Hey, Hon, Ready to Learn How They Talk in Baltimore?

06 March 2011

Baltimore's downtown showplace, the Inner Harbor, as seen from Federal Hill

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we tell you about the past and present of the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

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STEVE EMBER: We start with the name. Many Baltimore natives pronounce it "Bawlmer" or "Bawl-ah-mur." This is just one example of Bawlmerese. Later in our program, we'll give you a lesson in this local way of speaking in Baltimore.

Baltimore is a historic port city in the eastern United States, sixty or so kilometers from Washington. Baltimore had about twenty thousand people when it became a city at the end of seventeen ninety-six. Last year's national census count estimated the population at six hundred twenty-one thousand. Baltimore is the largest city in the state of Maryland.

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Visitors to Baltimore find entertainment in areas like the redeveloped Inner Harbor and the waterfront community of Fells Point. Yet many people around the world only know the areas of Baltimore shown on TV dramas like "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Wire."

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David Simon created "The Wire" based largely on his years as a newspaper reporter covering crime for the Baltimore Sun. But, in real life, murder rates are down from the highs fueled by the violent drug trade of years past.