Eastern New England English Explained

pronounced as /notice/Eastern New England English, historically known as the Yankee dialect since at least the 19th century,^{[1] [2]} is the traditional regional dialect of Maine, New Hampshire, and the eastern half of Massachusetts.^[3] Features of this variety once spanned an even larger dialect area of New England, for example, including the eastern halves of Vermont and Connecticut for those born as late as the early twentieth century.^[4] Studies vary as to whether the unique dialect of Rhode Island technically falls within the Eastern New England dialect region.^[5]

Eastern New England English, here including Rhode Island English, is classically associated with sound patterns such as: non-rhoticity, or dropping r when not before a vowel; both variants of Canadian raising, including a fairly back starting position of the pronounced as //aʊ// vowel (as in); and some variation of the vowel distinctions, the marry–merry distinction, or both.^[6] Eastern New England (excluding Rhode Island) is also nationally recognized for its highly front vowel. The most well-known subsets include Boston accents, Maine accents, and a cultivated or elite accent, sometimes known as a "Boston Brahmin accent" within Boston, that was associated wealthy New England families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^[7]

As of the 21st century, certain traditional characteristics are declining due to many younger Eastern New Englanders avoiding them, particularly non-rhoticity and the aforementioned vowel distinctions,^[8] which they tend to perceive as old-fashioned, overly rural-sounding,^[9] or even overly urban-sounding with regard to Boston. New Hampshire speakers on the whole are particularly well documented as retreating from these older Eastern New England features since the mid-20th century onwards.^{[10] [11]}

Overview of phonology

The sound system of traditional Eastern New England English includes:

• Non-rhoticity: The r sound may be "dropped" or "silent" if not before a vowel; therefore, in words like car, letter, horse, poor, etc. The feature is retreating and is not found in many younger speakers,^[12] for example, in virtually no speakers born since the mid-20th century in southeastern New Hampshire.^[10]
  • Linking and intrusive r

The non-rhotic r may be pronounced after all if it is followed by a vowel, even a vowel that begins the next word in the sentence. Also, any word that ends in /ə/ (as in Cuba), /ɑ/ (as in spa), or /ɔ/ (as in law) can be followed by an unwritten r sound when followed by a vowel sound in the next word: thus, law and public safety sounds like Lauren public safety.

• Backing of pronounced as //u//: The vowel of goose, rude, coup, etc. remains pronounced relatively far back in the mouth.
• Possible lack of the horse–hoarse merger: The vowel of words like war versus wore, or morning versus mourning, are mostly produced either very close or the same in Eastern New England; however, as of the early 2000s, such vowels may still be pronounced differently by some Eastern New England speakers, especially in Maine. Conversely, the merger of the vowels is largely complete elsewhere in the United States.
• Full Canadian raising: The tongue is raised in the first element of the gliding vowel as well as whenever either appears before a voiceless consonant.^[13] Therefore, a word like house pronounced as //haʊs// is often pronounced as /[hɜʊs~hɐʊs]/.
• Backing of pronounced as //aʊ//: The vowel of gouge, loud, town, power, etc. has a relatively back-of-mouth starting position: thus, something like pronounced as /[ɑ̈ʊ]/.
• Possible lack of the Mary–marry–merry mergers: Before intervocalic pronounced as //r//, the vowels pronounced as //ɛə// (pronounced as //eɪ// in rhotic varieties), pronounced as //æ// and pronounced as //ɛ// (as in Mary, marry, and merry) are distinguished from one another, particularly in Southeastern New England (namely Rhode Island), which is also true in the New York City area and Britain. However, recent studies have shown that there is an emerging tendency in Northeastern New England (Boston, for example) to merge them, as in most other American accents.
• "Short a" nasal system

The "short a" sound pronounced as //æ// may be tensed in various environments, though most severely before a nasal consonant; therefore, in words like man, clam, Annie, etc.

