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Citation Information
How to Cite
Hendrickson, Robert. "a." Writer's Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 18 Apr. 2025. <http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=DOAR03770>.
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a

Region
New England

Definition 
(1) The broad a of New England (as in cah for car, fah for far etc.) is heard regularly in the Boston area (within an area of about 40 miles from the city) and again in Maine from about Portland eastward. Elsewhere in the region its occurrence is not as frequent and in western New England it is rare. (2) "The Yankee has retained something of the long sound of the a in such words as ax and wax, pronouncing them ex, wex (shortened from aix, waix)." (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866).

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