Modern Boston slangs, idioms
Hey there folks,
I need a little help with current Boston area slang. My attempts at googling have brought me to multiple, dubious travel guides and endless copy-paste pages whose info seems to originate from the Boston page of the Language Schools site and relies heavily on an exaggerate Boston accent ( Read more... )
I need a little help with current Boston area slang. My attempts at googling have brought me to multiple, dubious travel guides and endless copy-paste pages whose info seems to originate from the Boston page of the Language Schools site and relies heavily on an exaggerate Boston accent ( Read more... )
-The meal in the beginning of the day is breakfast, the one in the middle is lunch, and the evening one could be either dinner or supper, probably dinner.
-I call them 'signals' or 'left signal' and 'right signal', but I don't drive, so I'm probably not a good source.
-The sugary beverage is soda. Or called by the name of the individual brand in question (Coke, Sprite, Pepsi, etc.)
If he was a public transportation using person, he may well accidentally continue calling the subway the trolley.
Honestly, most people I know who moved here as students (including people who have been here for 40 years, like my mom) have slightly different accents/pronunciations than the people who grew up here. There are some words ('cot' vs. 'caught' is the main one) that my dad and I think sound exactly the same, but that she thinks sound entirely different.
If he went to one of the huge schools, then networked himself into an upper-middle class job somewhere in Boston, he'd probably know a whole lot more fellow transplants than born Bostonians. My impression of the "Boston accent" is that it's a bit... lower class? It sort of turns into... generic American upper/middle class accent. I don't know how to describe it.
I have never heard someone use the word 'wicked' non-ironically, however I have heard very many people use it sarcastically. Normally very occasionally, or during sports games. But, I'm not from the actual inner city, and I think it's more of a thing there. I've heard the very strong "BAHWSTYN" accent in the wild... only very, very occasionally. It's quite instantly notable- for comparison, I don't usually notice mild accents from most of the rest of the country. Apparently my dad had one when he was a kid, but he dropped it on purpose by the time he started college.
"The game" and "ball" are, in my experience, terms which exclusively refer to baseball. Unless it's the day of the Super Bowl or something, but even that is probably "the football game" or "the superbowl". That could be because my dad is a serious baseball fan and only a casual fan of other sports, and I'm not a sports person at all. [To add onto that- I don't like, and don't watch sports, but I still talk in baseball metaphors sometimes, generally know how the red sox are doing, can carry on a semi-intelligent conversation about them for 5-10 minutes, and am capable of explaining in detail the rules of the game. I think most people around here could do the same, even if they didn't care. Maybe not my nerdier-than-me friend with also very nerdy parents, but I've never talked to him about sports.]
Somewhat related, "the city" is New York. Maybe that's just my family, because both my parents have lived there at some point in their lives, but a very long time ago. "The City" is still New York if we haven't been there, or considered going there, for years.
The plural of you is you. In my case said as "You. Plural You. The English language is so fucked, we need a different word for that." But, maybe that's a particular pet peeve of mine. (As an addendum- I swear a lot. Most people I know swear a lot. Fuck and Shit are the go to ones for me. Swearing is for anywhere from non-emotional emphasis to moderate anger, and then I stop swearing when I'm actually upset, but that might just be me.)
-Roof is pronounced like Kangaroo, not like rough.
-I call it 'water fountain' or occasionally 'drinking fountain'. The first time I saw 'bubbler' was at an amusement park somewhere when I was probably 12 or 13. I had no idea what it meant.
-I use 'rotary' and 'roundabout' interchangeably, but as aforementioned I don't drive, and my GPS is British for no apparent reason.
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