This guy has a nice, soft, gentle Boston accent that I associate with a wealthier, more proper Bostonian. It relaxes you rather than seems angry or tough guy. Its soothing.
I grew up in Boston and went to an international camp for teenagers in Colorado. We were told to bring a pencil to the party. So I told others to bring a pencil to the party. They were puzzled and wondered why they should bring a pencil to the pottie.
I am Australian but I worked in Boston for a while (well, just outside Boston). I actually felt at home there and no one had any trouble understanding me and, likewise!
That's what I was thinking, the way they pronounce the "ar"s as "ah"s really shows how similar it could be. It's like trying to put on the Australian dialect as an American.
As a Massachusetts native I’d have to agree. But Australians tend to have a healthier sense of humor. A Boston native is influenced by Puritan restrictions and using words like “cunt” as an expletive will cause New Englanders to recoil in disgust. It never fails to amuse me how funny and wonderful Australians are in their conversations with friends.
Aw ok as a New Englander and Bostonian, I so love and appreciate this video: his authentic accent and your earnest attempts (and not for nothing, pat yourself on the pack!! I don’t sugarcoat it when people mess up our accent but I think you did very well!) Plus, like there are so many variations (thank you for addressing this, much appreciated) of the accent within Boston itself, let alone the different New England accents... It’s really difficult to catch on if you didn’t grow up hearing people talk like this
I heard having a thick Australian accent makes the Boston accent pretty easy but that's a straight up lie. Dropping the R's were easy but saying 'lobster' with that accent gave me an aneurysm
I second thoughts you may be right...damn. Australians sound like that but you will notice with a Australian accent will start low and gradually increase.
I really need to send this video to my online friends because I once said “do you have an elastic?” And nobody understood what I said, and this is a good start to introducing people what the Boston Accent is.
This video was a revelation. I grew up in the suburbs of Boston and I do literally every one of these things except for the Dropped R, lol. I didn't think I had an accent because it wasn't the stereotypical urban Boston accent. But I do all those other things. I didn't know how difficult it was for people from elsewhere to pronounce vowels the way we do. Also this was really cute and funny.
I was laughing so hard because I thought the same thing not realizing I was doing some of the things they were talking about like the awe instead of the o sound. I told my husband now I realize why he makes fun of my accent so much. xD I was so clueless and being like what'chu mean? I don't have an accent. xD
@@JustMe-gs9xi 6:14 so fucking true! I was born and raised 10 miles south of Boston in Weymouth. Never knew I had a thick accent until I moved to Florida in my late 20’s and everyone kept on repeating myself back to me and laughing .
The intrusive 'R' also comes at the end of a syllable when it's followed by a vowel; for example, "drawing" is pronounced "drawring". As in: "Yawe drawring? I nevah sawrit."
Hilarious, as an Aussie hearing someone do my own accent, and calling it Bostonian, when I did Brighton Beach Memoirs a few years ago, we were all smooshing out something a bit more Noy Yoyk. I hope your production was as special and memorable as ours!
As a Bostonian.. Yeah pretty much. Wicked good. Also extra marks for the Brady jersey :) but seriously guys obviously from Boston he shouldn't be giving our secrets away ;) just kidding. Anyway if you want a movie that really showcases a real Bostonian accent well you should all watch Gone baby Gone with Casey Affleck. Me and a friend grew up with that kind of neighborhood and he had to leave the theater because it was so realistic to how he grew up. Casey and the mom are the most real in that film. Reminds me of people I grew up with in Dorchester. EDIT: Go Sox! EDIT2: "I work at camp hi howareahya" "do you teach archery?" okay that made me ma laugh out loud lol
“Fallout 4” the massive hit video game was set in post apocalyptic Boston. I went in for the audition and read a couple of monologues. When I was done and stepped out of the sound booth, the producer looked at me and smiled, asked me where I was from (I’m originally from East Boston) and I was called a few hours later and got the job. :-) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MNkvc5ybdb0.htmlfeature=shared
Well spokem Madeleine and husband, I was convinced that you were imitating an Australian accent and yet I shall say that the Bostonian accent to me sounds like the transatlantic accent which I like as well. I would be glad to assist you with an educated Australian accent. Both of you entertained me.
The depth and level of detail, especially by those well chosen examples, very good! A lot of the minor things that even Bostonians don't realize they're doing. The "draw'r" example is an intrusive "R" that I forgot I do! You're good!
