People not born in or near Boston often get confused by a native's accent and although I've successfully tamed my Boston accent (for the most part) my word choices are a dead give-away for anyone familiar with what I like to refer to as "Boston SLANGuage".The word wicked in recent years (at least in gay circles) conjures up images of a beautiful Broadway musical, but when a Bostonian says the word it has a very different meaning. Wicked, when uttered by a Bostonian (and by the way its said here with a great deal of frequency), is intended as a superlative to stress something. Growing up I probably said something was "Wicked Awesome" a few million times. While it would give my cousins from the mid-Atlantic pause, after a second or two they usually caught on.
4 comments:
I've learned something today.
Thank you for enriching my English. Your blog it's wicked awsome. I seem from Boston, aren't I? Well, you should hear my accent...
This post filled me with sweet nostalgia. Lived in MA for 10 of my favorite years and sometimes get wicked homesick.
It isn't just Boston. It extends about 45 miles south into Providence and environs too.
I remember things being wicked cool, and things of that nature.
Speaking of linguistics, the standard Boston accent is different from what we here in Providence have but shares similarities.
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