The Baltimore accent, also known as Baltimorese (sometimes pseudophonetically written Baldimorese, Bawlmerese, or Ballimerese), commonly refers to the accent and dialect of Mid-Atlantic American English that originated among the white blue-collar residents of South and Southeast Baltimore, Maryland. The accent and the Philadelphia accent resemble each other in several regards.
At the same time, there is considerable linguistic diversity within Baltimore, which complicates the notion of a singular "Baltimore accent." There are numerous accents within the urban landscape of Baltimore City with Appalachian, African American, Chesapeake, and Eastern Shore influences including many others. According to linguists, the accent and dialect of African American Baltimoreans is different than the "hon" variety that is popularized in the media as being spoken by white blue-collar Baltimoreans.
The farther one gets from Baltimore, the more the local speech is influenced by other geographic and cultural factors. For example, the speech of Western Maryland is influenced by Appalachia, Northeast Maryland by Delaware Valley, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland by the Tidewater accent. White working-class families who migrated out of Baltimore city along the Maryland Route 140 and Maryland Route 26 corridors brought local pronunciations with them, creating colloquialisms that make up the Baltimore accent.
Video Baltimore accent
Pronunciation
The Baltimore accent that originated among white blue-collar residents closely resembles blue-collar Philadelphia-area English pronunciation in many ways. These two cities are the only major ports on the Eastern Seaboard never to have developed nonrhotic speech among European American speakers; they were greatly influenced in their early development by Hiberno-English, Scottish English, and West Country English. Due to the significant similarity between the speeches of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Delaware and southern New Jersey, some sociolinguists refer to them collectively as the Mid-Atlantic dialect.
Vowels
- /o/ fronting, where an 'o' becomes elongated and pronounced closer to the front of the mouth
- /o?/ shifts to [??] or even [e?].
- becomes [?] before /r/; fire is pronounced as [f??]
- As in Philadelphia, the word "water" is often pronounced as "wooder" ['w????] or, more uniquely, ['w?????].
- No "cot-caught" merger: The words "cot" /?/ and "caught" /?/ do not rhyme. Other dissimilar word pairings are "don" and "dawn," "stock" and "stalk," "tock" and "talk." The word "on" rhymes with "dawn," but not "don."
- As in most Mid-Atlantic cities, the short a is pronounced with a phonemic split: for example, the word "sad" /æ/ does not rhyme with the word "mad" /e?/. Pronunciation is dependent upon a complex system of rules that differ from city to city. /æ/ Tensing is also common in the Mid-Atlantic Region, with speakers in Baltimore adapting the Philadelphia pattern on intervocalic vowels. For more details on the Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore systems see phonemic /æ/ tensing in the Mid-Atlantic region or click "show" below.
- Epenthetic /r/; notably, "wash" is pronounced as [w???], popularly written as "warsh," and Washington is pronounced as "Warshington."
- Elision is common
- There is a consistent distinction between the pronunciation of "can" (to be able to) [k?n] and "can" (aluminum/tin) ['kæ:n].
Consonants
- As is common in many US dialects /t/ is frequently elided after /n/, thus hunter is pronounced ['h?n?]
- [?] is often eliminated entirely from a word; (e.g. Annapolis = Naplis, cigarette = cigrette, company = compny)
- L-vocalization is common. The sound /l/ is often replaced by the semivowel or glide [w] and/or [o] or [?]. Pronunciation of words like "middle" and "college" become ['m?do] and ['k?w?d?] respectively.
Maps Baltimore accent
Lexicon
The following is a list of words and phrases used in the Baltimore area that are used much less or differently in other American English dialects.
- bureau - commonly pronounced beer-o (example: Federal Beer-o of Investigation)
- oil - commonly pronounced "awl" or "ool" (rhymes with pool)
- iron/Irish - commonly pronounced "arn" and "Arsh"
- mirror - commonly pronounced "mere" or "mere-roe"
- pavement (commonly pronounced "payment") - means "sidewalk" (which is used rarely).
- bixicated - referring to someone who is silly or simple.
- hon - a popular term of endearment, often used at the end of a sentence (short for "honey"). This phrase has been a popular marker of Baltimore culture, as represented in the annual Honfest summer festival and in landmarks such as the Hontown store and the Café Hon restaurant.
- natty boh - local slang for the beer originally brewed in Baltimore, National Bohemian.
- words with ow - (pronounced quickly) dayown (down), hayow (how).
- words ending in "ow" - on the contrary, some words ending in ow are pronounced with an A; e.g., pilla for pillow, winda for window.
