What distinguishes New Englanders from everyone else in the country or the world for that matter?

No, it’s not necessarily a love of the Red Sox or a passion for Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Even flatlanders can develop an affinity for those.

It’s the accent, mistah. It’s the accent. And a local man has written all about it.

R. Payson (or as he likes to say, Ah Payson), aka Robert Dinan, a former history teacher and banker from Nashua, wrote “Boston Accents: The Untold Stories,” the newest from Boston Accents products – a line of T-shirts and hats started four years ago by Payson’s son-in-law and daughter, Brian and Janine Page, of Nashua. According to Page and Dinan, the shirts and “lids” with sayings such as “R’s Ah Fah Losahs,” “Wicked Smaht” and “Bah Hoppah” have been spotted all over the country and are even popular with New England service men and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan who are missing the hometown twang.

Dinan said the book was fun to create, and it was a great way to use his background in American history.

It was also a great distraction from his current battle with kidney cancer.

“I’m on disability, so I can’t work a regular job. But this was a project that I could work on at my own pace.”

The book and the family business have also kept Dinan’s sense of humor in overdrive during his treatments.

According to Dinan, the book takes historical events, and with tongue planted firmly in cheek, the author infers how a New England accent might have influenced the outcome.

Chapters include “Not Yah Nahmal Ride” (exploring Paul Reveah’s role in the Revolution), “It’s all about the Beeyah,” (about Samuel Adams)” and “Lady Libahty,” (Gimme yah tiahed, yah poah, yah huddled masses yearnin’ …)

And of course, he said, the book also has a “fahwahd” and “afterwahd.”

Nothing is sacred when it comes to Dinan’s speculation, including profound historic moments like the Apollo 11 moonwalk: “…The nation, nay, the world was fixated on their television screens … excitement was thick in the air as Neil Armstrong stepped down from the landing craft. Unfortunately, there was a momentary glitch in the communication feed from the module to Houston so what occurred was never recorded. Armstrong: ‘This lunah landscape is pissah. The dust is like powdah and soft as buttah, but it’s hahd undahneath. I wish I had my drivah I could hit a ball fahevah.’” ?

And then there’s Dinan’s speculation about the first draft of the Declaration of Independence: “When things staht happenin’ and it’s necessary to delivah the hammah to anothah people by dissolvin’ the political bands that bind them … We hold these idears to be self-evident that all men ah created kinda equal, except Bostonians ah moah equal than othahs, that they ah endowed by theyah Creatah with some rights like Libahty, Beeyah, and Moxie…”

In addition to his five grandchildren, he dedicates “Untold Stories” to “all New Englandah’s who have lived theyah lives without pronouncin’ theyah R’s” and “all cancer survivors” whom he urges to “Keep the faith.”

The book and other Boston Accent products are sold online and in the Nashua area at Fortin Gage Flowers and Gifts on West Pearl Street, at the Crowne Plaza and at The Paper Store at the Royal Ridge Center.

Stacy Milbouer can be reached at stacym34@gmail.com.