How do you say "barn"?

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:38 PM -0400 9/24/01, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>We've got to assume Connolly has not seen American Tongues? Or he
>would have known that his "theory" was propounded a long time ago.

Take the words right out of my mouth (again), will you.  I quite like
the sequence where the screen splits in four, then sixteen, then 64,
each illustrating (we presume--it's a bit hard to tell) a different
Boston accent.  At least Brahmin, Dorchester, Roxbury and North End
are well represented in the scene.

LH

>>A discussion of Boston accents from the Boston Globe:
>>
>>http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/252/metro/How_do_you_say_Barn_+.shtml
>>
>>'You've got to realize there is no `Boston accent'; there are several Boston
>>accents,'' Connolly says. ''Charlestown and Somerville talk very differently
>>from people in Dorchester. Boston English as spoken in the North End is very
>>different from that spoken in South Boston.''
>>
>>Connolly tested his theory last weekend while roaming Fenway Park, which he
>>called possibly the best dialect laboratory in the city. In the stands
>>before a game, Connolly found examples of what he described as four major
>>strains of Boston speech.
>>
>>To Connolly, there's the ''southern Boston'' accent, born in neighborhoods
>>such as South Boston, Dorchester, and Roxbury; a ''northwest'' sound, rooted
>>in Cambridge and Somerville; a ''northeast'' accent, formed in East Boston
>>and the North End; and the hoary Brahmin dialect from the Back Bay and
>>Beacon Hill.
>>
>>--
>>
>>Grant Barrett
>>gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>>http://www.worldnewyork.org/
>>New York Loves You Back
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>Department of Linguistics and Languages
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
>preston at pilot.msu.edu
>Office: (517)353-0740
>Fax: (517)432-2736