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A Boston accent is a local accent of
Eastern New England English Eastern New England English, historically known as the Yankee dialect since at least the 19th century, is the traditional regional dialect of Maine, New Hampshire, and the eastern half of Massachusetts. Features of this variety once spanned an eve ...
, native specifically to the city of
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and its suburbs. Northeastern New England English is classified as traditionally including New Hampshire, Maine, and all of eastern Massachusetts, though some uniquely local vocabulary appears only around Boston. A 2006 study co-authored by
William Labov William Labov ( ; born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of ...
claims that the accent remains relatively stable,Labov, William (2010).
The Politics of Language Change: Dialect Divergence in America
'. The University of Virginia Press. Pre-publication draft. p. 53.
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 , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...
neighborhood of
South Boston South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformat ...
.


Phonological characteristics

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 ) with the "broad ''a''" (as in ) like most other American accents, the Boston accent merges it with the "aw" vowel (as in ). Thus, ''lot'', ''paw'', ''caught'', ''cot'', ''law'', ''wand'', ''rock'', ''talk'', ''doll'', ''wall'', etc. all are pronounced with the same open back (often) rounded vowel , while keeping the broad ''a'' sound distinct: , as in ''father'', ''spa'', and ''dark''. So, even though the word ''dark'' has no in many Boston accents, it remains pronounced differently from ''dock'' because it belongs to Boston's – class of words versus the – one: ''dark'' versus ''dock'' . Thus, while
New York accent The phonology, sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan area, New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accent (sociolinguistics), accents of the United States, ...
s have for ''paw'' and for ''lot'' and Standard British accents have a similar distinction ( versus ), Boston accents only have one merged
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
here for both: . In general, Eastern New England accents have a "short ''a''" vowel , as in , that is extremely tensed towards when it precedes a
nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...
; thus, ''man'' is and ''planet'' is . 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 General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
-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 fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
s, followed by
voiced stop In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...
s, laterals, voiceless stops, and voiced fricatives, so that words like ''half'', ''bath'', and ''glass'' become , and , respectively. 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 class (see "Declining features" below).Wood, 2010, p. 139. The raised may overlap with the non-rhotic realization of as . Boston accents make a greater variety of distinctions between short and long vowels before medial than many other modern American accents do: ''hurry'' and ''furry'' ; and ''mirror'' and ''nearer'' , though some of these distinctions are somewhat endangered as people under 40 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 has lost them entirely. The nuclei of the diphthongs and ( and . respectively) may be raised to something like before
voiceless consonant In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
s: 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 Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
. The nuclei of and (in and ) are significantly less fronted than in many other American accents. The latter may be diphthongized to or . Speakers of the more deeply urban varieties of the Boston accent may realize the English
dental fricative The dental fricative or interdental fricative is a fricative consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth. There are several types (those used in English being written as ''th''): *Voiced dental fricative - as in the English ...
s as the
dental stop In phonetics and phonology, a dental stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the tongue in contact with the upper teeth (hence dental), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop consonant). Dental and alveolar stops are ...
s , 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 Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
(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. This goes for black Bostonians as well. Non-rhoticity means the
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
does not appear in coda position (where in English
phonotactics Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek "voice, sound" and "having to do with arranging") is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...
it must precede other consonants, see English phonology - coda), as in most dialects of English in England and Australia; ''card'' therefore becomes "cahd" and ''color'' "culluh". Words such as ''weird'' and ''square'' feature centering diphthongs, which correspond to the sequences of close and mid vowels + in rhotic AmE. The phonemicity of the centering diphthongs depends on a speaker's rhoticity. An example of non-rhoticity (plus a fronted vowel) is "Park your car in Harvard Yard", pronounced , or as if spelled "pahk yah cah(r) in Hahvud Yahd". The ''r'' in ''car'' would usually be pronounced in this case, because the Boston accent possesses both linking R and intrusive R: an will not be lost at the end of a word if the next word begins with a vowel, and an 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 .


