What is Baltimore Accent?
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The Baltimore accent is a dialect that originated among the blue-collar workers of Baltimore City and is often referred to as "Baltimorese". Its most notable characteristic is the nasally stressed "O" vowel producing a sound close to "Eh-oo". People also tend to use the word "hon" a lot, although this is heard mostly only in the city. The accent sounds very similar to the Philadelphia accent, but with a dash of a southern to it. While it is heard most often and thickest in Baltimore City it is not limited to the city itself and has colored the speech of all the surrounding counties, varying in intensity and usage depending on how close or far from the city one is. If one is thirsty, they ask for a glass of "wooder". If they want to go to Ocean City they say they're "goeen downey owe shin." On the weekends one goes "say-leen" on the "chest-peak bay". "L"s are darkened or not pronounced unless at the beginning of the word. Unlike the south, the i's in words like "right", "might", "kite", etc. are shortened and sound much more northern. "Th's" get pronounced as "d's" or "t's". Unique to Philly and Baltimore, the accent in addition to the Philly accent is the only east coast accent to have developed with inclusion of the pronunciation of "r". Other local dialacts like charleston, new york, and boston do not pronounce their "r"s.
Often Marylanders will try to say Maryland has no accent, but the Baltimore accent makes it impossible to prove this. For all they know, they may have a hint of the accent themselves and never know until they leave the state and come back.
The Baltimore accent is not exactly northern and not exactly southern - how fitting for a state that is just that!
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