Wicked Good Guide to Boston English

(These are some words I've picked up working with toddlers and their families in Boston. I'm including expressions I've heard from at least three families who I don't believe know each other.)

Fresh: Used by Bostonians, particularly white folks in Southie and Dorchester, to mean any undesired behavior on the part of a child. (As opposed to only designating sassy or smart-ass behavior as it does in most other places.) "You better stop being fresh, young man!" Sometimes "freshy" is used with particularly young tots: "You stop being freshy and hold Mommy's hand when I ask you to."

Tubby: Bathing, when talking to a young child, or about a young child. "Hi, we're going to be a little bit late, because Peter just finished taking a tubby." "Peter, it's time for you to come in here for your tubby."

Piggies: Toes. While conducting developmental assessments on toddlers, I've literally had dozens of parents who, when we ask the toddler if they can point to various body parts, explain that "we always call them piggies, so you gotta ask where your PIGGIES are!"

I grew up in Dedham during the late 40s and 50s. I now live in the midwest (Illinois and Iowa) and have done so for the last 45 years. A couple of nights ago I was out with some friends and I offered to treat the group to some ice cream. As I did so a phrase my father used under similar circumstances popped into my head, "I'll shout" meaning he would buy. None of my friends, all native Iowans, had ever heard the word shout used in that way. It occurred to me that this usage may have been unique to the Boston area. He was raised in East Boston.

Tom Gartland
West Branch, Iowa

Do Bostonians pronounce Squirrel Skwerl or Skwirl?

Thanks,

RB

I remember hearing my first completely unrecognizable example of Bostonese. During a break in a business meeting we were told the bathrooms were to the right and the "Waddahbubblah" was to the left. Not a clue. Later it was explained to me that the word was "water bubbler" or drinking fountain to the other 99.99% of Americans. Later that same day I was told to "bang a youey at the packy" which deciphers to "make a U turn at the liquor store" when driving around Boston. It didn't get any better as I was told to make sure "Mock knows about the potty!" and was too confused to invite "Mark to the party".

OK so I'm still looking for someone who remembers these words which we used to use in Malden around 1964-65:

Zoof- as in you're a stupid zoof

Click- a kid who dressed in the collegiate style even in grade school

Fusco- Elvis style

Pretty strange and I didn't dream 'em up

I have lived in AZ for the last 12 years. I say things like:
-"So don't I"... "So Aren't you"
-I pronounce Didn't...like "Did-dnt"
-I sometimes find myself saying Wada. (Is this an accent or speech problem?)
-Use bullshit, Jacked up (messed up), JImmies,

I grew up in South MA where the accent is even stronger, but moved to Milford and Watertown in my teens. I don't feel like I have an accent anymore, but my husband will constantly correct my language as if I have a speech problem. I would like to be able to explain that this is normal Mass talk!

Interestingly, there an very large lexical overlap between USMC dialecticalisms and Bostonian English. This probably has in large part to do with the fact that for quite some time, South Boston had the highest per-capita recruitment rate for the Marines of anywhere in the country.

I remember one time I was coming out of the old Harvard Square kiosk. As I was going up the steps, a citizen, an outlander, asked me for the time. I looked at my watch and told him, "Huppass foah." (4:30) He looked at me as if I'd started babbling in Swahili.
Half past, quarter til/to/of and quarter past/after don't seem to be used much in the USA.

I love this site. I grew up in St. Louis, my Faathe was from Baastin. Last year I re-connected with a girlfriend I knew since 6th grade. I said something about my dad being from Boston. She replied, All these years I thought your dad was from a different country. LOL. My sister and I LOVE the accent he introduced us to. To all you Bostonians, don't change a thing!

I think I was the only child raised in Missouri that had a Boston accent. My speech teachers were puzzled along with my English teachers.My father tot me well.
1.) we have a tahlit( toilet)

2) we drive a hautomoblile

3) we shop at a Stah

4.)ooooo and my favorite "Go ask your Mummer"

5.) on a Christmas tree you have to put on the oudamints
6.) in the moning you eat bref fast lol

Thanks Dad I love you.

I've lived in Dedham foah ovah foah-ty yea-ahs. When I get together with my family, who now live in New Hampshire, they can't undastand me haf the time -- my accent is wicked bad.

What happened to the word boggus.
I remember using that a lot growin up.

My friend from Brookline, married a man from Oakland, CA. In the 80's she asked for a birthday present:

"A wawhn leatha bomma jacket."

He told her he had no idea what she was saying.

A worn leather bomber jacket! Of course.

Hot having been born or raised in Massachusetts, my parents who are now in their 70's were from the Jersey suburbs of NYC. They recently recalled that when they were in school, ALL students were taught to speak clear and concise English. This included African-American students. Slang was not accepted and in order to graduate, a student had to speak and read at an acceptable level. As I was growing up in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts, I do remember being corrected at home MANY times for grammar and pronunciations I had picked up from other classmates, as well as teachers! I am extremely grateful to my parents for insisting on proper speech!! Sometimes I struggle when conversing with life long natives...It's actually embarassing. There is nothing amusing or attractive about poor speech.

I would just like to say the most annoying accent in the world is a Boston accent, sorry , but I think it makes people sound unintelligent. I grew up here and I pronounce my "r's" all of them , all the time.

Let's get a spukie and a tonic. Didja eat yet?

I left Massachusetts in 1956 and soon learned how to speak English as it is written [no wonder the kids in Mass. can't spell.] but when I'm tired and not alert I'll revert and pronounce a word incorrectly and my wife will say to me. "What did you say?"

I remember Jack Parr saying that the Brittish don't talk that way when the first get up in the morning.

Last night at the CVS on Mass Ave by Symphony Hall, I was shopping for some razors. The store is under renovations, and a very kind, female CVS employee walked up to me and said:

"If yuah lookin' foah rayzah cahtrahges, they'ah byack behind the registah."

I've been living in Boston for over a year, and the accent never gets old. I love it!

Accents are great! They make our world colorful! It's interesting to figure out where people come from by listening to their pronunciation. You just shouldn't sound like you've never been anywhere else (not only a matter of the accent!)
So we Bostonians don't pronounce our "r"s. But elsewhere they don't say short "o"s, they say "ah", or why would anyone confuse a party and a potty?!