Some of the oldest cities in the United States can be found along the coast to the Northeast: New York, Boston, Jersey City. They’ve grown from backwoods settlements to thriving bastions of urban Americana. Yet, when one mentions New England, an image of “olden times” comes to mind: Brahmin men and women with buckles on their shoes, lacking rhoticity, using thee/thou/thy. It is interesting then to discover that the New England dialect is in fact a fairly novel convention.
The Boston Brahmins were a wealthy, élite group of upper-class New England families that prided themselves patrons of art and at the forefront of all things fashionable. Their distinct style of speaking