high as as in boor. This pattern has also been noted to occur in Philadelphia and New York. Canadian raising occurs for before voiceless consonants, as in Philadelphia; for instance, the word like [ɫʌɪk] begins with a higher nucleus than live [ɫaɪv]. On the other hand, may undergo smoothing before liquids, becoming before and /l/; e.g., fire is pronounced as , in which a popular Baltimore Christmas joke: "Why were the Three Wise Men covered with soot?" "Because they came from afar." is often eliminated entirely from a word when before a consonant; e.g. Annapolis = Naplis, cigarette = cigrette, company = compny, Italy = Itly. Consonants Th–stopping occurs, where the dental fricatives may be realized as stops ( respectively); for instance, this may sound more like diss. L–vocalization is common at the end of a word. The sound is often replaced by the semivowel or glide and/or or . Pronunciation of words like middle and college become and respectively. Epenthetic often occurs; notably, wash is pronounced as , popularly written as warsh, and Washington is pronounced as Warshington. As is common in many US dialects, is frequently elided after , thus hunter is pronounced . Lexicon The following is a list of words and phrases used in the Baltimore area that are used much less or differently in other American English dialects. down the ocean – (eye-dialect spellings include dayown the ocean or downy ocean) "down to/on/at the ocean", most likely referring to Ocean City, Maryland. hon – a popular term of endearment, short for honey, often used at the end of a sentence. This word has been a popular marker of Baltimore culture, as represented in the annual Honfest summer festival and in landmarks such as the Hontown store and the Café Hon restaurant. natty boh – local slang for the beer originally brewed in Baltimore, National Bohemian. pavement (commonly pronounced "payment") – means "sidewalk" (which is used rarely). went up (shortened from "went up to heaven") – commonly used when an appliance dies; e.g., our refrigerator went up yo – as a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun African-American Baltimore English includes the words lor for "little", rey for ready (associated with Baltimore users of Black Twitter), and woe for a close friend. Ethnic variation According to linguists, the "hon" dialect that is popularized in the media and that derives historically from the speech of by white blue-collar residents