My friend Vivian posted this a while back on her Instagram, and I thought it was funny. So many people make New Year’s resolutions to adopt healthier eating habits and today marks one week for all of you who made such resolutions. Hopefully you’ll find this nutritional label much more interesting to read.
According to a recent YouGov poll, Boston has the strongest regional accent in the nation, while Southern accents were deemed the sexiest. Some 23% of respondents picked Boston as the strongest regional accent followed by the Deep South with 16%, and New York and Texas tied with 13%
More than a third of Americans self-identify as speaking with a regional accent, which means that nearly 120 million Americans speak “funny”.
I like to think of my blog as an important, educational site that can help you expand your vocabulary. Today’s vocabulary word is blinkah.
bliNGkah (rənah/ noun)
Definition: a device that blinks, especially a vehicle’s turn signal.
Example: That S.O.B. didn’t use his blinkah on Storrow Drive and cut me off
I like to think of my blog as an important, educational site that can help you expand your vocabulary. Today’s vocabulary word is one you would have heard a lot this past week with the Boston Marathon having just taken place. This week’s word is runnah
Runnah (rənah/ noun)
Definition: a person who runs
Example: That guy who won the Boston Marathon was a wicked fast runnah.
Much thanks to @bpmoynihan for sharing this on Twitter otherwise I might have missed this funny 4+ minute video, Boston Accent Trailer.
I love the surprise guest appearance at 2:50 in the trailer.
Posted in Art & Film, Boston, Boston Slanguage, Humor, Video
Tagged BosGuy, Boston, Boston Guy
Earlier this week the Oxford English Dictionary added the word Masshole, formalizing a term well known to frustrated drivers throughout the Northeast. The dictionary defines the term as a piece of “coarse slang” meaning “a term of contempt for a native or inhabitant of the state of Massachusetts,” Masshole was one of nearly 500 words added to the dictionary, along with twerk, sext, hyperlocal, freegan, fratty, and fo’ shizzle.
You can read the full article in The Boston Globe, here.
I saw this funny post on David’s blog, WGB, and wanted to share as well.
Last week my friend Tony pointed out that in 2013 Business Insider published the findings of a national poll that found our fellow Americans thought those of us from Massachusetts had the weirdest accents in the country.
For the record, we didn’t receive the dubious honor of being named the rudest state nor arrogant; that was reserved for New York. However, Massachusetts was also named the smartest state.
You may read all the results from Business Insider, here.
This past August I stumbled upon this hilarious sign at the Starbucks by the Westin Copley. Click on the image to enlarge so you can read the “Foah” (Four) Fundamentals of Brewing Coffee, that happen to include things like “propoahtion” and “wataah”.
For those not from the area, you may not be familiar with this rather unique Boston holiday that results from the onslaught of students moving into the area for the start of the next academic year. Don’t believe me? The holiday even is in the Urban Dictionary: allston christmas.
Allston Christmas will really begin tomorrow when renters begin to toss all their unwanted furnishings onto the street as they vacate their sublet or previous apartment and for the next 12+ hours are likely to be unable to get into their new apartment.
For all of you who don’t happen to be from the area let me translate.
If you happen to leave your vehicle in this area it will most likely not be here when you return because it will have been towed.
Now do you understand why we find it is just easier to say No Pahkin?
Much thanks to Sean over at Just A Jeep Guy for sharing this humorous photograph. Considering CVS is based in Rhode Island, it is likely that this is exacly how the founders would have said this.
Much thanks to my good friend and fellow blogger (or should I say bloggah?) Julian who writes, You Think You Know for telling me about the NYT survey that asks a series of questions about pronunciation and names you give to certain items to determine or in my case confirms your personal dialect. No surprise with my results – which you can clearly see in the above image.
Want to take this two minute quiz to see what it says about your dialect? Check out the NYT survey here.
“Doctah”
Today’s lesson in learning how to speak BosTongue is doctah.
doctah – noun \ˈdäk-ta\
a person who is skilled in the science of medicine : a person who is trained and licensed to treat sick and injured people
Used in a sentence: Doctah would you check to see if I have a hernia?
Although many of the college students returning to Boston this week are upper class men who are familiar with this town’s idiosyncrasies, thousands of Freshmen and transfer students are walking the streets asking for directions and doing their best to settle into their new home.
Let me be among the first to welcome you and defer you to this wiki on Boston slang. The list while somewhat old in that it references older pop culture terminology is still spot on and includes helpful definitions of words like the following.
Dawchestahh: Dorchester, Massachusetts NOTE: If you are gay and a student you are either a) likely living here; or b) get familiar with Dorchester (sometimes called Dot) because you’ll be going to a lot of parties here.
Leather District: A downtown neighborhood surrounding South Street in Boston, east of Chinatown. NOTE: The only thing gay about the Leather District is the LGBT bookstore, Calamus, and the porn shop, Marquis de Sade – both happen to be on South Street.
Wicked: very; or occasionally cool. Used indiscriminately, can modify anything (e.g.: especially “Wicked pissa.”). Almost always used as an adverb.
Yiz: Plural form of “you.” As in, “All a yiz bettah be in the cah by the time I count to fou-ah”.
BosGuy 