How to Speak Maineish

Repeat after me.

Photo by George French, courtesy Maine State Archives

“What kind of cah is that deah?”

“A Honder”

“She’s wicked cunnin’.”

Ayuh! But the wife was right ugly when I bought ‘ah!

Much has been written about the Maine accent. Maine is a linguistic and territorial cul-de-sac. The old joke is that we’re not at the end of the earth, but you can see it from here. We have a population, or at least a significant fraction thereof, which tends to stay put. Additionally, Mainers are quite homogeneous in their ethnic heritage, being mostly English with Irish and French following. The accent is real; I can attest to that. When I started my first job in Maine in 1988 I had some difficulties. On one occasion I was told to “go see Dawn”. I went to the right place and looked around but there was no woman there. I asked the nearest fellow if he new where Dawn was. He said, “I’m Dawn [Don]“. When I got back to my boss I asked him, “How do you pronounce ‘D-o-n’?”; “Dawn”. “OK, how do you pronounce ‘D-a-w-n’?”;”Dawn”. I couldn’t hear the difference. His name was Carl (Cal). The dropping of the “r” after a vowel and adding of it to the words which end with “a” is known as non-rhoticity and is common throughout northern New England. But there are a set of words with different shades of meaning every visitor should know about:

ayuh   yes, sometimes stretched out to three syllables to give time to think
hoss    horse, a carpentah uses a sawrhoss
numb     dumb, stupid
deah,  dahlin’     dear, darling; used to address both genders
cunnin’    cute
ugly    in a bad mood
dooryahd     driveway
flatlandah    someone born outside of Maine
down cellah     in the basement
from away    see flatlander
gawmy    awkward
gorry    Gosh!
hot top     black top (road surface)
Masshole    someone from Massachusettes
tore(ist)     tour, tourist
wicked    very, extremely
Bah Hahbah Road    The main road to Bar Harbor, may not be called that on any map. Similarly the “Trenton Road” is the same road as referred to at the other end by people who live in Bar Harbor. In some areas, place names are a difficulty. Until recently, roads often went nameless and houses had no addresses. The new 911 system has recently changed that but some habits persist. Directions are still given based on old landmarks and some cemeteries, town dumps and even businesses don’t benefit from signage or agreed-upon names. All the locals know where these places are, so why bother?
It has to be said, the accent, the rural quirkiness and the old ways are actively encouraged by the tourist industry. Therefore, the persistence of these traits may be self imposed. Consider these guide book quotes:

“Maine has also earned a reputation as a homeland for quirky characters born with quick wits and extraordinarily dry senses of humor. Combined with the famous Down East accent… it becomes the foundation for a truly original experience”, Earl Brechlin’s Adventure Guide to Maine

“No individuals are more rugged than the umpteenth-generation fishermen who make their honest living from these bone-chilling waters”,  Kathleen M. Brandes  Moon Handbooks: Coastal Maine

So we have a mythology about Maine which every Mainer is subtly encouraged to support for commercial purposes. This viewpoint is supported in another quote from Earl Brechlin’s book:

Governor Angus King once said that if he could just strategically position a suitably crusty yet benign “Mainah” on the porch of every general store or end of  every lobster wharf, giving people asking for directions the standard reply of “You can’t get theyah from heyah,” tourism revenue would triple.

Whether a state sponsored conspiracy or a genuine cultural variance (I suspect a little of both), Maine language and manners are yet another fun thing to experience on your visit to our neck of the woods. Mainers relish the look of confusion on a tourist’s face. Hopefully this post will prepare you.  Our late neighbor, Marion Stocking wrote a book, I’ve Got the Idear: My Love Affair with Maine Language which is distilled from her many years of teaching at the University of Maine. This delightful 80 page book can be ordered by sending $15 to the Maine Folklife Center at 5773 South Stevens Hall, University of Maine, Orono, 04469, or by calling (207) 581-1891, or emailing: folklife@maine.edu.

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