• Fronting of /: The vowel of words like palm, spa, car, park, etc. is pronounced farther to the front of the vocal tract than in most other dialects, so that car, for example, is something like pronounced as /[kʰa]/. This, plus non-rhoticity, is often associated with the shibboleth "Park the car in Harvard yard." This fronting is seldom reported in Rhode Island, in which car is more often backed pronounced as /[kʰɑ]/.
• The weak vowel merger is traditionally absent. This makes Lenin pronounced as //ˈlɛnɪn// distinct from Lennon pronounced as //ˈlɛnən//.

Overview of vocabulary and grammatical features

Some words or phrases most famously or strongly associated with Eastern New England are:

• bang: to make a sudden or decisive turn while driving; only used in certain phrases: "bang a left", "bang a right", or "bang a U-ie".
• bubbler or water bubbler: drinking fountain.^[14] This term is also used in Wisconsin and Australia.
• bulkie

a thick white-bread roll, similar to a hamburger bun or kaiser roll

• frappe pronounced as //fræp//: a thick beverage made of milk and ice cream, i.e. a milkshake in most other places (whereas "milkshake" in Boston traditionally means flavored milk). A synonym common only in Rhode Island is cabinet.^[15]
• hoodsie: a small disposable cup of ice cream, the kind that comes with a flat wooden spoon (from HP Hood, the dairy that sells them and elsewhere sometimes known as a "dixie cup".)^[16] A secondary meaning (very offensive slang) is "promiscuous teenaged girl".^[17]
• jimmies: sprinkles; to some, particularly chocolate sprinkles.^{[18] [19]} The term is also common in the Philadelphia area.
• pissa(h): "great" or "amazing", either realistically or sarcastically. This is from the word "pisser" with a Boston accent, but used as an adjective. Occasionally combined with "wicked" to yield "wicked pissah".^[20]
• scrod

any small whitefish, such as cod or haddock, used in cooking^[21]

• "So don't I": "so do I" or "I do too".^[22]
• spa: a neighborhood convenience store that has a soda fountain and often sells sandwiches.^{[23] [24] [25] [26] [27]}
• tonic pronounced as //ˈtɒnɪk//: any sweet, carbonated soft drink (chiefly confined to Boston), otherwise known as "soda" in the region or "pop" elsewhere;^[28] not the same as tonic water.
• whiffle: a crew cut or male haircut done with electric clippers.^[17]
• wicked: "very" or "super", used as an adverb or intensifier (such as "That hockey game was wicked good!" or "Ugh, that guy is wicked slow").

Many words common to Boston are also common throughout New England dialects: grinder for "submarine sandwich" (also, spuckie or spuky in East Boston),^[29] packie (or package store) for "liquor store",^{[30] [31]} rotary for "traffic circle" (these full-speed circular intersections being common in Greater Boston), and yous as the working-class plural form of "you" (a word found throughout the urban Northeast with many spelling variants).^[32] Cellar, whose definition may have slight nuances nationwide, can also be a simple synonym for basement in Eastern New England and Massachusetts generally. In this same area, related expressions like down the cellar or even down-cellar are distinctive, meaning "down to the basement" or "down in the basement" (as in "She's getting some boxes down-cellar").

Northeastern New England English

Northeastern New England English, popularly recognized as a Boston or Maine accent, in addition to all the above phonological features, further includes the merger of the vowel in cot and caught to pronounced as /[ɒ~ɑ]/, often with a slightly rounded quality, but a resistance to the merger of the vowels in father versus bother, a merger that is otherwise common throughout North America. Also, for speakers born before 1950, the words half and pass (and, before World War II, also ask and can't) are pronounced with a "broad a," like in spa: pronounced as /[haf]/ and pronounced as /[pʰas]/.

Boston

See main article: Boston accent. Boston, Massachusetts is the birthplace and most famous site of Eastern New England English. Historically, a Northeastern type of New England English spread from metropolitan Boston into metropolitan Worcester, the bulk of New Hampshire, and central and coastal Maine. Boston speech also originated many slang and uniquely local terms that have since spread throughout Massachusetts and Eastern New England.^[33] Although mostly non-rhotic, the modern Boston accent typically pronounces the r sound in the vowel,, as in bird, learn, turkey, world, etc.

