Maine Accent: How It Sounds, Common Words and Is It Fading?

The traditional Maine accent is a set of local accents of Eastern New England English, heard mostly Down East and along the Midcoast. Its best-known traits are dropping the “r” after a vowel (“cah” for car) and an extra syllable in words like “here.” Linguists agree the old forms are fading, but they disagree on whether that means the accent is disappearing. Jump to how it sounds, common Maine words, whether it is fading or why sources disagree.

How the Maine accent sounds

According to Wikipedia’s description, these are the main features:

  • No “r” after a vowel. The “r” is only pronounced before a vowel, so “car” sounds like “cah” and “Mainer” like “Mainah.” Linguists call this non-rhoticity. Boston-area accents share it.
  • Extra syllables. Words like “here,” “there” and “more” get a glide or a second syllable, so “here” comes out as “hee-yah.”
  • An added “r.” Down East magazine says Mainers sometimes add one where it does not belong (its examples are “yoger” for yogurt and “pah-ster” for pastor). This is called an intrusive r. Wikipedia’s article does not mention it, so we have not confirmed it there.
  • “-ing” sounds like “-in.” A common loosening of word endings, per Wikipedia.
  • Vowel mergers. Wikipedia says the “cot” and “caught” vowels have merged widely across Maine, especially outside the cities, though Portland speakers resisted it in a 2013 study.

Common Maine words and phrases

These meanings come from Wikipedia’s Maine glossary and Down East magazine:

  • Ayuh: yes, okay, sure.
  • Wicked: an intensifier, as in “wicked good.”
  • Culch: trash or clutter.
  • Dooryard: the outdoor space outside a home’s door.
  • Upta camp: going up to a summer or rural cabin.
  • Flatlander: an outsider, often from Massachusetts.
  • Bug: a lobster. Pot: a lobster trap.
  • Cunning: cute.
  • Numb: dumb or stupid.
  • Notional: stubborn.
  • Johnny: a hospital gown.
  • Jimmies: chocolate sprinkles.
  • Lawn sale: a yard sale.
  • Down East: the coastal Hancock and Washington counties, according to Wikipedia.

If you are new to the state, see our moving to Maine guide.

Hearing the accent: Tim Sample and Maine humor

Tim Sample.
Tim Sample. Photo: Nina Fuller, photographer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

One way to hear the accent is through Maine humor. Tim Sample is a Maine humorist and storyteller, born in Fort Fairfield in 1951 and raised in Boothbay Harbor, according to Wikipedia. His work with Robert Bryan (Bert and I) produced the 1982 album How to Talk Yankee, later a book of the same name. Wikipedia says he was influenced as a child by Marshall Dodge’s comedy albums, and that his “Postcard from Maine” segments ran on CBS Sunday Morning for 11 years.

Is the Maine accent disappearing?

Wikipedia describes the traditional Maine accents as rapidly declining. In a 2015 Down East article, the linguist Michael Erard argues that worry is overstated, because dialects change rather than vanish. He cites two measurements:

Main Street in Old Town, Maine, on an old Tichnor Brothers postcard.
Main Street in Old Town, Maine, on an old Tichnor Brothers postcard. Photo: Tichnor Brothers, Publisher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Linguist James Stanford found the soft “r” fading in New England, by about 25 percent per generation in New Hampshire.
  • Hannah Perry found a similar decline of about 18 percent per generation in Waterville and Belfast, Maine.

Erard also says some features are holding steady, such as keeping “horse” and “hoarse” distinct in central Maine and the Midcoast. Only older, settler-inherited features seem to be declining. That article is from 2015, so those figures are not new.

Why the sources disagree

  • How the accent works. A Z1073 radio-station list says the secret is swapping a word’s final “e” and “r” for “a” and “h.” Linguists describe non-rhoticity instead, and the radio rule does not fit its own examples: “farm,” “barn” and “car” have no final “e.”
  • Fading or changing. Wikipedia says rapidly declining. Erard says the fear is overstated.
  • Where it is spoken. Wikipedia says Down East and the Midcoast. Erard says island, mainland, Midcoast, Down East, Portland, Houlton and Franco-American speech all sound different, and that older dialect maps left out Franco-American English. Wikipedia says Franco-Americans near the Quebec and New Brunswick border may show French influence.
  • “Horse” and “hoarse.” Wikipedia says a 2013 Portland study found speakers merging them in all age groups. Erard says the distinction is stable in central Maine and the Midcoast. They may be describing different places.
  • List lengths. The Z1073 article is titled 10 words but lists 15 examples.

Maine accent: FAQ

What is the Maine accent called?

There is no single name. Wikipedia describes the traditional Maine accents as local forms of Eastern New England English.

What does ayuh mean?

Yes, okay or sure, according to Wikipedia’s glossary.

Why do Mainers drop the r?

It is a feature called non-rhoticity: the “r” is only pronounced before a vowel. Boston-area accents share it. See how it sounds.

Where is the Maine accent strongest?

Wikipedia says mainly Down East and the Midcoast. Erard says local speech varies in more places than that. See where it is spoken.

Is the Maine accent disappearing?

The traditional forms are declining, but linguists disagree on whether the accent is vanishing or evolving. See the numbers.

Our details come from Wikipedia’s Maine accent article, Michael Erard’s “How to Talk Like a Mainer” in Down East magazine (2015) and a Z1073 radio-station list and Wikipedia’s Tim Sample article. Linguists describe the accent in different ways, and many words have local variants.