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 In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vow ...
, so that ''horse'' has the pure vowel , while ''hoarse'' has the centering diphthong ; this can potentially cause the –– merger, so that ''tort'', ''tot'' and ''taught'' are phonemically all . The result is that, for an older Boston accent, the –– vowel is distinct from the vowel. Another two example words that would traditionally be distinguished, thus, are ''for'' versus ''four'' . This distinction was rapidly fading out of currency in the second half of the 20th century with the words belonging to the class being transferred over to the class, undoing the merger of with –, 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 . A feature that Boston speakers once shared with Britain's
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
, though now uncommon in Boston, is the "broad ''a''" of the
lexical set A lexical set is a group of words that all fall under a single category based on a single shared phonological feature. A phoneme is a basic unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. Most commonly, following the work ...
of words, making a distinction from the set (). In particular words that in other American accents have the "short ''a''" pronounced as , that vowel was replaced in the nineteenth century (if not earlier and often sporadically by speakers as far back as the late eighteenth century) with : thus, ''half'' as and ''bath'' as . 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 occurring in speakers born from about 1930 to 1950 (and first documented as a decline in 1977). Boston speakers born before about 1930 used this broad ''a'' in the words ''after'', ''ask'', ''aunt'', ''bath'', ''calf'', ''can't'', ''glass'', ''half'', ''laugh'', ''pasture'', ''path'', and perhaps other words, and born from about 1930 to 1950 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 In the sociolinguistics of the English language, raising or short-''a'' raising is a phenomenon by which the "short ''a''" vowel , the vowel (found in such words as ''ash, bath, man, lamp, pal, rag, sack, trap,'' etc.), is pronounced with a ra ...
(i.e. ), for example, in ''craft'', ''bad'', ''math'', etc.) with this same set of words and, variably, other instances of short ''a'' too. 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.


In popular culture

Although not all Boston-area speakers are non-rhotic,
non-rhoticity Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
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 John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
drafted the 1780
Massachusetts Constitution The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. As a member of the Massachuset ...
, "delegates from his state refused to ratify the letter 'R'". 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 ''Good Will Hunting'' is a 1997 American psychological drama film directed by Gus Van Sant, and written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It stars Robin Williams, Damon, Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård and Minnie Driver. The film received positive r ...
'', ''
Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...
'', ''
The Departed ''The Departed'' is a 2006 American epic crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film '' Infernal Affairs'' and also loosely based on the real-life Boston Win ...
'', '' Manchester by the Sea'', '' The Town'', '' Ted'', ''
The Fighter ''The Fighter'' is a 2010 American biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell, and stars Mark Wahlberg (who also produced), Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. The film centers on the lives of professional boxer Mi ...
'', and '' Black Mass''.Gottlieb, Jeremy (2017).
Hollywood has a Boston problem
. ''The Washington Post''.
Television series based within a Boston setting such as ''
Boston Public ''Boston Public'' is an American drama television series created by David E. Kelley and broadcast on Fox. Set in Boston, the series centers on Winslow High School, a fictional public high school in the Boston Public Schools district. It feature ...
'' and '' Cheers'' have featured the accent. '' Simpsons'' character
Mayor Quimby Mayor Joseph Fitzgerald O'Malley Fitzpatrick O'Donnell The Edge "Joe" Quimby, nicknamed Diamond Joe, is a recurring character from the animated sitcom television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, and first appeared in ...
talks with an exaggerated Boston accent as reference to the former US Senator
Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
. Television
comedy sketch Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and i ...
es have featured the accent, including " The Boston Teens" and "Dunkin Donuts" on ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'', as well as "Boston Accent Trailer" on '' Late Night with Seth Meyers''. In '' The Heat'', the family of Shannon Mullins all speak with the Boston accent and confusion arises from the pronunciation of the word ''narc'' as ''nahk'' . In the video game ''
Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' mod for '' Quake'' and its 1999 remake, '' Team Fortress Classic''. The game was ...
'', the character Scout, who is himself a Boston native, talks with a distinct Boston accent, although it sometimes lapses into a Brooklyn accent.