Maine

See main article: Maine accent. A traditional Maine accent, the closest remnant today to a more widespread 19th-century Yankee regional accent, includes the phonology mentioned above, plus the loss of the phonemic status of pronounced as //ɛə// (as in there), pronounced as //ɪə// (as in here), and pronounced as //oə// (as in more) all of which are broken into two syllables (pronounced as //eɪə, i.ə, oʊə//, respectively): they-uh, hee-yuh, and moh-uh; some distinct vocabulary is also used in this accent.^[34] Maine is one of the last American regions to resist the horse–hoarse merger. This continued resistance was verified by some speakers in a 2006 study of Bangor and Portland, Maine, yet contradicted by a 2013 study that reported the merger as embraced by Portland speakers "of all ages".^[35] The horse–hoarse separation means that words like war and wore may sound different: war pronounced as //wɒ// rhyming with law pronounced as //lɒ//, and wore pronounced as //ˈwoʊə// rhyming with boa pronounced as //ˈboʊə//. Unlike the Boston accent, this traditional Maine accent may be non-rhotic entirely: even in the pronunciation of pronounced as //ɜr// as pronounced as /[ɜ]/.

Notable speakers of Northeastern New England English

• Ken Beatrice – "... the New England native with the pronounced Boston accent"^[36]
• Bill Burr – "the comic's wicked Boston accent"^[37]
• Bob Marley (comedian)
• Calvin Coolidge – "r-less New Englander"^[38]
• Lenny Clarke – "a Cambridge-raised verbal machine gun with a raspy Boston accent"^[39]
• Nick Di Paolo – "thick Boston accent"^[40]
• John F. Kennedy – "his tony Harvard accent"^[41]
• Robert F. "Bobby" Kennedy – "his Boston twang"^[42]
• Edward "Ted" Kennedy – "No one else from Boston, or anywhere in New England, has imprinted the regional accent on the national consciousness as Senator Kennedy did."^[43]
• Mel King – "he has the soft Rs of a deep Boston accent"^[44]
• Lyndon LaRouche – "a cultivated New England accent"^[45]
• Christy Mihos – "speaks unpretentiously in a variation of a Boston accent, and drops the 'g' in words like talking or running."^[46]
• Brian and Jim Moran – "The Moran brothers share an unmistakable Massachusetts accent"^[47]
• Tom Silva – "New England accent"^[48]
• Jermaine Wiggins – "skin as thick as his East Boston accent"^[49]

Rhode Island English

The traditional English-language accent of Southeastern New England, popularly known as a Rhode Island accent, is spoken in Rhode Island and the western half of Bristol County, Massachusetts. In addition to all the features mentioned under the phonology section above, the Rhode Island accent also includes a sharp distinction in the vowels of Mary, marry, and merry and in the vowels in cot pronounced as /[ɑ]/ versus caught pronounced as /[oə]/,^[50] plus the pronunciation of pronounced as //ɑr//, as in car, far back in the mouth as pronounced as /[ɑ~ɑə]/—these three features making this New England accent noticeably similar to a New York accent.^{[51] [52]} These features are often unlike the modern Northeastern New England (NENE) dialect of Boston, as is Rhode Island's feature of a completed father–bother merger, shared with the rest of the country outside of NENE.^[53] A few terms are unique to this area, such as the word cabinet to mean "milkshake" (particularly, coffee cabinets),^[54] pizza strips (Italian tomato pie strips served cold without cheese), and coffee milk.^[55]

Notable lifelong native speakers

• John Chafee – a non-rhotic "New England accent"^[56]
• Emeril Lagasse
• "Pauly D" DelVecchio – "the thickest Rhode Island accent"^[57]
• Henry Giroux
• Spalding Gray – "his demeanor is as flat as his Rhode Island accent"^[58]
• Chris Herren – "with a Fall River accent he bellows"^[59]
• John Pastore
• Daniel McKee – governor of Rhode Island

French-American Manchester English

An ethnic local accent has been documented among self-identifying French Americans in Manchester, New Hampshire. The accent's most prominent pronunciation features are th-stopping (pronouncing thin like tin and there like dare) and, variably, word-initial h-dropping (so that hair may sound like air).