So much of this sounds identical with the way we speak in Australia. I only heard a difference in the pronunciation of vowels like in "towed", "not", "calling" and "pocket". But we pronounce "lobster" exactly the same. We also say "aye" in the same way as well as inserting an "r" between "saw" + "it" or "raw" + "eggs". And beer, the same! Wow I wonder if it's the Irish influence
I tried telling my husband that I think its because of the irish influence and he tried calling me a liar said it was because of the british influence. I think its both.
Ha ha. Lived in East Boston my whole life until I took a job in Seattle when I was 36 years old. I was working at a bank and was on an elevator with one of my coworkers and a woman who I had seen once or twice in meetings and I was chatting with my coworker. I got off the elevator and they continued on to another floor. Later that day, my coworker said that the woman he was with asked him what part of Australia I was from. :-)
I was born and raised in Brooklyn. You would think that this would be an easy transition as our accents are somewhat similar, save a few vowel differences and the fact that Bostonians tend to speak more quickly and shorten some of their word endings. Unless I speak slowly, I fall right back into my Brooklyn accent. The Intrusive R occurs in some people who have Brooklyn accents too.
I’m from from blue collar, ethnic Italian,, East Boston and I am often mistaken for somebody from Brooklyn. We (you and I) know the obvious differences between the two and the more subtle ones but a lot of people from outside the Northeast have a hard time distinguishing the two.
I would be amazed if an American was able to teach this, I don't doubt there are some linguistic geniuses out there. The problem is that you can't really just learn the accent it's a whole different way of talking such that Scots is now regarded as a separate language. There is such a thing as a Scottish dialect of English, which is based on Anglic rather than Saxon. Edinburgh is probably closest to English, Glasgow much further and Inverness can be almost completely impenetrable. That's without going into Gaidhlig, which is completely unrelated to English.
I swear are so entertaining and made me laugh right from the getgo. I read and laughed along with you. You guys are so funny. Yet really great teachers. I learned a lot! Thanks!!😊
Im from Chicago but moved to Pittsburgh. When I recently spoke to friends back in Chicago they told me I developed a Boston accent lol I guess that’s what you get when you mix Chicago and Pittsburgh
I love this video and I'd love to see more about this accent and just more accent videos in general. Honestly the best video about the Boston accent as well. Thanks for this!
This is really good. Normally I just tell people to drop their ‘r’s and hit up a few Boston bars for regulars. Blake Lively’s accent was so good they asked her where she was from in Boston. She had no idea what neighborhood to tell them.
The whole time I was going through this tutorial I kept coming back to "This isn't as distinct sounding when I say it" but I realised that a lot of the vocal behaviours are similar to my Australian accent, being less heavy on R's and T's is natural to me. Just that our Ah sound instead of -ar or -er is less nasal sounding
Lived in East Boston my whole life until I took a job in Seattle when I was 36 years old. I was working at a bank and was on an elevator with one of my coworkers and a woman who I had seen once or twice in meetings and I was chatting with my coworker. I got off the elevator and they continued on to another floor. Later that day, my coworker said that the woman he was with asked him what part of Australia I was from. :-)
This is pretty funny. I grew up in Salem, MA not too far outside of Boston and I grew up speaking like that! Im a voice actor now and I worked very hard to lose it, lol. Sometimes a word will slip out now and then.
I have a speech impediment where I always mess up my r’s and w’s but for some reason everyone thinks I’m from Boston 💀 Thought I’d learn to perfect the accent
You two are amazing!! Thank you so much for this. 🙂 Signed myself up for a Voice Over job that required a Boston accent and it's been stressing me out - but you broke it down so well! I've GOT this now!
Oh, will this be a new series? I hope you make this a regular thing, because I've been learning about impressions and accents for the last few months. I'd appreciate any help you can give!
So helpful! Auditioning became a breeze! I'm a big fan of the accent. I used to have it naturally (Despite living in the west) but I lost it as I grew older. I love watching videos of myself when younger because I love the sound of my Baw-stuhn voice. Thank you so much for this video and the videos on singing! Your assistance is wonderful.
Okay now this is nice, and as a Bostonian this actually makes it sound Beautiful. However, I think all of us from MA know it really comes out when we go in the rotary.
Notice though, if your voice raises or lowers at ends of words could turn the pronunciation into something New York Also, I think women say things softer then men. ( although your husband speaks the accent softly - ) Living so many other places, especially with non English speakers has mitigated my Boston accent. It was totally lovely to hear your husbands accent!!!
Really nice! I’m Brazilian and I’m trying to learn English but it’s really hard to me. I live in New Bedford Massachusetts and I think it’s best place to learn because sounds like Brazilian Portuguese often! You are awesome! Keep doing that job and god bless you!!!
