Maine-New Hampshire English
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Maine-New Hampshire English refers to the speech patterns found mainly in the northern New England states of New Hampshire and Maine. This dialect is more common in more rural parts of each state. It somewhat resembles the Boston accent (which does take precedence in areas of New Hampshire where there has been large scale immigration from Massachusetts, such as Hillsborough County), and is known for being non-rhotic in most words ending in R. "Car" often turns into "cah," and "lobster" becomes "lobstah." In words ending with -ing, the g is dropped. For example, working changes to workin. Also, in words that end in "a", an "r" is added. For example, "soder" instead of soda, "idear" instead of idea, etc.
Perhaps some of the more notable carriers of this dialect include New Hampshire celebrity Fritz Wetherbee, Maine senator Olympia Snowe, Maine comedian Tim Sample (although it is common knowledge that his accent is very exaggerated), and another Maine comedian, Bob Marley, most famous for his role as Detective Greenley in Boondock Saints.
In New Hampshire, the dialect is strongest in backwoods towns such as Rumney, Warren or Lempster. However, in the western part of New Hampshire, the dialect tends to resemble certain aspects of Western New England or Vermont speech. In the southern part of the state and in cities such as Nashua and Manchester, the Maine-New Hampshire vernacular is nearly non-existent, and most speech patterns resemble the General American or Boston dialects. Cities, especially those which were once mill cities, also have many residents of P. Quebec descent who speak a Franglais dialect. In this, the final syllable is more likely to be accented, and the "th" sound is absent, replaced by voiced "d" brudder or unvoiced "t" Jonatin. Both features have softened but are still detectable.
In Maine, the accent is more closely preserved near the coast. Residents of Friendship, Port Clyde, and Tenants Harbor, Maine, as well as the surrounding coastal fishing towns, are infamous for their thick accents. The accent of inland Maine, as opposed to the Maine seacoast, has speech patterns resembling some elements of Canadian English. Some towns, for example Augusta and Bangor, are "transitional." Generally speaking, residents of those areas who were born before 1970 maintain the accent, whereas those born later are more likely to speak with a General American dialect.
Some slang phrases include:
- Aiyah - yes, or sometimes Okay
- Wicked - very, common throughout northern New England, particularly along the Canadian Border.
- Jeezum crow- a puritanical form of the more common "Jesus Christ".
- Dirty - Cool, rarely used
- Dere - (There) added at the end of a sentence, such as, "went down to Nashua, dere," tends to be found among those of French-Canadian descent or in strongly French areas.
In addition, speakers with the accent tend to use some terms from British English which are uncommon in General American English, such as "cellar" (or "cellah") for "basement" and "supper" (or "suppah") for "dinner." However, for most words which vary between British and American English, the American version is retained, such as "gasoline," not "petrol," and "elevator," not "lift."
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