See also

• Accent (sociolinguistics)
• Boston accent
• Maine accent
• Western New England English

References

• • • Stanford, James N.; Leddy-Cecere, Thomas A.; Baclawski Jr., Kenneth P. "Farewell To The Founders: Major Dialect Changes Along The East-West New England Border." American Speech 87.2 (2012): pp. 126–169. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
• Stanford, James N.; Severance, Nathan A.; Baclawski Jr., Kenneth P. "Multiple vectors of unidirectional dialect change in eastern New England." Language Variation and Change (2014) Vol.26 (1), pp. 103–140.
• Stanford, James. 2019. New England English: Large-scale acoustic sociophonetics and dialectology. Oxford University Press. 367 pages.

Further reading

• Book: Rule, Rebecca. Headin' for the Rhubarb!: A New Hampshire Dictionary (Well, Kinda). Islandport Press. Yarmouth, Maine. 2010. 978-1-93403-144-5.

Notes and References

1. Book: Robert Hendrickson. The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms. 2000. Infobase . 326. 9781438129921.
2. Sletcher, Michael (2004). New England. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 264
3. Stanford et al. (2012: 130)
4. Stanford et al. (2012: 161)
5. See, for example, that Labov's 2006 Atlas of North American English frequently includes Providence/Rhode Island under this general dialect, yet his 1997 Regional Telsur Map does not.
6. Stanford et al. (2012: 154)
7. Knight, Dudley. "Standard Speech". In: Hampton, Marian E. & Barbara Acker (eds.) (1997). The Vocal Vision: Views on Voice. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 160.
8. Stanford et al. (2014: 120)
9. Stanford et al. (2012: 160-1)
10. Platt, Melanie, "Do you "park your car" or "pahk your cah"?: The Changing Dialect of Southern New Hampshire" (2015). Inquiry Journal 2015. 5. http://scholars.unh.edu/inquiry_2015/5
11. Nagy, Naomi (2001). " 'Live Free or Die' as a Linguistic Principle". American Speech, Volume 76, Number 1, Spring 2001, pp. 30-41.
12. Web site: Is That New England Accent in Retreat?. 15 August 2012.
13. Book: Boberg, Charles . Charles Boberg . Cambridge University Press . The English Language in Canada: Status, History and Comparative Analysis . 2010 . 156. 9781139491440 .
14. Web site: Bubbler map - Wisconsin Englishes . Csumc.wisc.edu . 2012-06-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110722224611/http://csumc.wisc.edu/wep/map.htm . 2011-07-22 . dead .
15. Web site: Drinking a Cabinet: How to Talk Like a New Englander . Heller . Carolyn B. . Cbheller.com . C.B. Heller . February 2, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140219094934/http://www.cbheller.com/drinking_a_cabinet__how_to_talk_like_a_new_englander_47756.htm . February 19, 2014 . dead .
16. Web site: Hoodsie . Glossary at Boston-Online.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20120211161241/http://www.universalhub.com/glossary/hoodsie.html. February 11, 2012 . dead.
17. http://www.celebrateboston.com/culture/dictionary.htm Boston To English Dictionary
18. News: Regional Vocabulary . The New York Times . 2006-03-17 . 2010-04-26.
19. News: The Jimmies Story: Can an ice cream topping be racist?. Jan Freeman. boston.com. March 13, 2011. March 4, 2015.
20. Book: Harrison . Mim . Wicked Good Words: From Johnnycakes to Jug Handles, a Roundup of America's Regionalisms . Penguin . 2011 . 978-1101543399.
21. "The Legend of the Sacred Cod (Or Is It Scrod?)". Yankee Magazine. Yankee Publishing, Inc., 2021.
22. "So Don't I". Yale Grammatical Diversity Project English in North America. Yale University. 2017.
23. Web site: Winship Spa - Brighton, MA . Yelp.com . 2012-06-18.
24. Web site: Montrose Spa - Porter Square - Cambridge, MA . Yelp.com . 2012-06-18.
25. Web site: Hillside Spa Cardoza Brothers - Beacon Hill - Boston, MA . Yelp.com . 2012-06-18.
26. Web site: Hodgkin's Spa - Somerville, MA . Yelp.com . 2012-06-18.
27. Web site: Sam's Spa Convenience - About - Google . Google Maps . 2012-06-18 .
28. [William Labov|Labov]
29. "Spuky". Dictionary.com, 2022.
