Western Pennsylvania English

Western Pennsylvania English, known more narrowly as Pittsburgh English or popularly as Pittsburghese, is a dialect of American English native primarily to the western half of Pennsylvania, centered on the city of Pittsburgh, but potentially appearing in some speakers as far north as Erie County, as far west as Youngstown, Ohio, and as far south as Clarksburg, West Virginia. Commonly associated with the white working class of Pittsburgh, users of the dialect are colloquially known as "Yinzers".

Overview

Scots-Irish, Pennsylvania Dutch, Polish, Ukrainian and Croatian immigrants to the area all provided certain loanwords to the dialect (see "Vocabulary" below). Many of the sounds and words found in the dialect are popularly thought to be unique to Pittsburgh, but that is a misconception since the dialect resides throughout the greater part of western Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas. Central Pennsylvania, currently an intersection of several dialect regions, was identified in 1949 by Hans Kurath as a subregion between western and eastern Pennsylvania, but some scholars have more recently identified it within the western Pennsylvania dialect region. Since Kurath's study, one of western Pennsylvania's defining features, the cot–caught merger, has expanded into central Pennsylvania, moving eastward until being blocked at Harrisburg. Perhaps the only feature whose distribution is restricted almost exclusively to the immediate vicinity of Pittsburgh is monophthongization in which words such as ''house'', ''down'', ''found'', and ''sauerkraut'' are sometimes pronounced with an "ah" sound, instead of the more standard pronunciation of "ow", rendering eye spellings such as ''hahs'', ''dahn'', ''fahnd'', and ''sahrkraht''.

Speakers of Pittsburgh English are sometimes called "Yinzers" in reference to their use of the second-person plural pronoun "yinz." The word "yinzer" is sometimes heard as pejorative, indicating a lack of sophistication, but the term is now used in a variety of ways. Older men are more likely to use the accent than women "possibly because of a stronger interest in displaying local identity...."

Phonology

A defining feature of Western Pennsylvania English is the cot–caught merger, in which (as in ''ah'') and (as in ''aw'') merges to a rounded vowel: . As in most other American dialects, the father–bother merger also occurs. Therefore, ''cot'' and ''caught'' are both pronounced ; ''Don'' and ''dawn'' are both . While the merger of the low back vowels is also widespread elsewhere in the United States, the rounded realizations of the merged vowel around is less common, except in Canada, California and Northeastern New England.

The sound as in ''oh'' begins more fronted in the mouth, as in the American South or in Southern England. Therefore, ''go'' is pronounced . Similarly, as in ''food'' and ''rude'' is fronted and often diphthongized, as in much of the American South, Midland, and West.

The diphthong , as in ''ouch'' or ''mouth'', is monophthongized to in some environments (sounding instead like ''ah''), namely: before nasal consonants (''downtown'' and ''found'' ), liquid consonants (''fowl'', ''hour'') and obstruents (''house'' , ''out'', ''cloudy''). The monophthongization does not occur, however, in word-final positions (''how'', ''now''), and the diphthong then remains . That is one of the few features, if not the only one, restricted almost exclusively to western Pennsylvania in North America, but it can sometimes be found in other accents of the English-speaking world, such as Cockney and South African English. The sound may be the result of contact from Slavic languages during the early 20th century. Monophthongization also occurs for the sound , as in ''eye'', before liquid consonants, so that ''tile'' is pronounced ; ''pile'' is pronounced ; and ''iron'' is pronounced . That phenomenon allows ''tire'' to merge with the sound of ''tar'': .

An epenthetic (intruding) sound may occur after vowels in a few words, such as ''water'' pronounced as , and ''wash'' as .