- d(ay)own the ocean - acceptable in place of "down to/on/at the ocean", whereas ocean most likely refers to Ocean City, Maryland. More commonly shortened to "d(ay)owny ocean.
- O's - refers to the MLB team the Baltimore Orioles - frequently used: "dem O's".
- ok - Commonly used involuntarily to begin sentences. With the O often dropped and pronounced "Kay."
- liar, wire & fire - commonly pronounced "larr", "warr" & "far" - popular Baltimore Christmas joke: "Why were the three Wise men covered with soot?" "Because they came from afar."
- went up (shortened from "went up to heaven") - commonly used when an appliance dies; e.g., our refrigerator went up
- yo - as a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun
- preference of "nuffin" over "nuttin" for "nothing" is common in Baltimore and DC
- "rey" for "ready" is associated with Baltimore users of Black Twitter.
- "lor" for "little" is also a feature of Black Baltimore speech
Ethnic variation
According to linguists, the "hon" dialect that is popularized in the media and that derives historically from the speech of by White blue-collar residents of South, and Southeast Baltimore is not the only accent spoken in the region. There is also a particular Baltimore accent found among Black Baltimoreans. For example, among Black speakers, Baltimore is pronounced more like "Baldamore," as compared to "Bawlmer". Other notable phonological characteristics include vowel centralization before /r/ (such that words such as "carry" and "parents" are often pronounced as "curry" or "purrents") and the centralization of /?/ to schwa, particularly in the word "dog," often pronounced as "dug", and "frog" as "frug". The accent and dialect of African-American Baltimoreans also share features of African American English.
Notable examples of native speakers
Lifelong speakers
- Ben Cardin - Senator of Maryland (2007-present)
- Mary Pat Clarke - Baltimore City Councilwoman (1975-present)
- Divine - Actor/Performer
- Barbara Mikulski - Senator of Maryland (1987-2017)
- John Waters - Actor/Filmmaker
- Scott Van Pelt - Anchor on 'Sportscenter'
In popular culture
Films
The films of John Waters, many of which have been filmed in and around Baltimore, often attempt to capture the Baltimore accent, particularly the early films. For example, John Waters uses his own Baltimore accent in the commentary during his film Pink Flamingos. John Travolta's character in the 2007 version of John Waters's Hairspray spoke with a thick East Baltimore accent which may sound exaggerated to non-Baltimoreans. Likewise, several of the films of Barry Levinson are set in and around Baltimore during the 1940s-1960s, and employ the Baltimore accent. Michael Tucker who was born and raised in Baltimore, speaks with a West Baltimore accent.
Television
Television drama series Homicide: Life on the Streets and The Wire were both set in Baltimore, with both series including actors who are native White and Black Baltimoreans. In an early episode of the former ("Three Men and Adena"), a suspect, Risley Tucker, describes how he can tell whereabouts in or around the city a person comes from simply by whether they pronounce the city's name as "Balti-maw", "Balti-moh", or "Bawl-mer".
In Season 4, Episode 7 of The Tracey Ullman Show, Baltimore actor Michael Tucker portrayed father to Ullman's JoJo. The skit was set in a Baltimore row house. Tucker advised Ullman to "take a Liverpool accent and Americanize it." The episode called, "The Stoops" begins with Tracey washing her marble stoops which are the most common small porches attached to most Baltimore town homes (called row houses in Baltimore): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHOOYntGgxA&t=28s
Elizabeth Banks parodied the accent while playing Avery Jessup as the spokesperson for the fictional Overshoppe.com in a flashback scene in the "I Do Do" episode of 30 Rock.
Kathy Bates' character on the "Freak Show" season of American Horror Story was inspired by a Baltimore accent.
Whether it was on his ESPN Radio show or SportsCenter at Night, Scott Van Pelt always ended his segments with Tim Kurkjian by mentioning names in a Baltimore accent featuring at least one fronted 'o'.
Music
Singer-songwriter Mary Prankster uses several examples of Baltimore slang in her song, "Blue Skies Over Dundalk," from the album of the same name, including, "There'll be O's fans going downy ocean, hon."
See also
- List of people from Baltimore
- Culture of Baltimore
- Regional vocabularies of American English
References
External links
- Baltimore Hon (A through dictionary of Baltimorese)
- Baltimorese (with some audio)
- "The Mid-Atlantic Dialects", Evolution Publishing
- In March 2011, the VOA Special English service of the Voice of America broadcast a 15-minute feature on Bawlmerese, written and voiced by longtime VOA Special English announcer, photographer, voice-over artist, and Baltimore native Steve Ember. A transcript and MP3 of the program - intended for those want to learn American English - can be found at An Extended Lesson in Bawlmerese
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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