If you’ve ever been to Massachusetts, you’ve most likely noticed two things: the lack of r's and impatient drivers. However, even as a Massachusetts native and regardless of how comforting I find my home state, I ponder the origins of the way we tend to speak, and where our vernacular comes from. It’s become almost the butt of every joke that New Yorkers and Bostonians (Massachusettsians doesn’t sound as good, and we’re all clumped in there by the general public anyways) have very distinct accents, and yet they’re hard to replicate without merging into the other. Nine times out of ten, when I tell someone I am from Massachuestts or the Greater Boston area, they hit me with this one: “Oh pahk yah cah in Hahvahd Yahd” or “Oh so you must be wicked smaht.” And as much as it pains me to hear those exaggerated interpretations each and every time, it always makes me wonder why this presumption exists, and where it came from. Thanks to the Bizjournals/Bostinno website, I was able to find some insight to this! So what is probably the most distinguishable quality of the Boston or New England dialect is it’s non-rhotic sound. Non-rhotic just means the lack of an -r sound, it is most commonly found in Britain, New York City, and of course, New England accents. This tendency to omit the -r sound really began in Boston and with the Boston Brahmins, who were the uber-wealthy, exclusive, aristocratic group of New Englanders who’s haughtiness led to them speaking in a British accent. 

But this sound “actually dates back 400 years, when settlers first came to the area from Europe,” it was actually a way to further rebel against the British control that the settlers faced, and seeing as the -r sound was becoming a far more rustic characteristic in 17th century England, it was omitted almost entirely. So not only were the pilgrim colonizers in New England pioneers for introducing the “new western world,” but they were also leading the way into an -r-less world too. Nonetheless, this change didn’t happen overnight, it was a gradual progress as more settlers from Southeast England came to the Boston area; and the reason we know so much about this, is because “New England at this time was..the most literate place in the English-speaking world” documenting virtually everything in preparation for the new world. Not only do New Englanders pronounce things differently, we have special slang/different forms of traditional words that outsiders get puzzled about. For example, words that are more commonly used by older folk are “pocketbook” (although, in action, sounds much more like “pocka-book”), instead of “purse/handbag,” “rubbish” instead of “trash.” But some commonly used words that are used by a larger group of people are “wicked”, which is synonymous with “very” or “really”; “townie,” which is someone who is native to the surrounding area; and “bubbler” (or “bubbla”) for a water/drinking fountain (fun fact: up until around the age of 7, I genuinely didn’t know “bubblers” were actually called “water fountains” until someone pointed it out to me). Some other words include: “cellar” or the alternative, “cella,” which means basement, “Dunks” for Dunkin Donuts, “supper/suppa” for dinner, “bang-a-uey” which is to make a U-turn, “clicker/clicka” which is a remote control, “the Pike” for the Massachusetts Turnpike, and last but certainly not least, “the Cape” for Cape Cod (if you ever hear someone say “Let’s go to Cape Cod,” my advice is to run and never look back, because it’s just... wrong).

So there you go, hopefully you’ve gathered some insight into why New Englanders/Bostonians speak the way they do.