Why it's wicked cool to park your car at Harvard.

Posted by Adam Stanhope in Media, Travel & Places on July 19, 2008 at 3:52 pm


Boston Public Gardens

The rich variety of accents we use here in New England has always fascinated me. Neither of my folks were from Massachusetts, so I grew up speaking with a far more generic sounding accent than I would have otherwise, however there’s enough Yankee-speak in me that most people from elsewhere can peg me as a Bostonian in moments. Eventually, in college at UC Berkeley I had my Boston accent almost entirely teased out of me. Children can be so cruel. Sniff sniff.
This week our friends at Bostion’s WBUR’s “Radio Boston” broadcast a superb episode about the whys and wherefores of the great varieties of accents in Eastern Massachusetts.

[Bonus #1: Name the park in which the photo at the top of this post was taken.]
[Bonus #2: Name the architect who designed the blue-glass building at the center of the photograph.]


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COMMENT

24 comments to "Why it's wicked cool to park your car at Harvard."

  1. HoolaGirl
    July 19th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    Boston Common. IM Pei.

    Did I win? Do I get a prize? How about dinner at the Union Oyster House.

  2. zav
    July 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Wicked pissa! Actually, living in Doe-vah (Dover) I had hoped to never get the Baahstun accent. After moving to California, I realized I had it when I yelled out, "Bah tendah! Get me a beah!"

    Let's do some hole shots on the paakway, then we'll go to the Hong Kong in Haaahvud Sqwaeh and get wicked tanked.
    Is there a less intelligent sound accent in 'Merika? Doubt it. Unless the words foil-age and new-kew-lur are in your vocabulary.

  3. Adam Stanhope
    July 19th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    HoolaGirl, dearest:

    You got the second question correct, but the first is INCORRECT. The park within which that photograph was taken is NOT the Boston Commons.

    Try again!

  4. Ali Pharmakidis
    July 19th, 2008 at 6:44 pm

    Is it the Boston Public Garden?

    Oh man, now I'm homesick.

    That link to different local dialects left out Rhode Island... which TOTALLY has (horrible) accents all of its own.

    weak.

  5. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    July 19th, 2008 at 8:08 pm

    The New Research Building? By Architectural Resources Cambridge, Inc.?

  6. vinnie
    July 19th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

    the fens and im pei

  7. Adam Stanhope
    July 19th, 2008 at 8:29 pm

    Ali's right about the park.

    HoolaGirl and Vinnie have the architect correct.

    I don't blame you for being homesick, Ali. Boston is one of the world's most special cities! Certainly in the Top 100.

  8. ted
    July 19th, 2008 at 8:41 pm

    That was kind of a poor excuse for a link.

  9. Adam Stanhope
    July 19th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    Huh? Why, Ted?

    The link is to an hour-long radio program. Did you miss that?

  10. astrodex
    July 19th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

    I grew up in FL but have loved in Boston/Cambridge for 17 years. I have a friend who grew up here and had a "wicked" accent. I never got to hear it because he had it teased out of him at Boston College of all places!

    The first time I rode the T, I thought the conductor said "Knott's Station." It was "North Station."

  11. Deb G.
    July 19th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    We were listening to that show, too (and snickering). I'm originally from Ohio, but I've lived here 24 years...teaching communication. The various sounds of greater Boston have always intrigued me.

    But I was in Ohio last week and picked up a prescription for my youngest sister. Asked to verify her address, I gave the house number on Harvard Street...and pronounced Harvard with only .5 "r"s.

    Spoiled for life, I am.

  12. stormie24
    July 19th, 2008 at 10:21 pm

    I can relate to the teasing because when I was in grade 6 my family moved from a small town in Newfoundland to the city of Toronto.

    I've always thought that it was neat that the States have so many accents from different pockets across the nation.

    Newfoundland is similar to that because accents vary from town to town. Bay Roberts and the Bonavista Bay area have very strong accents in comparison to other towns.

  13. bean
    July 19th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

    So, Adam Stanhope... you're from a village in Thailand, grew up in New England, and went to college in California? Neat.

  14. dan.rosol
    July 19th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    all i have to report is that my brother has been prank calling the harvard admissions office for about a week now haha, and yes he keeps telling them, GO YALE

  15. Johnny Cat
    July 19th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    I've always been fascinated by the many dialects in the US over its short life so far. Southern drawl, Bostonian, I even had someone I met once ask me if I was from Oregon because she detected an accent.

  16. Chris C
    July 20th, 2008 at 12:33 am

    As a person who grew up on the North Shore, I second the 'wicked pissa' comment. hehe.

    There are so many New England accents like someone above mentioning RI ones.

    "Jeet yet?" Providence RI-speak for "did you eat yet?" They also have some New York influence in their dialect. (Went to college in Prov)

    Or the redneck ones in Maine and NH which oddly also show up a little bit in the Kennedy accent.

  17. Miss Cellania
    July 20th, 2008 at 7:14 am

    He didn't say he was from Thailand. He once referred to his village in Thailand. My uncle uses the same wording to talk about the town in Thailand where he owns a house and plans to retire.

  18. Julians
    July 20th, 2008 at 9:31 am

    The Boston Public Garden, and the building was designed by I.M. Pei. I don't want a prize, I'm just interested in fine architecture that is all. :P

    Bostonians are VERY LUCKY to have such a BEAUTIFUL CITY!

  19. Adam Stanhope
    July 20th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    Thanks, Miss C.

    Indeed, my wife is from Thailand. We have been together for twenty years. Several years ago we built a house in the village she grew up in. Just as we live together in Massachusetts and she can call Kingston, Massachusetts "her town," I have earned the right to refer to the village in Thailand where we maintain a second residence as "my village."

  20. Noelegy
    July 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    People who aren't from the South US seem to have trouble discerning between different Southern accents (a Texan does not sound like a Georgian, who doesn't sound like a South Carolinian). But I'll admit that I have trouble distinguishing northeastern accents one from another.

  21. Noelegy
    July 20th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Forgot to mention: I'm from Texas. :) But I don't have much of an accent compared to other natives, unless I'm around friends from the northeast, then my "drawl" stands out.

  22. JC
    July 21st, 2008 at 12:52 am

    There was a video about a girl talking several accents. I can´t remember if it was published here.

  23. rhea
    July 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am

    Public Garden. Frederick Law Olmsted.

  24. Tracy
    July 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 am

    Oh, fun, it's my geographical trek in reverse. I just moved out to Boston from Berkeley, and I'm worried that in a year or so I'll start talking like I grew up a block over from Havahd Yahd. I guess I'm just going to have to learn how to embrace Beantown and its wicked local flavor.


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