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How To Talk With a New Hampshire Accent

Woe to the presidential wannabe who doesn’t study the New Hampshire accent before entering the First in the Nation Presidential Primary (and don’t suggest it isn’t the first). He or she will instantly lose credibility if they claim happiness at coming back to Con-cord.

It’s KON-k’d.

If you can’t find Concord, don’t ask the locals. You’ll never figure out what they’re telling you. You will, however, find Concord south of the Kancamangus, where all the leaf peepers go in the fall, and north of Manchester. You shouldn’t say “ManchVegas,” by the way, but you can say “The Kanc.” It’s a highway.

The local accent and nomenclature do take some getting used to. Here’s how.

How It Started

The New Hampshire accent started with the English colonists who first arrived in North America. They brought with them speech patterns from Elizabethan London and part rural speech from Yorkshire and Lancashire.

That evolved into the New Hampshire accent, as well as the Boston accent, the Providence accent, the Northern, Eastern and Western New England accent — and so forth. The local accents come with local slang, though you’ll hear the word ‘wicked’ (as in ‘wicked pissah’) throughout New England. In fact, you’ll hear it a lot.

As late as the Great Depression, people in Seabrook, N.H., still spoke much the same way their forebears did hundreds of years earlier.

In 1938, the Federal Writers Project WPA Guide to New Hampshire described Seabrook as, “a village, Old World in appearance and atmosphere, set in the midst of sand-dunes, with cocks of salt hay scattered over them, an unchanged landscape of three centuries ago.”

“A section of the town of Seabrook speaks a language strangely reminiscent of rural England, and at times suggestive of the Yorkshire dialect,” concluded the federal writers.

Where leaf peepers go, probably Up Above

New Hampshire Accent

The New Hampshire accent shares characteristics of Massachusetts, Maine and sometimes Vermont accents. It’s less pronounced in the southern tier of the state because of all the Massholes who moved there.

The Old Man of the Mountain

Of the four states, New Hampshire is uniquely allergic to the letter “r.” “It is only in New Hampshire where vocalized /r/ falls to very low levels,” wrote linguist William Labov.

Words don’t end in “r” but in “ah.” ‘New Hampshire’ is actually pronounced N’Hampshah. You put your socks in a draw.

New Hampshire has a key line of demarcation: Franconia Notch. The Old Man of the Mountain – known simply as the ‘Old Man’ – used to live there until he collapsed in 2003. If you live north of the Notch (called a “pass” or a “gap” elsewhere), you live “Up Above.” You say people who live south of the Notch come from “Down Below.”

R-lessness and Ahs

Words that end in ‘r’ but are preceded by an “e,” “i” or “o” get a “y” inserted. So it’s “theyah,” not “there” and “deeyah,” not “dear.”

To confuse matters, words that originally end in ‘ah’ are pronounced “r.” “Linda” becomes “Linder” and ‘idea’ becomes “idear.” Americer is north of Cuber, which is south of Florider. So many snowbirds go to Florider that John Durkin, a candidate from Franklin, N.H., campaigned for U.S. Senate theyah back in the 1970s.

The broad “a” is another feature of the New Hampshire accent. You can hear it in words like aunt, father, laugh, half and can’t.

It’s also typically heard in “ar” words like car. So “Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd” is how a New Hampshire native would tell you where to deposit your vehicle in Cambridge, Mass.

New Hampshire has its own unique words, shared with other Eastern and Northern New Englanders. A soda is a soft drink and a brook is a creek. A sneaker is an athletic shoe that used to be made in Berlin (pronounced BER-lin) before the factory moved to Chiner.

You don’t go to the basement in New Hampshire. You go ‘down cellar.’ Aluminum foil is tin foil. A rubber band is an elastic. A drinking fountain is a bubbler.

You can fish for hornpout in New Hampshire during mud season, but you probably want to stay indoors during black fly season. You can also fish in the wintertime if you have a bobhouse to take onto the ice. Hamburg is what you eat on a bulkie roll with a side of French fries and a frappe.

Lower Molars

Audiobook narrator Matt Haynes studied the accent in case he had to narrate a book with a character from New Hampshire. He found some further refinements based on the sound going toward the lower molars. (In Maine they go to the higher molars.)

‘Or’ becomes ‘ou,’ so ‘ignore’ becomes ‘ignou.’
‘Er’ becomes ‘eh,’ so ‘world’ becomes ‘wehld.’
‘S’ becomes almost an ‘sh;’ so ‘it looks like rain’ becomes ‘it looksh like rain.’
Final vowels tend to be deadened, so ‘–ing’ become ‘-in.’

To listen to a real New Hampshire accent, click here.

If you want to speak with a Maine accent, click here. For Rhode Island, click here, for Connecticut, click here. And if you want to talk with a Boston accent, click here.

Image of New Hampshire in Autumn By Someone35 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15702944. License plate By Stripey the crab – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16105204.

