Along with Boston’s history, sports, education, and baked beans, the “Bawston” accent has long been a unique and fun distinction for Boston. For example, a survey run by the travel company, Big 7, showed that the Boston accent was ranked as the second sexiest in the country.
Americans around the country became familiar with the Boston accent through Hollywood movies and from listening to famous Boston figures like President John F Kennedy. The accent is distinguished by dropping the r’s, adding the r’s in some occasions, and lowering and broadening the vowels. Instead of “park the car in Harvard yard,” authentic Bostonians would say, “pahk the cah in Hah-vid yahd!”
The Boston accent is a result of Boston’s English beginnings. According to linguists Nagy and Irwin, the origin of the Boston accent can be traced back to the early settlers from England. The Anglo-Saxon colonists such as the Pilgrims and the Puritans brought their Southeastern non-rhotic (r-dropping) British accent with them when they first settled in Massachusetts. The upper class settlers, known as the Boston Brahmins, brought an accent which evolved from their ties to the English elite. Characterized by the famous Bostonian and U.S. President Kennedy, the Brahmin accent is synonymous with the educated, elite, wealthy, powerful…. the “beautiful”. Consequently, the Brahmin accent was fashionably adopted by actors in the entertainment industry in the late 19th and early 20th century
With the ever changing American population, immigrants and new Americans have distilled the original accents. Italian immigrants settling in the east of the city and Irish immigrants in the south side, the Boston accents began to develop in the different parts of the city. The Boston accents prevalent in Dorchester, South Boston, East Boston and the Back Bay are all distinct and do not mirror the prestigious Brahmin accent.
When people talk about Boston accents today, they usually refer to the non Brahmin Boston accents. Individuals with non Brahmin accents have been associated with negative stereotypes such as uneducated, uncultured, working, even lower class. Due to these impression more and more Bostonians were compelled consciously and subconsciously to lose their accent as the General American accent (Standard American English) became the prerequisite to high-ranking jobs.
Social pundits have blamed media and suggest that the Standard American English used by every newscaster has discouraged regional accents. However, a more documented phenomenon contributing to the change is the mobility of Americans. An accent develops when a population settles in a location for an extended period. As Boston attracts people nationally and internationally, Boston becomes increasingly diversified; new languages appear and these languages impact the accents in the region. Research has shown that distinctive accents in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Chicago have been shifting toward a General American accent (or Standard American English).
Accent shifting has also occurred due to the gentrification of cities. Many Bostonians can no longer afford to live in their generational home due to the rising living costs. The median home value in East Boston has risen more than 150% over the last decade. As pricey developments build new high rises and smaller developers buy and flip older houses, the original neighborhoods are transformed, driving working-class residents out with rising rent prices and ultimately losing the accents of those who leave. In places like Southie (South Boston), the working-class neighborhood has been turned into a haven for yuppies. The new money is certainly helping the development of Boston, but without proper policies to protect the generational neighborhoods more and more locals are being forced to leave their beloved neighborhoods . As a result of gentrification, Boston’s earlier accents are dying off.
It is very unlikely that many of us will ever meet younger Bostonians with such thick Boston accents as we see parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” Nevertheless, it would be inaccurate to say that the Boston accent is fading; rather, it seems to have been “watuhed” down. Local Bostonian, Joe, remembers that he was asked by his teacher to tune off his Boston accent when he was in school to sound more educated. Even now, he still practices code switching on a daily basis. Joe thinks that the biases around the Boston accent is unfair and to judge a person by their accent is superficial. Recalling his childhood memories about the Boston accent, he recounts that it has often been used as a marker for class divisions.
In a Boston Globe article, Whatevah happened to the Boston accent?, Brian Leary, a newscaster and West Roxbury native, told the Boston Globe that no television stations were hiring him because of his accent. He said, “I realized my accent was getting in the way so I decided to lose it… I reeducated myself in phonetics. And once I willed it, the accent was gone.”. Jack Beatty, an author and a Dorchestor native, said, “these days when I do hear it, I’m seized with nostalgia… This is something that has deep memories for me, childhood and the way things used to be. It’s a great thing; it helps reinforce childhood and rootedness.”
This reporter had the opportunity to interview Jeff, a BU medical student of Italian American and Irish American parents who grew up in Boston. He believes that an accent is a signal of strong community. To him and other Bostonians, the Boston accent is more than the pronunciation of words or different vocabularies – it represents who we are. It is a resemblance of our childhoods, an indispensable part of our culture, and a familiar sound to be proud of. He laughed, “Which out-of-towners can mimic the Boston accent anyway?”
Languages are constantly changing and shifting. Bostonians like Joe think that the Boston accent is disappearing and it signals the loss of ties in communities. Perhaps the Boston accent has become more subtle in the younger generations, but, thankfully, it is still heard in many of the enclaves in Boston.
