Language Roots of New England Non-Device-Ive

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Have you been to New England for a lobster dinner? In the Northeast Seacoast it could be a “lobstah” dinner. Most people up there drop the “t” in often, but never use the “t” in soften. And the “ei” they pronounced “ee” not “i”. I’m just having fun with some dielects along sea coast New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts; however, there are hundreds in New England.

I offen soffen neether content nor intent, eether explicit or implicit about devices to rearrange things in the Care-ah-beein Sea or pahkin karz at Hahvad in Bostin.

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Katharine L. Sparrow

Date: 7/8/2023 6:16:00 PM

Haha! This is very entertaining! I am a language lover, a polyglot, and love languages and linguistics! When I moved from my childhood home in Boston to Cape Cod, I decided to drop my Boston accent, which I did fairly successfully. Your poem reminds me of the old days! (though Cape Cod has a unique accent/dialect of its own!)

John Howard
Date: 7/18/2023 1:52:00 PM

Katharine, I worked for a wonderful lady from Back Bay Boston who had a London-Yankee lilt, not a twang, but sort of a twoungh. Is there a descriptive word? She was a mid-seventy, wealthy widow who had a country farm in Lancaster, MA, where I labored...(on salary), summers, in my teens. JRH