[HPFGU-OTChatter] Digest Number 1025

[Ladi lyndi]

--- Lina wrote:

> Lina, who is frustrated daily with dialectal
> differences and still refers to
> carbonated breverages as "cold drink" or "coke"


Lynn:

Boston, my old stomping grounds!  What Lina?  You
don't order a "tonic" when you're thirsty?  LOL 
I lived in the Boston area for 9 years and found
it much easier to make fun of the differences. 
It really eased the frustration level.

One of my favorite stories of new life in Boston
is when I first got there and started temping at
a law firm.  I was transcribing a very long tape
and the guy kept saying "commer" and I couldn't
figure out what in the world he meant so just
typed commer into the text.  It was when I was
proofreading the thing that I realized that what
he had actually been saying was "comma" and he
was telling where to put the punctuation within
the sentence.  Those living in Boston can
understand just how different the sound of
"commer" is from "comma".  

Just wait though, if you are there long enough
there will be certain words you end up saying
with the Boston accent which really makes your
speech funny.  I've lived in California, Arizona,
Connecticut and Massachusetts and no one can
guess where I'm from since I could change accents
two or three times in a sentence depending on
which words I used.  Now it's even worse.  I'll
pronounce english words with a dutch accent.  LOL
 When I first moved to the Netherlands, everyone
could tell I was American from my speech.  Now
they all ask if I'm from England.  When my
husband's ship was in England for a weekend, he
was asked how an American came to be stationed on
a Dutch ship and in Dutch uniform.

A big thing to remember in Boston is, if there is
an 'er' at the end of a word, such as here,
there, etc., pronounce it as an 'a', such a he-a
or the-a.  And, if there is an 'a' at the end of
a word, such as comma, soda, etc., pronounce it
as an 'er', such a commer, soder.  This is also
the only time you are actually required to
pronounce the letter 'r' as well.

Lynn
(Dear Boston, where asking for a tonic will get
you a soda and where asking for soda will get you
a tonic water.)

=====
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