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"I salute yaw vigah"
One among us hails from Woostah, or rather Worcester, Massachusetts. He doesn't speak that way any more, but did as a child, and can summon it at will. Which makes for a really good Mayor Quimby impersonation. (He also talks about wicked hahd slahp shawts, as in ice hockey.) I, on the other hand, hail from the Garden State, and proudly tawk like that. I have a dawg, and take her for wawks. I still go down the shore, even if it's on Long Island these days. And my ahrange juice comes from Flarda. I suppose I could turn off the accent if I want to, but I really don't want to pronounce "hock" and "hawk" the same way. And I definitely don't want to pronounce "Mary," "merry," and "marry" the same way. I like to think I have phonological riches. There's an interesting article about this in the Times today. According to the linguist M. J. Connolly of Boston College, an estimated 15% of people in the Boston area speak with a Boston accent regularly, but about 50% of people in the area shift between the Boston accent and a more "Standard American" accent. This kind of shift happens for a variety of sociolinguistic reasons. With family, around friends, or at a local restaurant, a person speaks in a way that identifies him or her as a member of the group, not an outsider. In different circles - maybe at work or at school - a person may want to tone it down a bit, either to sound like less of an outsider, or because a particular local accent is considered uneducated or too provincial. At the same time, in those same circumstances, a person may turn up the volume on the local accent to show some pride and project an identity. (I like to do it to annoy my colleagues, who, like so many, think that it's outrageously hilarious and inventive to make fun of New Jersey. I mean, no one's ever done THAT before!) The Times article mentions a lot of forces that contribute to a general weakening of local accent (and a few that do the opposite.) And in my own family, I can definitely attest to this. Even though I don't make a conscious choice to lessen my regional accent, it's definitely not quite as strong as members of my family and extended family in my parent's generation. If my colleagues get a good guffaw listening to me, they should hear my father. (CHRIS)
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