This story was updated in 2022.

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Pass the Tourtiere, C’est Le Reveillon!

For many, many years, le reveillon was the way Franco-Americans ushered in New Year’s Day in New England’s Little Canadas.

Berlin, N.H., millworkers’ homes. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

The reveillon is a long, late dinner preceding a holiday. Tourtiere is central to the meal. The celebrated meat pie, cooked and eaten during the shortest days of winter, often accompanies traditional Franco-American foods such as peas or pea soup, head cheese, croquignoles and ragout.

During the first half of the 19^th century, when the first wave of immigrants arrived, New Year’s Day exceeded Christmas in importance. On January 1, Franco-Americans exchanged small gifts, and children found presents under the tree or near the manger in the parlor. Sometimes their parents told them the presents came from le Pere Noel (a skinny version of Santa Claus) or l’Enfant Jesus.

Family and friends visited each other over the holidays, which stretched from Christmas Eve to January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany or la Fete des Rois. Franco-Americans would go to house parties in their neighborhoods in Nashua, Berlin and on the west side of Manchester, N.H. Other cities with vibrant Franco-American neighborhoods included Lewiston and Biddeford, Maine; Warwick and Woonsocket, R.I.; Fall River and Lowell, Mass.; St. Albans and Burlington, Vt.; and Bristol and Waterbury, Conn.

Historian Yves Roby noted that New Year’s was often a sad day for the Quebecois newcomers who worked in the mills. Because it wasn’t a federal holiday, the reveillon was replaced by a regular work day. Sometime before World War II, a Franco-American millworker complained,

Next Monday (January 1st), while our brothers and other relatives in Canada are celebrating New Year’s Day, we shall be going about our daily occupations.

Holy Day of Obligation

The Roman Catholic parish was central to life in New England’s Little Canadas, and New Year’s Mass was central to the holiday.

On the last Sunday of the year, the local church auctioned off unrented pews and parishioners elected new churchwardens, known as marguilliers.

St. Ann’s Church in Woonsocket, R.I.

Catholics celebrate the ‘Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God’ as a Holy Day of Obligation on New Year’s Day. At the end of the New Year’s Mass, the outgoing officer, along with an altar boy or the sexton holding a lighted candle, led his successor to the marguilliers’ pew.

Sometimes parishioners made a special door-to-door collection for the poor on New Year’s Day.

Many Franco-American families gathered before the reveillon for a solemn and emotional moment. They came to the home of the grandparents or parents, and the oldest son asked for the blessing. In The French-Canadian Heritage in New England, Gerard Breault wrote in 1986,

Everyone knelt before the grandfather who gave a benediction similar to that of the priest at the end of mass. As he made the sign of the cross over everyone, or each individual, he said: “Que Dieu vous benisse au nom du Pere et du Fils et du Saint Esprit. Amen.”

Always the tourtiere.

Then, wrote Breault, the blessing was followed by the classic Franco-American New Year’s wish: Je vous souhaite une bonne et heureuse annee, une bonne sante, et le paradis a la fin de vos jours! , or

I wish you a prosperous and happy New Year, good health, and eternal bliss when you pass on.

After the blessing, everyone stood up, kissed or shook hands and wished each other good fortune.

The Reveillon

Not quite a reveillon: Franco-American potato farmer and his family eat dinner in Wallagrass, Maine. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Le reveillon, translated, means ‘the awakening.’ For some, that signifies a religious awakening. For others it means staying up all night for neighborhood house parties during the holiday season.

In the early 20^th century, Franco-American families in Winooski, Vt.., celebrated New Year’s with le reveillon. They ate tourtiere, head cheese, pea soup, pickled beets, roast beef and dumplings boiled in maple syrup. For dessert, they had pies and fudge. But always the tourtiere.

“Reveillon had to have tourtiere. That was a must,” Claire Chase, 91, told the Burlington Free Press in 2011.

Then came the late-night parties, called veillees.

There were sets carres – traditional dances — often accompanied by a fiddler, an accordionist, or maybe a piano, a mandolin, or a mouth organ. Family and friends would sing traditional songs like Minuit Chretien and Alouette. Maybe they’d have a glass of dandelion wine.

The traditional reveillon began to vanish after World War II. Today, even the last vestiges are disappearing.

With thanks to The French-Canadian Heritage in New England by Gerard J. Brault and Franco-Americans of New England: Dreams and Realities by Yves Roby. Tourtiere by Mack Male. This story was updated in 2022.

Images: Franco-American flag By Robert Couturier (image JPG), Ec.Domnowall (modifications & vectorisation SVG) – francoamericanarchives.org, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15705488. St. Ann’s By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18819427

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Brownie Wise, The Brains Behind Tupperware

In 1950, Earl Tupper was sitting in his Leominster, Mass., office struggling with how to get his business off the ground when Brownie Wise called.

