START-fronting refers to pronouncing words such as "start" more like "staahrt." This is a well-documented dialectal feature of English in Eastern New England and the Boston area, although most prior studies focus on white speakers (Labov, et al., 2006; Kim, et al., 2019). A recent study on Black talkers from Boston showed they were less likely to use fronted-START (Browne & Stanford, 2018). It’s important to note that Southern varieties of AAL also do not use fronted-START (Thomas, 2007).

94.05% of Black Bostonian participants in our sample show the least fronted-START vowel. This aligns with prior linguistic work in the Black Boston community, showing that Black Bostonians do not use START-fronting, despite it being a common feature in the Eastern New England region. Our findings illustrate that Black speakers born and raised in Boston do not necessarily pattern the same as white Boston speakers, and that Boston speech is incredibly diverse!

- Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:231)
- Browne & Stanford (2018:21)
- Kim, et al., (2019:173-174)
- Thomas (2007:461)