A number of vowel mergers occur uniquely in Western Pennsylvania English before the consonant . The pair of vowels and may merge before the consonant, cause both ''steel'' and ''still'' to be pronounced as something like . Similarly, , , and may merge before , so that ''pool'', ''pull'', and ''pole'' may merge to something like . On the merger, Labov, Ash and Boberg (2006) note "the stereotype of merger of is based only on a close approximation of some forms, and does not represent the underlying norms of the dialect." The merger is found in western Pennsylvania, as well as parts of the southern United States, including Alabama, Texas and the west (McElhinny 1999). On the other hand, the merger is consistently found only in western Pennsylvania. The merger towards may also appear before : ''eagle'' then sounds to outsiders like ''iggle''. The vowel (as in ''uh'') before , may lower into the vowel of the cot–caught merger mentioned above, so that ''mull'' can sound identical to ''mall/maul'': .

''L''-vocalization is also common in the Western Pennsylvania dialect; an then sounds like a or a cross between a vowel and a "dark" at the end of a syllable. For example, ''well'' is pronounced as ; ''milk'' as or ; ''role'' as ; and ''cold'' as . The phenomenon is also common in African-American English.

Western Pennsylvania English speakers may use falling intonation at the end of questions, for example, in "Are you painting your garage?" (with pitch rising in intonation up to just before the last syllable and then falling precipitously). Such speakers typically use falling pitch for yes-no questions for which they already are quite sure of the answer. A speaker uttering the above example is simply confirming what is already thought: yes, the person spoken to is painting his/her garage. It is most common in areas of heavy German settlement, especially southeastern Pennsylvania, hence its nickname, the "Pennsylvania Dutch question", but it is also found elsewhere in Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh (Maxfield 1931; Layton 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006). It is of German origin.