Notable lifelong native speakers

* William J. Bratton – "thick Boston accent" *
Bill Burr William Frederick Burr (born June 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, filmmaker, and podcaster. He has released multiple stand-up comedy specials, most notably ''Why Do I Do This?'' (2008), ''Let It Go'' (2010), '' You People Are ...
— "the comic's wicked Boston accent" *
Lenny Clarke Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * ''L ...
– "a Cambridge-raised verbal machine gun with a raspy Boston accent" * Chick Corea – "his speech still carries more than a trace of a Boston accent" *
Sue Costello Sue Costello (born April 2, 1968) is an actress, comedian, writer and producer from the Savin Hill area in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Costello starred in the self-titled television series '' Costello'' on Fox, where ...
– "Between her thick Boston accent and fearless, stand-up style, Sue Costello is a true embodiment of the city's comedy scene." * Nick Di Paolo – "thick Boston accent" *
Jack Haley John Joseph Haley Jr. (August 10, 1897 – June 6, 1979) was an American actor, comedian, dancer, radio host, singer and vaudevillian. He was best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and his farmhand counterpart Hickory in the 1939 Metro-G ...
– "from Boston (as anyone who heard the Tin Man's accent would know)" * Mel King – "he has the soft R's of a deep Boston accent" *
Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspira ...
– "a cultivated New England accent" * Tom and Ray Magliozzi – "like drunk raccoons with Boston accents" *
Rocky Marciano Rocco Francis Marchegiano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969; ), better known as Rocky Marciano (, ), was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955, and held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956. He is the onl ...
– "He spoke with distinct traces of a Boston accent" *
Gina McCarthy Regina McCarthy (born May 3, 1954) is an American air quality expert who served as the first White House national climate advisor from 2021 to 2022. She previously served as the thirteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency f ...
– "Obama's nominee to head the EPA has that spectacular South Boston accent" *
Joey McIntyre Joseph Mulrey McIntyre (born December 31, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He is best known as the youngest member of the pioneering boy band, New Kids on the Block. He has sold over one million records worldwide as a solo ar ...
– "his authentic Boston accent" *
Christy Mihos Christy Peter Mihos (June 13, 1949 – March 25, 2017) was an American politician and businessman from Massachusetts. He was an Independent candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2006. He ran for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010, ...
– "speaks unpretentiously in a variation of a Boston accent, and drops the 'g' in words like talking or running." *
Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...
– "strong traces of the Boston dialect" *
Brian Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...
and
Jim Moran James Patrick Moran Jr. (born May 16, 1945) is an American politician who served as the mayor of Alexandria, Virginia from 1985 to 1990, and as the U.S. representative for (including the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, all of Arlington ...
– "The Moran brothers share... an unmistakable Massachusetts accent" * Alex Rocco – "grew up in blue-collar Cambridge" * Tom Silva – "New England accent" *
Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...
– "he demonstrates what many believe to be the strongest Boston dialect in the city’s mayoral history." * Jermaine Wiggins – "skin as thick as his East Boston accent"


See also

* Boston slang *
Eastern New England English Eastern New England English, historically known as the Yankee dialect since at least the 19th century, is the traditional regional dialect of Maine, New Hampshire, and the eastern half of Massachusetts. Features of this variety once spanned an eve ...
*
New England English New England English is, collectively, the various distinct dialects and varieties of American English originating in the New England area. Most of eastern and central New England once spoke the " Yankee dialect", some of whose accent features st ...
* North American English regional phonology


References


Bibliography

* * * * * *


Further reading

* *


External links


Guide to Boston English

Glossary of Boston English
!-- necessary because hard to find on link above -->





;Recordings of the Boston accent
37-year-old female

73-year-old male

Medford City Councilor


and compare with other accents from the US and around the World. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boston Accent American English Accent Languages of Massachusetts City colloquials