The existence of broad "a" in Boston
Question | Data | Discussion
Here's the survey question:
E. When you say father and bother, do they
rhyme, like feather and weather?
Yes No
People who respond
"No" to this question have the "New England broad a" (/a/, a
low central vowel, the vowel in "park the car" as said
by a Bostonian) in their dialect. For these speakers, /a/ is distinct from
the low back vowel in "cot." (transcribed here as "A". They
say [fath\]
'father' but [bAth\]
'bother', so they don't rhyme.
People who respond "Yes" have merged the two
vowels and have only /A/.
They say [fAth\]
'father' and [bAth\]
'bother', which rhyme.
The data
Virtually everyone who lives in the Boston
area retains both vowels (said "no"), as do many speakers in western
and northern NH. See MA Graph.
However, speakers in southeastern NH, the part of
the state closest to Boston, are the most likely to have merged the two
vowels (said "yes") -- making their dialect quite distinct from the
Boston dialect. See NH Graph.
It is pretty clear that this merger is on the increase in
southern NH when we compare old and young speakers:
|
|
Percent UNMERGED
(= like Boston)
|
|
|
Older than 50 |
Younger than 50 |
|
Manchester area |
100% |
64% |
|
Concord area |
100% |
42% |
As time progresses, it appears that NH will resemble MA less and less
in this respect. Here's a bit more on the topic.
Return to general discussion.
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