Vocabulary

*''babushka'' - (''n.'') headscarf
*'' buggy'' - (''n.'') shopping cart
**''baby buggy'' - (''n.'') baby carriage
*''the 'Burgh'' - (''n.'') Pittsburgh
*''beal'' - (''v.'') to fester or suppurate
*''bealed'' - (''adj.'') usually of an ear: infected or abscessed
*''belling'' - (''n.'') noisy celebration or mock serenade for newlyweds; a shivaree
*''berm'' - (''n.'') edge of the road, curb: an accepted alternative to "shoulder of the road"
*''carbon oil'' - (''n.'') kerosene
*''chipped ham'' - (''n.'') very thinly sliced chopped ham loaf for sandwiches (from a local brand name) (see chipped chopped ham)
*'' city chicken'' - (''n.'') cubes of pork loin and/or veal on a short wooden skewer, breaded, then fried or baked
*''cupboard'' - (''n.'') closet
*''craw'' - (''n.'') crawfish
*''cruds'', ''crudded milk'', or ''cruddled milk'' - (''n.'') cottage cheese
*''diamond'' - (''n.'') town square
*''dippy'' - (''adj.'') appropriate for dipping into, such as gravy, coffee, egg yolks, etc.
*''doll baby'' - (''n.'') complimentary term for an attractively childlike girl or woman (reversal of "baby doll")
*''drooth'' - (''n.'') drought
*''dupa'' - (''n.'') parental term (of Polish origin) for a child's backside
*''feature'' - (''v.'') to think about, understand, or imagine
*''grinnie'' - (''n.'') chipmunk
*''gumband'' - (''n.'') rubber band; elastic fastener
*''gutchies; or undergutchies'' (''n.'') term used to describe undergarments of any variety.
*''hap'' - (''n.'') comfort; or, comforter or quilt:
*''hoagie'' - (''n.'') a sub (i.e., submarine sandwich; used throughout Pennsylvania)
*''jag'' - (''v.'') to prick, stab, or jab; to tease (often, ''jag off'' or ''jag around'')The word is often followed by ''off'' to mean (as a verb) "to annoy, irritate, play tricks on; to disparage; to reject", or (as a noun) "an annoying or irritating person;" as well as ''around'' to mean "annoy, tease, or engage in a frivolous endeavor." These phrases are probably influenced by ''jack off'' and ''jack around'', respectively. "Jus' jaggin'" is a common expression, the same as standard "just kidding". Descended from Scots-Irish usage in English, this is chiefly a Pennsylvania term, especially southwestern Pennsylvania, but also portions of Appalachia.
**''jagger'' - (''n.''/''adj.'') any small, sharp-pointed object or implement, usually thorns, spines, and prickles (as in a ''jagger bush'' or "I got a jagger in my finger").
**''jaggerbush'' - (''n.'') briar
**''jagoff'' - (''n.'') an idiot, fool, or unlikeable person
*''jimmies'' - (''n.'') sprinkles
*''jumbo'' - (''n.'') bologna lunch meat
*''"Kennywood's open"'' - idiom used to inform someone that their fly is open ("Kennywood" referring to the Kennywood amusement park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania)
*''Klondike'' - (''n.'') ice cream bar (from a local brand name)
* or - (''n.'') variant pronunciation of kielbasa ()
*''monkey ball'' - (''n.'') fruit of the ''Maclura pomifera'' or ''monkey ball tree''
*''n'at'' () - et cetera; and so on; a "general extender"; literally, a contraction of "and (all) that"McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006
*''neb'' - (''v.'') to pry into a conversation or argument intrusively or impertinently (this term and its derivatives are common to Pennsylvania, but especially southwestern Pennsylvania, from Scots-Irish English)
**''neb out'' - to mind one's own business
**''neb-nose'' or ''nebby-nose'' (also ''nebshit'') - (''n.'') the kind of person who is always poking into people's affairs; inquisitive person
**''nebby'' - (''adj.'') given to prying into the affairs of others; nosey; inquisitive
*''onion snow'' - (''n.'') early spring snow
*''redd up'' (also ''ret, rid, ridd,'' or ''redd out'') - (''v.'') to tidy up, clean up, or clean out (a room, house, cupboard, etc.); to clean house, tidy up (hence v bl. ''redding up'' house-cleaning; tidying up)
*''reverend'' - (''adj.'') extreme; extraordinary, powerful
*''slippy'' - (''adj.'') slippery (from Scots-Irish English)
*''spicket'' - (''n.'') alternate pronunciation of spigot, specifically an outdoor faucet used to connect to a garden hose
*''Stillers'' - (''n.'') alternate pronunciation of the Pittsburgh Steelers
*''sweep'' - (''v.'') to vacuum
*''sweeper'' - (''n.'') vacuum cleaner (also used in Ohio and Indiana; from carpet sweeper)
*''tossle cap'' - (''n.'') knit hat designed to provide warmth in cold weather
*''trick'' - (''n.'') a job shift (as used in West-Central Pennsylvania)
*''yins'', ''yinz'', ''yunz'', ''you'uns'', or ''youns'' - (''pronoun'') plural of ''you'' (second-person personal plural pronoun from Scots-Irish English)

