Bastan (the other boston accent)

My family law teacher had a Boston accent. I had never heard anyone with an accent like that, so I appreciated the novelty.

Neutral three. I got it, pretty heavy too...people have a hard time understanding me in Indiana. Like any accent, there are variations on it from neighborhood to neighborhood, and at a guess I'd say it's really only exists in, say, a 50 mile radius around the city. In the western part of the state, and amongst Cape Cod residents, it's more of a rather faceless, generic, for lack of a better term, regular American accent. Few, if any people really talk like the Kennedys. Accents are something you have to observe closely. Many people hear a Southern rural one and make assumptions about someone, as they do with other people for racial reasons or what not. In a somewhat similar way, people will hear a New York, Boston, Midwestern, or some other accent and make assumptions about that. All of these assumptions often have something to do with a person's supposed intelligence and other alleged- or truthful- negative attributes. Watch out for class too, the dirty secret America likes to pretend... Read more

The aspect of the Boston accent is in the same league as a redneck drawl of a southerner (as opposed to the charming roll off your tongue southern accent) Fortunately most of the Mass residents don't speak like Good Will Hunting characters, though soft on the R's a bit more subtle. The other Boston accent is spoken by people who are a bit more approachable.

Easily recognizable. I have a lot of family up in the Boston area, and yeah, they're a little soft on the R's. I've noticed, at least in my family, that the r is not lost if it is in the BEGINNING of the word. Like they'll pronounce the R in Red, but not the R in Car (Thus giving you cah). Funny, though, some of my cousins once INSISTED that I had a southern accent. No, that's just how you say CAR. c-a-R. Do you see people in the movies say Cah? Yeah, this went on for like the whole week I was up there. Oh well, to-may-to, to-mah-to, pronounce it however you like.

Pahk the cah in Havarhd Yahd. It's that old Kennedy sound...which according to a good friend of mine from Mass is exclusive to Bastan. Though she insists that the 25 cent coin is pronounced qahtah and not quarter she otherwise sounds nothing at all like this.

I don't care for this one. I like the other Boston (Bwostin) accent better. Speaking like this makes people sound like they have a raspy voice, if you ever try to speak like that for an extended period of time, it actually does give you a scratchy feeling in your throat.

I'm from the Boston area myself and I don't know what this means. Unless it's referring to the western Mass/Connecticut accent which sound a bit more like New York than Boston. And here's the thing about that Kennedy accent... It's a social status accent rather than a regional accent. The Kennedys (and their friends) are the only people who sound like that. It's the old Boston Brahmin accent. Most of us sound like 'Boston Rob' from Survivor... whether we like to admit it or not.