Can't believe I had never heard of this site, by Fred Marple out of Frost Heaves, NH. Plenty to check out, including Yoga For Yankees (the video over at Maggie's that put me on to this) and "Elmer sings Simon and Garfunkel."
This one is "Yankee Positioning System: You Can't Get There From Here."
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He writes occasional articles for New Hampshire Magazine. The last one poked fun of Town Meetings.
When I initially viewed the Fred Marple video @ Maggie's Farm, I assumed that the Bert and I voice Fred Marple used was his everyday voice.
Then I hear this video, and his voice is different.
But I shouldn't have been surprised. The NH towns Fred Marple mentions in other videos are less than an hour's drive from my sister in law's home town in Massachusetts, where they don't sound like Downeasters. Nor do they sound like TV announcers.
Very few people have the NH accent anymore. There are a few echoes of it, as a lot of people still turn a final "ah" sound into an "er," but that's about it. What you are hearing is an exaggerated version of what might have been heard in rural areas (still pronounced arears by some) a generation ago. I can do it, heavy or light, but it was never my natural speech, nor either of my parents.
Ha! Just like asking for directions in almost any Southern small town... especially the history part.
The turning an "ah" ending to an "er" one used to be heard a lot around here too. My Mom's family did it, but not my Dad's family. A Scots-Irish legacy maybe?
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