sound closer to doze.

Non-rhoticity

The traditional Boston accent is widely known for being non-rhotic (or "r-dropping"), particularly before the mid-20th century. Recent studies have shown that younger speakers use more of a rhotic (or r-ful) accent than older speakers.[8] This goes for black Bostonians as well.[4] Non-rhoticity means that the phoneme Script error: No such module "IPA". does not appear in coda position Page Template:Crossreference/styles.css has no content.Page Module:Hatnote/styles.css has no content.(for where in English phonotactics Script error: No such module "IPA". precedes other consonants, see English phonology § Coda), as in most dialects of English in England and Australia; card therefore becomes Script error: No such module "IPA". "cahd" and color Script error: No such module "IPA". "culluh". Words such as weird Script error: No such module "IPA". and square Script error: No such module "IPA". feature centering diphthongs, which correspond to the sequences of close and mid vowels + Script error: No such module "IPA". in rhotic AmE. The phonemicity of the centering diphthongs Script error: No such module "IPA". depends on a speaker's rhoticity. Also, the stressed sequence Script error: No such module "IPA". inside a closed syllable, as in Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.NURSE, is most likely to take on a rhotic Script error: No such module "IPA". pronunciation among Bostonians.[8][9]

A famous example of non-rhoticity (plus a fronted Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.START vowel) is "Park your car in Harvard Yard", pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA"., or as if spelled "pahk yah cah(r) in Hahvud Yahd".[10][11] The r in car would usually be pronounced in this case, because the Boston accent possesses both linking R and intrusive R: an Script error: No such module "IPA". will not be lost at the end of a word if the next word begins with a vowel, and an Script error: No such module "IPA". will be inserted after a word ending with a central or low vowel if the next word begins with a vowel: the tuner is and the tuna is are both Script error: No such module "IPA".. This example has been used since at least 1946, to the point where some locals find requests to say the phrase annoying.[12] Actual parking in Harvard Yard is prohibited, except by permission in rare cases for loading and unloading, contractors, or people needing accessible transport directly to Harvard Memorial Church.[12]

Declining features

Many characteristics of the Boston accent may be retreating, particularly among younger residents. In the most old-fashioned of Boston accents, there may be a lingering resistance to the horse–hoarse merger, so that horse has the pure vowel Script error: No such module "IPA"., while hoarse has the centering diphthong Script error: No such module "IPA".; this can potentially cause the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.NORTH–Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.LOT–Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.THOUGHT merger, so that tort, tot and taught are phonemically all Script error: No such module "IPA".. The result is that, for an older Boston accent, the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.NORTH–Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.LOT–Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.THOUGHT vowel is distinct from the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.FORCE vowel. Another two example words that would traditionally be distinguished, thus, are for Script error: No such module "IPA". versus four Script error: No such module "IPA".. This distinction was rapidly fading out of currency in the second half of the 20th century with the words belonging to the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.NORTH class being transferred over to the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.FORCE class, undoing the merger of Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.NORTH with Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.LOT–Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.THOUGHT, as it is in almost all regions of North America that still make it. For non-rhotic speakers, the modern-day situation in Boston is that both horse and hoarse, as well as both for and four, take the centering diphthong Script error: No such module "IPA"..

A feature that Boston speakers once shared with Britain's Received Pronunciation, though now uncommon in Boston, is the "broad a" of the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.BATH lexical set of words, making a distinction from the Page Template:Smallcaps/styles.css has no content.TRAP set (Page Template:Crossreference/styles.css has no content.Page Module:Hatnote/styles.css has no content.see Trap–bath split). In particular words that in other American accents have the "short a" pronounced as Script error: No such module "IPA"., that vowel was replaced in the nineteenth century (if not earlier and often sporadically by speakers as far back as the late eighteenth century)[13] with Script error: No such module "IPA".: thus, half as Script error: No such module "IPA". and bath as Script error: No such module "IPA"..Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Fewer words have the broad a in Boston English than in the London accents, and fewer and fewer Boston speakers maintain the broad a system as time goes on, with its transition into a decline first occurring in speakers born from about 1930 to 1950 (and first documented as a decline in 1977).[7] Boston speakers born before about 1930 used this broad a in after, ask, aunt, bath, calf, can't, glass, half, laugh, pasture, path, and other words, while those born from about 1930 to 1950 normally use it only in aunt, calf, half, laugh, and pass. Speakers born since 1950 typically have no broad a whatsoever and, instead, slight /æ/ raising (i.e. Script error: No such module "IPA". in craft, bad, math, etc.)Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. with this same set of words and, variably, other instances of short a too.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Only aunt maintains the broad a sound in even the youngest speakers, though this one word is a common exception throughout all of the Northeastern U.S. Broad a in aunt is also heard by occasional speakers throughout Anglophone North America; it is quite commonly heard in African American speech as well.

Although not all Boston-area speakers are non-rhotic, non-rhoticity remains the feature most widely associated with the region. As a result, it is frequently the subject of humor about Boston, as in comedian Jon Stewart joking in his book America that, although John Adams drafted the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, "delegates from his state refused to ratify the letter 'R'".[14]

Being conspicuous and easily identifiable as regional, Boston accents are routinely featured by actors in films set in Boston, particularly for working-class white characters, such as in Good Will Hunting, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, The Departed, Manchester by the Sea, The Town, Ted, The Fighter, and Black Mass.[15][16][17] Television series based within a Boston setting such as Boston Public and Cheers have featured the accent. Simpsons character Mayor Quimby talks with an exaggerated Boston accent as a reference to the former US Senator Ted Kennedy.[18] Television comedy sketches have featured the accent, including "The Boston Teens" and "Dunkin Donuts" on Saturday Night Live, as well as "Boston Accent Trailer" on Late Night with Seth Meyers.[15]

In The Heat, the family members of Shannon Mullins all speak with the Boston accent, and confusion arises from the pronunciation of the word narc as nahk Script error: No such module "IPA".. In the video game Team Fortress 2, the character Scout, who is a Boston native himself, talks with a distinct Boston accent, although it sometimes lapses into a Brooklyn accent.

Notable lifelong native speakers

File:Joseph Curtatone at October 11 2019 Somerville mayoral candidate forum.flac File:Rachel Carson (As Told By EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy).ogg File:Sec. Walsh on Construction Jobs in Infrastructure Bill v2.flac

Ed Markey-longtime US Representative and Senator from Massachusetts “Light but strong accent at times”

See also

References

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  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Millward, C.M. (1996). A Biography of the English Language. Wadsworth Publishing. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-15-501645-3.
  3. ^ Labov, William (2010). The Politics of Language Change: Dialect Divergence in America. The University of Virginia Press. Pre-publication draft. p. 53.
  4. ^ a b Browne, Charlene; Stanford, James (2018). "Boston Dialect Features in the Black/African American Community." University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Vol. 24 : Iss. 2, Article 4. p. 19.
  5. ^ Labov et al. 2006 The Atlas of North American English Berlin: DeGruyter
  6. ^ Wood, Jim. (2010). "Short-a in Northern New England". Journal of English Linguistics 20:1–31. pp. 146, 149.
  7. ^ a b Wood, 2010, p. 139.
  8. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Irwin, Patricia; Nagy, Naomi (2007). "Bostonians /r/ Speaking: A Quantitative Look at (R) in Boston". University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. 13 (2).
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Bibliography

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Further reading

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Script error: No such module "Sister project logo".
Look up park the car in Harvard Yard in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Recordings of the Boston accent

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