Editing Boston accent (section)

===Declining features===
Many characteristics of the Boston accent may be retreating, particularly among younger residents. In the most old-fashioned of Boston accents, there may be a lingering resistance to the [[horse–hoarse merger]], so that ''horse'' has the pure vowel {{IPA|/ɒ/}}, while ''hoarse'' has the centering diphthong {{IPA|/oə/}}; this can potentially cause the {{sc2|NORTH}}–{{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|THOUGHT}} merger, so that ''tort'', ''tot'' and ''taught'' are phonemically all {{IPA|/tɒt/}}. The result is that, for an older Boston accent, the {{sc2|NORTH}}–{{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|THOUGHT}} vowel is distinct from the {{sc2|FORCE}} vowel. Another two example words that would traditionally be distinguished, thus, are ''for'' {{IPA|/fɒ/}} versus ''four'' {{IPA|/foə/}}. This distinction was rapidly fading out of currency in the second half of the 20th century with the words belonging to the {{sc2|NORTH}} class being transferred over to the {{sc2|FORCE}} class, undoing the merger of {{sc2|NORTH}} with {{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|THOUGHT}}, as it is in almost all regions of North America that still make it. For non-rhotic speakers, the modern-day situation in Boston is that both ''horse'' and ''hoarse'', as well as both ''for'' and ''four'', take the centering diphthong {{IPA|/oə/}}.

A feature that Boston speakers once shared with Britain's [[Received Pronunciation]], though now uncommon in Boston, is the [[Broad A|"broad ''a''"]] of the {{Sc|BATH}} [[lexical set]] of words, making a distinction from the {{sc|TRAP}} set ({{crossref|see [[Trap–bath split]]}}). In particular words that in other American accents have the "short ''a''" pronounced as {{IPA|/æ/}}, that vowel was replaced in the nineteenth century (if not earlier and often sporadically by speakers as far back as the late eighteenth century)<ref>Wood, 2010, p. 138.</ref> with {{IPA|/a/}}: thus, ''half'' as {{IPA|/haf/}} and ''bath'' as {{IPA|/baθ/}}.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=523}} Fewer words have the broad ''a'' in Boston English than in the London accents, and fewer and fewer Boston speakers maintain the broad ''a'' system as time goes on, with its transition into a decline first occurring in speakers born from about 1930 to 1950 (and first documented as a decline in 1977).<ref name="Wood, 2010, p. 139"/> Boston speakers born before about 1930 used this broad ''a'' in ''after'', ''ask'', ''aunt'', ''bath'', ''calf'', ''can't'', ''glass'', ''half'', ''laugh'', ''pasture'', ''path'', and other words, while those born from about 1930 to 1950 normally use it only in ''aunt'', ''calf'', ''half'', ''laugh'', and ''pass''. Speakers born since 1950 typically have no broad ''a'' whatsoever and, instead, slight [[æ-tensing|/æ/ raising]] (i.e. {{IPA|[ɛə]}} in ''craft'', ''bad'', ''math'', etc.){{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=523}} with this same set of words and, variably, other instances of short ''a'' too.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=523}} Only ''aunt'' maintains the broad ''a'' sound in even the youngest speakers, though this one word is a common exception throughout all of the Northeastern U.S.  Broad ''a'' in ''aunt'' is also heard by occasional speakers throughout Anglophone North America; it is quite commonly heard in African American speech as well.