Homelandity

Geek Press points to this excellent Primer on Boston-area English. Excerpts:

  • Westa Wihsta: Terra incognita; beyond the bounds of civilization. (For the uninitated, Worcester is about an hour west of Boston, which is about half an hour farther than most Bostonians would dream of driving without packing a lunch and reserving a hotel room).
  • Irish Riviera: The South Shore, extending from Nantasket Beach as far south as Sandwich on the uppa Cape, with its cultural center in Scituate.
  • Packie: Wheah you buy beah.
  • PSDS:What you get when you want to wear earrings. Reuven Brauner submits the following similar examples: We saw BSNDS at the zoo in Franklin Park. We bought it at CS and Roebuck's. Mother always said, "Don't forget to wash behind your ES." The Boos and GS got to Mantle. PS are a juicy fruit. Crying causes TS. This car VS to the left.

Even more than people think, New England is home to about a million localized accents and vocabularies. If you know what you're doing, you can tell someone from Saco apart from someone from Kennebunk, and neither of them sound a THING like a Gloucesterman, much less an aging stylene from Revere. Get me drunk. Ask me to do my Noath Shoah thing. You'll love it! Entertainment! 

Further proof that "homeland" sometimes stretches no farther than a man's eye can see. 
 

Posted by Johno Johno on   |   § 0

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