30. Dictionary of American Regional English
31. Book: Gordon . Heather . Newcomer's Handbook For Moving To And Living In Boston: Including Cambridge, Brookline, And Somerville . limited . First Books . 2004 . 14 . 978-0912301549.
32. Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.
33. Web site: Wicked Good Guide to Boston English.
34. Web site: Speak Like a Mainer . Fowles . Debby . 2015 . About Travel . About.com . 20 May 2015 . 18 May 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150518082252/http://gonewengland.about.com/od/maine/a/aa-speak-mainer.htm . dead .
35. Ryland, Alison (2013). "A Phonetic Exploration of the English of Portland, Maine". Swarthmore College.
36. News: Shapiro. Leonard. Top 10: Dialing up the best in Washington sports radio. January 18, 2015. The Washington Post. June 2, 2010.
37. Miller, Gregory E. (2018) "Bill Burr vows to never become an ‘old cornball’". New York Post. NYP Holdings, Inc.
38. Metcalf, A. (2004). Presidential Voices. Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 150.
39. News: Lenny Clarke Deftly Handles Nightschtick. The Boston Globe. Sullivan, Jim. 2001-04-18.
40. Did You Hear The One About The @&%#! Comic?. New York. Calhoun, Ada. 2004-03-29. 2009-03-17.
41. Encyclopedia: John F. Kennedy. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009.
42. Book: Thomas . Evan . Robert Kennedy: His Life . 2000 . Simon & Schuster . 26.
43. News: A Mannah of Speaking. The New York Times. Healy, Patrick. 2009-09-02. 2009-10-18.
44. News: Mel's Vision. Concannon. Jim. The Boston Globe. May 12, 2009.
45. Book: King, Dennis . Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism . Doubleday . 1989 . New York . 306 .
46. News: The nonpolitician who would be governor. The Boston Globe. Mooney, Brian C.. 2006-02-19. 2009-02-26. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303224318/https://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/02/19/the_nonpolitician_who_would_be_governor/. 2016-03-03.
47. News: A Time to Reevaluate Family Ties. The Washington Post. Gardner, Amy. 2009-02-11. 2009-02-27.
48. Mr. Fix-It. Sacramento Magazine. Bizjak, Marybeth. February 2007. 2009-03-17.
49. News: Despite his unlikely build, Vikings' Wiggins gets it done at tight end.. https://web.archive.org/web/20140611052758/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-125717347.html. dead. 2014-06-11. Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Jensen, Sean. 2004-12-03. 2009-02-26.
50. Web site: Guide to Rhode Island Language Stuff. May 30, 2007. Quahog.org. July 14, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070714083823/http://www.quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=43. dead.
51. "This phonemic and phonetic arrangement of the low back vowels makes Rhode Island more similar to New York City than to the rest of New England".
52. Boberg . Charles . 2001 . The Phonological Status of Western New England . American Speech . 76 . 1 . 28, 3–29 . 10.1215/00031283-76-1-3. 143486914 .
53. Johnson, Daniel Ezra (2010). "Stability and Change Along a Dialect Boundary: The Low Vowels of Southeastern New England". American Dialect Society 95. p. 100.
54. Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. "What do you call the drink made with milk and ice cream?." The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Linguistics Department.
55. Musto, Marisa (2018). "Famed Rhode Island Foods". AAA Northeast.
56. Web site: Brady. James. Don't Spend Any Time Trying to Detonate John Chafee. Advertising Age. 1997.
57. Web site: Raffert Meets the Press. 2011. John Carroll University. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20101023190816/http://sites.jcu.edu/magazine/2010/08/12/jcus-rafferty-meets-the-press/. 23 October 2010. 'Pauly D has the thickest Rhode Island accent I've ever heard,' [Brian] Williams told us..
58. News: De Vries. Hilary. 1990. Spalding Gray: His New Favorite Subject--Him. Los Angeles Times.
59. Barboza, Scott (2011). The rise, fall and recovery of a phenom". ESPN.