Grammar

*''All'' to mean ''all gone'': When referring to consumable products, the word ''all'' has a secondary meaning: ''all gone''. For example, the phrase ''the butter's all'' would be understood as "the butter is all gone." This likely derives from German.
*"Positive ''anymore''": In addition to the normal negative use of ''anymore'' it can also, as in the greater Midland U.S. dialect, be used in a positive sense to mean "these days" or "nowadays". An example is "I wear these shoes a lot anymore". While in Standard English ''anymore'' must be used as a negative polarity item (NPI), some speakers in Pittsburgh and throughout the Midland area do not have this restriction. This is somewhat common in both the Midland regions (Montgomery 1989) and in northern Maryland (Frederick, Hagerstown, and Westminster), likely of Scots-Irish origin (Montgomery 1999).
*Reversed usage of ''leave'' and ''let'': Examples of this include "Leave him go outside" and "Let the book on the table". ''Leave'' is used in some contexts in which, in standard English, ''let'' would be used; and vice versa. Used in Southwestern Pennsylvania and elsewhere, this is either Pennsylvania Dutch or Scots-Irish.
*"''Need'', ''want'', or ''like'' + past participle": Examples of this include "The car needs washed", "The cat wants petted", and "Babies like cuddled". More common constructions are "The grass needs cutting" or "The grass needs to be cut" or "Babies like cuddling" or "Babies like to be cuddled"; "The car needs washing" or "The car needs to be washed"; and "The cat wants petting" or "The cat wants to be petted." Found predominantly in the North Midland region, this is especially common in southwestern Pennsylvania (Murray, Frazer and Simon 1996; Murray and Simon 1999; Murray and Simon 2002). ''Need'' + past participle is the most common construction, followed by ''want'' + past participle, and then ''like'' + past participle. The forms are "implicationally related" to one another (Murray and Simon 2002). This means the existence of a less common construction from the list in a given location entails the existence of the more common ones there, but not vice versa. The constructions "''like'' + past participle" and "''need'' + past participle" are Scots-Irish (Murray, Frazer, and Simon 1996; Murray and Simon 1999; Montgomery 2001; Murray and Simon 2002). While Adams argues that "''want'' + past participle" could be from Scots-Irish or German, it seems likely that this construction is Scots-Irish, as Murray and Simon (1999 and 2002) claim. ''like'' and ''need'' + past participle are Scots-Irish, the distributions of all three constructions are implicationally related, the area where they are predominantly found is most heavily influenced by Scots-Irish, and a related construction, "''want'' + directional adverb", as in "The cat wants out", is Scots-Irish.
*"Punctual ''whenever''": "Whenever" is often used to mean "at the time that" (Montgomery 2001). An example is "My mother, whenever she passed away, she had pneumonia." A ''punctual'' descriptor refers to the use of the word for "a onetime momentary event rather than in its two common uses for a recurrent event or a conditional one". This Scots-Irish usage is found in the Midlands and the South.

Notable examples of lifelong speakers

* John Kasich
* Art Rooney
* Dan Rooney
* Fred Rogers
* James Stewart

See also

* Jagoff
* Midland American English
* Pennsylvania Dutch English
* Philadelphia accent
* ''Pittsburgh Dad''
* Regional vocabularies of American English
* Yinztagram

References

Further reading

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*Kurath, H. (1949). Western Pennsylvania. A Word Geography of the Eastern United States. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press: 35-36.
*Kurath, H. and R. I. McDavid. (1961). Western Pennsylvania. The pronunciation of English in the Atlantic United States. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press: 17-18.
*Labov, W., S. Ash and C. Boberg. (2005). The atlas of North American English: phonetics, phonology, and sound change. Mouton de Gruyter.
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*Layton, N. N. (1999). The dialect of western Pennsylvania: evaluation of ten sounds. Master's thesis. Goteburg, Sweden: University of Goteburg.
*Macauley, R. (1985). The narrative skills of a Scottish coal miner. Focus on: Scotland. Ed. by M. Gorlach. Philadelphia, John Benjamins: 101-124.
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*Montgomery, M. B. (1997). A tale of two Georges: the language of Irish Indian traders in colonial North America. Focus on: Ireland. Ed. by J. Kallen. Philadelphia, John Benjamins. 21: 227-254.
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*Simpson, J.A. and E.S.C. Weiner, Eds. (1991). ''Compact Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: Oxford UP.
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* Thomas, E. (2001). An acoustic analysis of vowel variation in New World English. Durham, Duke UP.
* Wisnosky, M. (2003). Pittsburghese' in Pittsburgh humor''. Master's thesis in Linguistics. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh.
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External links

Pittsburgh Speech & Society
University of Pittsburgh


''New York Times'' article, March 17, 2006 /9"Pittsburgh is the Galapagos Islands of American dialect")

"American Varieties: Steel Town Speak"
part of PBS's ''Do You Speak American?''

Pittsburghese: Welcome!
Duquesne University

Pittsburghese.com

{{English dialects by continent

American English
American slang
City colloquials
Culture of Pittsburgh
Scotch-Irish American culture in Pennsylvania
Working-class culture in Pennsylvania
Languages of Pennsylvania