How to Speak With a Baltimore Accent

If you want to fit in with the natives on your next trip to Baltimore you'll have to get an ear for the dialect they speak in many neighborhoods in "Bawlmer," as the locals call their city. The accent comes from the combination of Baltimore's English colonial settlers with influxes of Irish, German and European immigrants, but "Bawlmerese" isn't just an accent, it's part of the whole "hon" culture.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Practice calling people "hon" until it sounds natural to use the word for strangers, no matter their gender or age.

2. Know that you aren't speaking with a Baltimore, Maryland, accent, but a "Bawlmer, Merlin," accent.

3. Refer to groups of more than two people as "yoose all."

4. Flatten out many vowel sounds to "ah," especially a long "i" before the letter "r," so you pronounce "fire" and "iron" as "far" and "arn." Also flatten out the "oy" sound in words like "boil" and "spoil" to "aw," so you say "bawl" and "spawl."

5. Maintain good hygiene before eating by "worshing and wrenching" your hands, or "washing and rinsing" them, and do it in the "baffroom zink." Then sit down to your "breffist" of "aigs and arnjuice."

6. Pretend the middle consonants of many words just aren't there and blur the vowels together. To ask someone if they have eaten, just ask, "Jeet?" Or find out if they are finished eating with "jeet-nuf?" Take a trip to "Hawntin," known on maps as "Highlandtown," or to "Lit Litlee," which non-residents call Little Italy. Count to a "hunnert," call your forehead your "fard," or wait until "tuhmar" to do what you don't want to do today.

7. Express your opinion about just about anything with the all-purpose word, "s'aw-ite," which can convey everything from rapture to disgust, depending on your inflection and your facial expression.

Tips & Warnings

• Study the accents in John Waters movies such as "Hairspray" and "Pink Flamingos," which are set in Baltimore and make extensive use of Bawlmerese.

[tundranut]

on 4/12/2009 Hysterically funny, and oh, so true. Learning to speak with a Baltimore accent takes years of practice before you can truly call yourself a Baltimoron. Of course ya gotta chew gum when ya call folks hon. I love Baltimore, and consider myself a Baltimoron wanna-be, because I miss it. 5*

[Myshashi]

on 3/27/2009 The best way to do this is to hang around people who are speaking with an Baltimore accent. If you do this regularly enough, then you will pick up the accent you are listening to.Update yourself with french accent eg., http://www.neutralaccent.com