Western Pennsylvania English, known more narrowly as Pittsburgh English or popularly by outsiders 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 as far north as Erie County, as far east as metropolitan State College, as far west as metropolitan Youngstown (Ohio), and as far south as micropolitan Clarksburg (West Virginia). Commonly associated with the working class of Pittsburgh, users of the dialect are colloquially known as "Yinzers".
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Overview
Scots-Irish, Pennsylvania German, Polish, Ukrainian and Croatian immigrants to the area all provided certain loanwords to the dialect (see "Vocabulary" below). Although many of the sounds and words found in this dialect are popularly thought to be unique to the city of Pittsburgh only, this is a misconception, since the dialect resides throughout the greater part of western Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Central Pennsylvania, currently an intersection of several dialect regions, was identified in 1949 by Hans Kurath as a sub-region between western and eastern Pennsylvania, though some scholars have more recently identified it within the western Pennsylvania dialect region. Since the time of 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, or 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 2nd-person plural pronoun "yinz." The word "yinzer" is sometimes heard as pejorative, indicating a lack of sophistication, although 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: [?~?]. Therefore, cot and caught are both pronounced [k?t~k?t]; Don and dawn are both [d?n~d?n]. While the merger of these 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 and Northeastern New England.
The sound as in oh begins more fronted in the mouth, as in the Southern U.S. or Southern England. Therefore, go is pronounced [???]. Similarly, /u:/ as in food and rude is fronted, and often diphthongized, as in much of the American South, Midland, and West.
The diphthong , as in ow, is monophthongized to [a:] in some environments (sounding instead like ah), including before nasal consonants (e.g., downtown ['da:nta:n] and found [fa:nd]), liquid consonants (e.g., fowl, hour) and obstruents (e.g., house [ha:s], out, cloudy). This monophthongization does not occur, however, in word-final positions (e.g., how, now), where the diphthong remains [a?]. This is one of the few features, if not the only one, restricted almost exclusively to western Pennsylvania in North America, although it can sometimes be found in other accents of the English-speaking world, such as Cockney and South African English. This sound may be the result of contact from Slavic languages during the early twentieth century. Monopthongization also occurs for the sound , as in eye, before liquid consonants, so that tile is pronounced [t?:?]; pile is pronounced [p?:?]; and iron is pronounced [?:?n]. Due to this phenomenon, tire may merge with the sound of tar: [t?:?].
An epenthetic (intruding) sound may occur after vowels in a small number of words, such as in water pronounced like warter ['w??t?~'w??t?], and wash like warsh [w???~w???].
A number of vowel mergers occur uniquely in Western Pennsylvania English before the consonant . The pair of vowels and may each merge before the consonant, cause both steel and still to be pronounced as something like [st??]. Similarly, , , and may merge before /l/, so that pool, pull, and pole may merge to something like [p??]. On the /i:l/~/?l/ merger, Labov, Ash and Boberg (2006) note "the stereotype of merger of /il ~ iyl/ is based only on a close approximation of some forms, and does not represent the underlying norms of the dialect". The /i:/~/?/ 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 /u/~/?/ merger is consistently found only in western Pennsylvania. The /i:/~/?/ merger towards [?] may also appear before (so that eagle can sound 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: ['m?:?].
L-vocalization is also common in the Western Pennsylvania dialect, in which an sounds like a /w/, or a cross between a vowel and a "dark" /l/, when at the end of a syllable. An example is that well is pronounced as [w?w]; milk as [m?wk] or [m?wk]; role as ['??w]; and cold as ['k?wd]. This phenomenon is also common in African-American English.
Vocabulary
- all adj. all gone
- babushka n. headscarf
- (baby) buggy n. baby carriage, or shopping cart (Kurath 1949).
- the 'Burgh n. Pittsburgh (Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
- berm n. Edge of the road, curb. While this is more often referred to as the shoulder of the road, berm is an accepted alternative.
- carbon oil n. kerosene (Kurath 1949).
- chipped ham n. very thinly sliced chopped ham loaf for use on sandwiches (Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006) (see Chipped chopped ham).
- city chicken n. cubes of pork loin and/or veal on a short wooden skewer which are breaded, then fried or baked.
- cruds, crudded milk, or cruddled milk n. cottage cheese (Kurath 1949).
- dippy adj. "anything you can dip something in--gravy, coffee, etc.".
A way of cooking something ~ "Give me 2 dippy eggs says Jim Miller" (eggs over light)
- doll baby n. Complimentary term used to describe a girl or woman who is petite and has an attractively childlike quality. Inverted use of the more common "baby doll."
- grinnie n. chipmunk (Kurath 1949).
- gumband n. rubber band (Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
- hap n. comfort (Maxfield 1931); comforter, quilt.
- hoagie n. a submarine sandwich. The term is used throughout Pennsylvania, and is thought to have originated in Philadelphia.
- jag v. prick, stab, jab; tease (Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
- jagger n. any small, sharp-pointed object or implement.
- jimmies n. small bits of confectionery candies, put on cakes, doughnuts, or ice cream.
- jumbo n. bologna lunch meat (Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006). The wrapper on the meat was marked "JUMBO Bologna."
- Kennywood's open phrase. Used in situations to inform a man or boy that his fly is open, i.e., trousers zipper is down. Prevents embarrassment for that individual. "Kennywood" refers to the famous Kennywood Park, an amusement park located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.
- kolbusy or kolbassi n. kielbasa.
- monkey ball n. "fruit of the Maclura pomifera or monkey ball tree."
- neb v. "to put one's 'neb' [nose] into a discourse or argument intrusively or impertinently; to pry, to nose around; hence v. phr neb out to mind one's own business"; n. busybody.
- neb-nose or nebby-nose (also nebshit) n. the kind of person who is always poking into people's affairs.
- nebby adj. given to prying into the affairs of others; nosy (McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
- pop n. soda.
- redd up (also ret, rid(d)) v. "also with out; to tidy up, clean up, or out (a room, house, cupboard, etc.); to clean house, tidy up; hence v bl. redding up housecleaning; tidying up". Also see McElhinny (1999); Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson (2006).
- slippy adj. slippery (McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
- spicket n. alternate pronunciation of spigot, specifically an outdoor faucet used to connect to a garden hose.
- the "punctual" whenever sub. conj. "at the time that" (Montgomery 2001).
- trick n. shift, such as for a job.
Grammar
- "positive" anymore adv. these days; nowadays (Montgomery 1989; McElhinny 1999; Montgomery 1999)
- Reversed leave~let usage (Maxfield 1931; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
- need, want, or like + past participle (Murray, Frazer and Simon 1996; Tenny 1998; McElhinny 1999; Murray and Simon 1999; Montgomery 2001; Murray and Simon 2002; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
- yins, yinz, yunz, you'uns, or youns pr. Second person plural personal pronoun. (McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).
Discourse and intonation
- n'at a "general extender", an elaborate contraction of "and all that", (McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006). (Note: Pronounced )
- Falling intonation at the end of questions (Maxfield 1931; Layton 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006).
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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