New Hampshire Culture & Language

Live Free or Die is on the licence plates, and the politics behind it are real rather than decorative: no sales tax, no wage tax, no seatbelt requirement for adults, and a legislature of 400 members for a population of 1.4 million — one of the largest legislative bodies in the English-speaking world.

Every four years the primary turns diners and town halls into national news, and residents expect to meet candidates personally rather than see them on television.

Hiking here is a culture rather than a pastime. Completing the 48 peaks over 4,000 feet is a recognised local achievement, and the Appalachian Mountain Club hut system, which dates to the nineteenth century, is the backbone of it.

The mill towns of the south have their own history, including a large Franco-American population descended from Quebec workers who came for the textile jobs.

English. The regional accent drops its r-sounds and is stronger in older and more rural speakers, though less pronounced than in eastern Massachusetts.

French has a real presence in the northern and mill towns, descended from Quebec migration, and some older residents there grew up speaking it.

Local usage worth knowing: a notch is a mountain pass, flatlander means someone from away, and the Kanc is the Kancamagus Highway.