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Tourists and transplants to Boston are often mystified by the way people speak. So, to make your Boston day trips more enjoyable, here are some tips to help you master the Boston accent or at least understand the "weihd" way the locals communicate.

The Boston accent for daytrippers 

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. This one phrase will help you get around town, especially when riding the "T", Boston's subway system. But there's more.

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

There are several dialects of the Boston accent

Having said that, in fact, there is no one "Boston accent." The Kennedys have their own brand of "Boston speak" 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" (talk) around here

You can also add Rs inappropriately as some Bostonians do, such as saying "Californiar" for California; "arear" for area; and as one well-known Boston sportscaster says, "Hideki Okajeemer" for the Red Sox baseball pitcher, Hideki Okajima. Follow

Next Step: Mispronounce Your A's

We also butcher our As, especially our short a.  We have lazy tongues and don't want to exert the energy to speak clearly. So, every "short a" should be pronounced as "ah." For example, "ask" should be pronounced "ah-sk"; "can't" is "cah-nt" and aunt is  "Ah-nt." Get it? Repeat after me "My ah-nt cah-nt pah-k the ka."  Pretend you have a tongue depressor in your mouth and just say "Ahh."

Basic Boston Vocabulary Words

Once you get the (mis) pronounciation basics down, here are a few words you'll need to know

*Wicked, as in wicked good, wicked bad, wicked pissah, etc. (adjective

*Tonic. We do not drink "soda" in *Boston. We drink tonic. No, not "hair tonic"-just that stuff that everyone else calls "pop" or "soda." (noun)

*Sub (sandwich), which is what they call "heroes" in New Yahk-

*Packie which is short for package store or liquor store

*Be-ah, as in beer

*Jimmies i.e. chocolate sprinkles for ice cream

*Bubbla or water bubbla i.e. water fountain or drinking fountain

*Steem-ahs as in steamed clams, a New England delicacy

*Rotah-ree as in rotary, the roundabout located on roadways

Study the Natives

Above all, hang with the locals. Observe them. They have a "wicked pissah" sense of "hu-mah." Though they'll "stare you out" when you first meet them, once you get on their good sides, you will be a friend for life, no matter how you tah-lk. And, that's wicked good.

In Part 2 we'll discuss a subset of Boston accents, The Fall River Accent.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also like this one about a casting call for local actors with real Boston accents.