This Chronicle blog post discusses an article in the latest issue of American Speech (the journal of the American Dialect Society) about the status of New England dialects. I can report that at least among the 25-50 set here in the far suburbs of Boston, R-lessness and other Boston/Mass dialect features are alive and well. (Witness: my conversation with a receptionist where she mistook my utterance of “Kyle” for one of “Carl”.)