He never met Brownie Wise, but she phoned to tell him about a party. What happened next changed every kitchen in America.

Brownie Wise

Earl Tupper was born in Berlin, N.H., in 1907. His family moved to Lowell, Mass., where Earl grew up. He took a failed stab at a tree maintenance business. By 1946, Earl had his own firm in Leominster, making and selling plastic containers for storing food.

Birth of Tupperware

At the end of World War II, DuPont had distributed blocks of polyethylene to plastics companies. It had mass produced the stuff for war uses, but it hoped to find new uses for the material.

Tupper had a stroke of genius. He contacted DuPont and asked if they would send him a sample of the polyethylene before they added stiffening agents to it. The pliable plastic was exactly what he was looking for, and he shaped it into sealable food storage containers. The containers had a characteristic ‘burp’ when sealed: Tupperware.

Tupper had his plastic bowls selling in hardware and department stores, but they didn’t sell well – everywhere except one little Florida company that couldn’t get enough of his bowls. Why? he wondered. And so he contacted the company called Tupperware Patio Parties, run by Brownie Wise.

Brownie Wise

Brownie Wise was Tupper’s opposite, outgoing and vivacious. Born and raised in Georgia, she had married a Ford executive and moved to Dearborn, Mich. There, her marriage soured and she divorced.

She worked as a sales representative for Stanley Home Products, a Massachusetts-based company that sold cleaning goods through in-home sales parties. Brownie Wise quickly spotted the opportunity Tupper was missing.

His product needed a personal touch for people to understand it. At an in-home party, the product could be thrown on the floor to demonstrate its durability and tossed around to show how light it was. Sales reps could also show firsthand the Tupperware ‘burp’ that seals in the flavor of food.

Brownie Wise moved to Florida and started her patio parties company. At that point Earl noticed how much product she moved. During their first phone conversation, Earl invited Brownie to visit him in Massachusetts. Once they met, he knew she was right.

In the home, there would be no inhibitions or distractions. Housewives could picture his modernistic designs right in their own kitchens. And the sales force was there for the asking.

Tupperware Parties

After getting a taste of economic freedom during World War II, many women wanted something other than homemaking. Tupperware sales parties were perfect.

Earl and Brownie created Tupperware Home Parties Inc., and Brownie became vice president. Earl would make the product, Brownie would sell it.

Over the course of several years, Brownie created a whole new kind of sales network, one that relied on fun sales conventions. She called them jubilees and filled them with skits and awards. Blenders and other kinds of incentives were added to the commissions, and a whole new type of sales structure rose up. Brownie’s all-woman sales force – taken for granted at home – reveled in the praise and celebration at their annual ‘sales jubilees.’

By 1958, business was booming. If only Brownie Wise and Earl had been able to continue their partnership, we can only wonder what might have been. Instead, she got bossy and arrogant. He got jealous and testy. Even though he paid to promote Brownie’s image as a whole new style of female executive, he resented people viewing her as the reason for Tupperware’s success.

Posing with a television at a Tupperware jubilee, 1955.

So, without notice, Earl fired her and sold the company to Rexall Drug Stores. He then divorced his wife and moved to Costa Rica so he could avoid taxes. Tupperware rolled right along without either of them.

At first, Rexall talked of scrapping Brownie Wise’s innovations, like the sales jubilee. But employee after employee told the new company president that such a move would be a disaster. Rexall backed off and didn’t mess with success.

Tupperware Phoenix

By the start of 2020, stock analysts left Tupperware Brands for dead because they saw too much debt and excessive costs. The company, though, cut costs and flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people stayed home and cooked more. In December 2020, the financial news network TheStreet called it one of the best stocks of the year, noting, “Shares fell as low as $1.25 in March and recently closed at $36.64.”

Women are still holding Tupperware parties and attending jubilees in countries around the world.

Images: Brownie Wise By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33209984. Tupperware By Melissa Highton – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107261339. Tupperware assortment by By Mark Larson – https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/3544195739/in/photolist-6pbVV6-cmeS8W-2LD5j4-3cTjz8-7G6C7f-efnHD-efnNX-3ycmba-3ycd3H-5fPENe-9MucPJ-5bt2L1-5kvsKf-6PYFv-49yf1M-w2DHU-7AYtpX-5krceZ-7tT9ou-dCeab2-4uWcqu-tYPJV-9VpsFB-4Zzu1U-4z2aJm-4qADX-7D4Psn-8nznXp-nnCoK-dD7A4a-btBHP9-7df4Kq-nnCij-dzijSo-5r5nta-5ETEW3-9kU7WF-6PYFu-4vVdGx-3ankiN-7EYAVh-7EUKRT-5ARNme-4JWVWK-5AW4W7-5ARMKR-6J7sFQ-5ARN6e-6NFim4-5ARNGZ-2Vo5E5, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28295511.

This story about Brownie Wise was updated in 2022.

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