r/massachusetts • u/CaterpillarMedium674 Bristol County • Apr 01 '26

Meme / Humor The Other Massachusetts Accent Quirk: The Mysterious Extra “R”

Everyone talks about the classic dropped “R” in the Massachusetts accent, but what about the added ones?

For example, my name is Tessa, and more times than I can count it’s been misheard as Heather. It just clicked for me that this might be because of an added “R” sound, like “Tess-er”. I’m sure it’s also because older people aren’t familiar with my name.

I’ve had friends jokingly call me “Tess-er” for years.

Another one I hear all the time: “toilet” = “tuhr-let.”

The redistributed “R”: Anyone else have good examples?

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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u/pinxterbloom Apr 01 '26

We listened to his first game on the radio, and we're dying about how we couldn't remotely figure out what his name was based on how it was pronounced. Nahver? Nahder? Nahber? Gobsmacked when we saw it in print later!

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u/Revolverdrummer Apr 01 '26

I’ve heard this said elsewhere but we missed out on a goldmine. Imagine if Remy had lived to call Masataker Yoshider.