Baltimore Accent

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 gl-ss 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 pr-nounced 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 pr-nounced 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 pr-nunciation of “r”. other local dialacts like charleston, new york, and boston do not pr-nounce 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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the language spoken on the streets of baltimore is one that has been refined over the last 30 years. it’s a largely homegrown accent, and it’s one that’s mainly confined to the city and its black suburbs. a person from baltimore never pr-nounces the t. it’s more like ball-di-more, or usually just b-more. yo often, unnecessarily, begins and ends many sentences.

-switching vowels-
words like red, bed, and dead are pr-nounced with is: red=rid, bed=bid, dead=did. chair sounds more like “cheer” in baltimore. orange sounds more like “oinch”!
-adding consonants-

it’s hard to explain what happens to words like too, blue, or do. it comes out with an added r somewhere, and the actual sound can’t be accurately spelled.
-new words-
in the late 90s, young baltimoreans could be heard calling “ay yerp” in all corners of the city. in context it sounds more like yerp=yo
-altered definitions-
many definition changes are related to crime. for example, the movie “blow” brought national recognition to a nickname of cocaine. however, ask for “blow” in baltimore, and you’ll get served heroin. drug cops are “knockers”. to get “plucked” is to be punched. sneakers are always tennis shoes, or just “tennis” for short. braids are almost always “plaits”. a wh-r- in baltimore is not a prost-tute, he or she is a coward. even baltimorean children have slang. cut or budge in line and you’ll be told not to “rude in line”.
baltimore accent examples:
“somebody gotta go get a hack (illegal cab) so we can go out the county (the suburbs).

“a yo, you seen mike, yo?”

“yo just got plucked by one of them dirty -ss knockers.”