Culture of Baltimore - Hons

Hons

Although nowadays the city is extremely culturally diverse, the lasting image of Baltimoreans seems to be the "Hon" culture exemplified most markedly by the longer established families and residents of the Highlandtown, Canton, Locust Point, Hampden and Pigtown neighborhoods. Between the 1950s and 1970s, it was common to see working class local women dressing in bright, printed dresses with out-dated glasses and beehive hairdos. Men were often dressed casually, but with a general factory or dock worker look, as many in town did indeed have such jobs.

The name of the culture comes from the often parodied Baltimore accent and slang. "Hon" ( /ˈhʌn/, an abbreviation of "Honey") was a common informal name for someone else. Baltimore’s accent exemplifies a dialectal continuum between Tidewater American English, a southern American dialect, and Delaware Valley American English, a common coastal dialect, loosely possessing the vowel shifts of the former and general pronunciation of the latter. For instance, "Baltimore" is pronounced "Baldimore" or even "Balmer," and "Maryland" becomes "Murland," "Murlan," or "Merlin." Other common pronunciations include "ool," "amblance," "wooder," "warsh," "sharr or shaow," "dug," "couwny," "tew," and "zinc" (oil, ambulance, water, wash, shower, dog, county, two, and sink respectively). There is also a popular summertime phrase, "goin' downy ayshin" (going down to the ocean, usually referring to Ocean City, MD)

Baltimore native and filmmaker John Waters has parodied the Hon culture, as well as Baltimore itself, extensively in his movies. For a somewhat accurate representation of Baltimorese, one can look to Waters' narration spots in his 1972 movie Pink Flamingos. Waters himself used a local commercial for Mr Ray's Hair Weaves as his main inspiration. The commercial was famous around town for Mr. Ray's extreme Baltimore accent. "Cawl todaey, for your freee hame showink..." was the most memorable line from that commercial, translating as "Call today, for your free home showing..."

The term has been established in the culture as it has been used for naming businesses including Cafe Hon, and for the annual HonFest.