In this episode, we explore the first large-scale migration of English settlers to North America in the early 1600s. The settlers arrived in the newly established Massachusetts Bay Colony. We explore the events that led to this migration, and we also explore the linguistic connections between New England and East Anglia in eastern England.
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As a lifelong resident of New England, I really enjoyed this episode, and wanted to note a local quirk of pronunciation that may be completely accidental and regional.
The soil product “loam”, which you can buy by the yard for putting in gardens or on lawns, is normally pronounced as it is spelled, to rhyme with “roam” or “home”. But in my area of eastern Maine, in northern Washington County, it is locally pronounced “loom” to rhyme with “boom”. When you order it from a local dirt merchant, you will get quicker results if you say it as they do.
I have no idea why it is the case here, but I wonder if it’s a vestige of the pronunciation you described in this episode!
This area is fairly remote and there are still traces of intense regional accents to be found, especially in older generations.
On Cape Cod, it’s always pronounced loom as well!
I knew about ‘tarnation,’ but I seldom hear or read it used.
I’m writing to let you know that Orts is alive and thriving in the world of needlework. We produce many little bits of thread and fabric. One of the popular practical uses for our needle skills is ort bags or ort boxes. Small receptacles in which to stash our orts until disposed of or, I’m my case, save stuffed into glass jars as decoration or used as stuffing for small objects.
In Longmeadow, Massachusetts the word ‘dingle’ is in daily usage. The town is built on a dune made of sand that blew here after the last ice age, and it is riddled with ravines, or dingles as they are locally called. I had never heard the word before I moved here and I haven’t heard it in any other localities. Even the neighboring towns don’t have the same geologic features so I don’t hear the word anywhere else. I was very happy to learn where it came from, I had assumed someone from this town made it up! Thank you
I really enjoyed this episode, as I live in Massachusetts and hear the Boston accent daily. Many friends and in-laws speak with the accent, and although I’ve lived here 35 years, I can’t actually imitate it very well. Even the 90 year-old woman sounded like the current Bostonians. It was interesting to hear where the accent originated.
Hi Kevin, this episode was particularly good. I am from Norwich in Norfolk and I firstly wanted to say thank you for your accurate pronunciation of East Anglian place names. Very rare from our American cousins and much appreciated.
The point I wanted to make is I believe you have severely underestimated just how common broad Norfolk (strong Norfolk accents) is in the modern day. I am 32 and I use the contract U sound instead of long O sounds often in my day to day speech and i certainly do not speak broad Norfolk since I live away from the area these days. My parents still speak with nearly all of the East Anglian characteristics you discussed.
Your point about it being a working class quality is very accurate though as my family and I are working class and from the city of Norwich.
Do you have any evidence to suggest these features in the East Anglian language might come from the Dutch settlers in Norwich and east Anglia in the 16th century or was there not enough time for these features to embed in the dialect?
Thank you
My husband’s grandfather was born in central Maine and lived there all his life. One of my favorite words he used was “culch”. If you offered him vegetables he didn’t like, he’d say, “don’t put that culch on my plate!”
Culch is also used to refer to the empty oyster shells dumped in the water to create places for baby oysters to attach to.