by Marilyn De Angelis Pennell

Created on: February 07, 2009

Repeat this phrase after me. "Wicked Pissah." Hmm, not too bad. Next try "How are you", Boston style i.e. "how ah ya." Wicked good!

But let's face it, the only thing worse on the ears than a Boston accent is a bad Boston accent. So, I would strongly advise that you practice your Boston accent and perfect it before venturing out and about in this city with the "we-ihd" (weird) way of talking.

Here is an example of a Boston accent, audio clip, couresy of Wikipedia. Play it back a few times and you will get the hang of how we talk here in the Hub.

Buut beware-we Bostonians can spot a fake accent like a foul ball at Fenway and like a foul ball, a fake Boston accent rubs us the wrong way. So, if you want to be friends with the locals in Boston, try to get on their good sides as much as possible and speak "proper Bostonian."

How to Perfect a Boston Accent

Not to be discouraging, but it really takes being born and brought up in Revere (Ree-Ve-uh), Medford (Mef-fuh) or Somerville (Summaville) to speak true "Bostonese." These are the urban enclaves in and around the city of Boston where generations of Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants settled. Each group put their special stamp on our odd dialect. Don't expect to speak "Bostonese" as well as they do. Ever. It's impossible.

Having said that, in fact, there is no one "Boston accent." The Kennedys have their own brand of "Bostonspeak" which is very different from what is spoken on the streets of Southie or Eastie. So, first, if you want to learn how to speak like a Bostonian, you should figure out which Bostonian. Do you want to sound like Senator Kennedy delivering a speech in the U.S. Senate or Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in "Good Will Hunting"? (Avoid Robin Williams' accent in" Good Will Hunting." That was just very bad acting).

Drop Your R's to Learn the Lingo of Boston

Once you have mastered "Wicked Pissah" you can move on to "R dropping." We do not pronounce Rs at the end of words. I am sure that you have heard that old saw about "pahk the ka in Ha-vud Yahd." (If you haven't, the translation is "park the car in Harvard Yard). Besides the fact that no one parks cars in Harvard Yard, this sentence is a cliche. No one in Boston speaks this way. But, there is still something to be learned from this sentence and that is-drop your Rs at the end of your words.

For example, say "Sta" instead of Star; "fa" instead of far; "ca" or "ka" for car; "ba" for bar and so on. I know it sounds very uneducated, but that's the way we "talhk"

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