I had a boyfriend from Boston (we were on the west coast). He had been away for a while so his accent had mellowed a lot. His brother came to visit, and I could understand him fine with the heavier accent except if he ever said "saw it" in a sentence. It always sounded like "sorry" more than anything. Which was confusing because it never made sense. 'What do you mean you're sorry?' 'Huh? I said I SARIT! Sar. It. I didn't say sahry. Get the wax outta yah eeahs.' lol That was decades ago and I still remember it.
I grew up in southeastern Connecticut, with many of the people having a thick, Bostonesque accent, but unique to that path of the world. When I was first introduced to Southerners, it was all but impossible to communicate back and fawth!
I was writing a little bit in my story where a person is speaking in a hilariously overdone Boston accent while trying to park her car in New York (bit of a long story how they got to that) but realized that I couldn't imagine the accent in my head to spell out the dialect and I didn't know any colloquialisms. Thank you so much, your video was a huge help!
I think this video finally made me work out what I was doing so wrong with my attempts at the accent - it was too far forward in my mouth, and it's meant to go "over the pencil." I was doing too much John Cena and not enough Matt Damon.
I’m from Massachusetts, and I literally parked my car not in, but near, Harvard Yard! We really do talk like that, love Dunkin Donuts, and our sports teams 🇺🇸🇺🇸
I’m from Boston and wanted to know if I talk like this, and I do without knowing it. Boston dialect is very different than other accents. It’s could be compared to New York dialect but still very different depending where you’re from
I’m from the Boston area, and in my experience only in extreme cases do people completely drop the rhotic “R” sound. It’s just more subtle. The difference is how the vowels are shaped. The rhotic “r” sound is formed when the mouth is opened more narrowly and the tongue is pushed further back in the mouth. In the Boston accent, the “Ah” vowel is brighter sounding because the the mouth is open wider and the spread more laterally, this makes the “r” sound less obvious even though it’s in there. In fact, when most people use the “park your car at Harvard yard” they are doing it wrong. What they should be doing is sneaking the rhotic “r” sound at the end of “car” since the next word starts with a vowel. That’s how a real Bostonian should do it. It’s just brighter and more “splatty” sounding.
I think it moreso comes from the rest of America(only America in terms of English speaking countries) pronouncing the letter R like they have a small bomb implanted in their brains that will instantly kill them if it isn't the most distinct letter pronounced in every single word. So when you don't do that and speak normal it'd be a pretty big change
I wouldn't imagine that the Boston accent sounds like Australian English actually I couldn't imagine that would exist an accent in US that doesn't pronounce the R sound
In general, if you want to learn the Boston accent because you’re an actor who needs to for an upcoming role, that’s one thing. But if you’re a visitor or a new resident who is learning the accent to fit in, don’t bother. Bostonians will detect an acquired accent pretty quickly, and they’ll just think you’re making fun of them. Just be yourself.
As a native Bostonian, I’ve never heard the term gawker blocker… but everything else was pretty spot on! Certainly words definitely depend on who brought you up and where. My mother swears she uses the word “packie” for the liquor store, but I know for a fact I never heard her say that shit growing up!! 😂
I just like to share this storing my husband used to love to tell he is now deceased but when he was a young Seaman and coming into the Boston Harbor the captain asked for him to get the maps out of the cabinet as he was waiting for him the captain being impatient said where are those Maps my husband being a young Seaman said sir I cannot get the chart because the drawers are warped that I was a pause and the captain replied young semen where are you from my husband replied I'm from Austin Captain replied well when we get into the harbor you're going to be my designated driver which he was and The Story Goes On we loved having my Boston husband and our family 44 years we used to go garage saling here in Washington state and people would have asked where are you from and he always got a kick by saying oh I'm from east Yakima that's where I like to ride horses I had always a chuckle and a lot of fun Boston people are beautiful I miss him dearly thank you Boston
One of the main characteristics of the prototypical Boston accent, is the “nasal-ness” or “nasality” while speaking. If you keep that in mind while doing the obvious sounding words,, that will always lean toward a more Boston accent. Without it and if talking more out of the lower front of your mouth, there’s a lot of similarities with Brooklyn - minus the obvious differences (Ah’s vs Aw’s when saying certain ‘r’ words/sounds for example). I’m from East Boston and got mistaken for Brooklyn often when I lived on the West Coast.
Parts of the Bostonian accent are close to a soft Australian accent. The "if you park your car..." example sounded like something you'd hear in Melbourne.
