New England English
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Several dialects of American English are spoken in New England. These include Eastern New England dialect, most famously typified by the Boston accent, the Rhode Island accent and the Western New England accent, including Vermont English.
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[edit] Features
Eastern New England and Rhode Island are both historically non-rhotic accents, while Western New England is historically rhotic. Eastern New England possesses the so-called caught-cot merger; Rhode Island does not possess the merger; and Western New England exhibits a continuum from full merger in northern Vermont to full distinction in western Connecticut. The Western New England accent is closely related to the Inland North accent which prevails further west.
[edit] Regional Variances
Within New England English exists a number of dialects particular to individual states and regions. These include the dialects of Eastern New England, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Boston and Rhode Island.
[edit] Boston English
[edit] Maine-New Hampshire English
Maine-New Hampshire English refers to the speech patterns found mainly in the northern New England states of New Hampshire and Maine. This dialect is more common in more rural parts of each state. It somewhat resembles the Boston accent (which does take precedence in areas of New Hampshire where there has been large scale immigration from Massachusetts, such as Hillsborough County), and is known for being non-rhotic in most words ending in R. "Car" often turns into "cah" /kaː/ and "lobster" becomes "lobstah" /lɑbstə/. The practice of G-dropping is also common. For example, working changes to workin.[1] Also, in words that end in "a", an "r" is added. For example, "soder" instead of soda, "idear" instead of idea, etc.
Perhaps some of the more notable practitioners of this dialect include New Hampshire celebrity Fritz Wetherbee, Maine senator Olympia Snowe, Maine comedian Tim Sample (although it is common knowledge that his accent is very exaggerated), and another Maine comedian, Bob Marley, most famous for his role as Detective Greenley in Boondock Saints.
The dialect tends to vary from region to region. For example, in the western part of New Hampshire, the dialect may resemble certain aspects of Western New England or Vermont speech, which is known to have a generally muffled sound.[2] In the southern part of the state and in cities such as Nashua and Manchester, the Maine-New Hampshire vernacular is nearly non-existent, and most speech patterns resemble the General American or Boston dialects.[3]
In addition, speakers with the accent tend to use some terms from British English which are uncommon in General American English, such as "cellar" {or "cellah" /sɛlə/} for "basement" and "supper" (or "suppah" /sʌpə/) for "dinner." However, for most words which vary between British and American English, the American version is retained, such as "gasoline," not "petrol," and "elevator," not "lift."
[edit] Maine Variation
In Maine, the accent is sometimes referred to as the Downeast Accent, and it is more closely preserved near the coast. Residents of coastal fishing towns, are noted for their strong accents. The accent of inland Maine, as opposed to the Maine seacoast, has speech patterns resembling some elements of Canadian English.[citation needed] Some towns, for example Augusta and Bangor, are "transitional." Generally speaking, residents of those areas who were born before 1970 maintain the accent, whereas those born later are more likely to speak with a General American dialect.[citation needed] It is used by dialect comedians like Tim Sample and Bob Marley. Like most New England dialects, Maine English is usually non-rhotic.
Generally, the dropped 'r' pronunciations once became stronger the further north and east. Currently, as in many other areas, the local dialects are shifting to a more accent-neutral form, similar to the general U.S. broadcast language standard. Possibly because of its more remote setting, northern Maine's dialects are not changing as rapidly.
[edit] Vermont English
The dialect of the English Language spoken in the U.S. state of Vermont is often referred to as Vermont English. Although a New England state, the variety of English spoken in most parts of the state generally has more in common with the accent spoken in nearby New York State and parts of the Midwest. Features include:
- The [æ/] in words like 'bad' and 'cat' is tensed in most environments to [eə], though rarely to the same extreme as the Inland North dialect.[4]
- As with Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and some Great Lakes English, glottal replacement of 't' is common.[5]
- As with Maine and New Hampshire, 'caught' and 'cot' are usually merged, in this case to [ɑ].[4]
- Words ending in the letter 'a' are pronounced as if the word ended in 'er', for instance the word area would be pronounced 'air-ee-er'.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ http://199.125.75.13/stories/news/recent2002/nh_accent_2002.shtml Concord Monitor: Turnin' back the clock on talk. 15 September 2002.
- ^ http://www.nhpr.org/archive/2006/3/9/term/15001 NHPR: "Ayuh, Linguistically Speaking."
- ^ http://199.125.75.13/stories/news/recent2002/nh_accent_2002.shtml Concord Monitor: Turnin' back the clock on talk. 15 September 2002.
- ^ a b c Walsh, Molly. Vermont Accent: Endangered Species?. Burlington Free Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
- ^ MacQuarrie, Brian. "Taking bah-k Vermont", The Boston Globe.
