Help me improve my Boston accent

[Rom]

I am trying to learn the Boston accent. I have recorded what I can do so far. How can I improve my accent? Here is the audio file

[Jamie*On]

Have you seen the film "Bound"?

[amoeba]

Hm I went to Boston and I didn't hear anyone speaking like that...
Some of the older people had a distinctive accent but I don't think the Boston accent is anything particularly different from General American.

[reflexsilver86]

That's definitely not a Boston accent.

It sounded way too British-influenced to be anything from Boston. There are certain distinctions to the Bostonian accent, most notably their affinity for dropping the -r at the end of words so you get "cah" "bah" "fah" and so on.

If you've ever watched Family Guy, Lois's accent is actually quite indicative of that area of New England. They're technically from Rhode Island but the differences are slight.

Anyway I wouldn't bother trying to learn another English accent, because it's quite hard to nail down. Unless you want to star in one of Ben Affleck's movies. And I'm not sure if you would since lately he seems to be doing some real Box Office bombs.

[Stan]

hahahaha that's an English accent!

[kindofblue525]

It would probably help a lot if you flattened and elongated some of your A's more, and you ought to read the "R"s at the end of words more like "ahs".

Read it as "Please call Stella, ask (Americanize this by saying aaask, not ahhhsk) he-ah (short) to go to the sto-ah..."

"Good Will Hunting" is definitely a study guide for you.

[kindofblue525]

And when I write "aaaask" I don't mean "a" as in "bake", but the weird American "a". Almost like a combination between "ah" and "eh".

It's hard to describe that sound.

[Travis B.]

And when I write "aaaask" I don't mean "a" as in "bake", but the weird American "a". Almost like a combination between "ah" and "eh".

It's hard to describe that sound.

I assume you mean [æ] rather than [ɑ] or [a] here by such.

[kindofblue525]

And when I write "aaaask" I don't mean "a" as in "bake", but the weird American "a". Almost like a combination between "ah" and "eh".

It's hard to describe that sound.

I assume you mean [æ] rather than [ɑ] or [a] here by such.

I suppose so, yes. I'm not at all versed in the lingo. It would probably help to learn it, wouldn't it?

[Travis B.]

And when I write "aaaask" I don't mean "a" as in "bake", but the weird American "a". Almost like a combination between "ah" and "eh".

It's hard to describe that sound.

I assume you mean [æ] rather than [ɑ] or [a] here by such.

I suppose so, yes. I'm not at all versed in the lingo. It would probably help to learn it, wouldn't it?

Most definitely yes. For more info, on this kind of stuff, go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA

Note that X-SAMPA is functionally equivalent to IPA, can be used in many computing environments which it is not practically feasible to use IPA proper in, and here at Unilang is what is converted into IPA by the IPA text generation facility here.

[Trebuchet]

Hey, could you repost that audio file please? I would love to hear it.

Having spent 16 years in the Boston area, I can tell you that Boston accents do exist. I think they're pretty distinct from general American English but very understandable. There are different lilts within the accent.

The term "Boston accent" is not really a great one because most people who live in Boston don't have one. The accent is more scattered around than in a general area. I think that the accent might be related to the population of Irish who immigrated to Boston and whose descendants have moved out of the city, but I'm not quite sure.

The (ae) with the loss of r is the main feature. "Park the car in the Harvard Yard" is a frequently quoted phrase to demonstrate this. Sometimes, R's are added: pizzer and idear for pizza and idea.

As for the phrase "ask her", I think it would be more like "askuh". The uh is a hard sound to pinpoint.