Pittsburgh English
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Pittsburgh is the linguistic center of a dialect region within Midland American English, covering most of western Pennsylvania as well as parts of northern West Virginia, eastern Ohio, and a small area of western Maryland. Pittsburgh English is closely related to the Central Pennsylvania accent.
The Pittsburgh dialect, often referred to as Pittsburghese, contains substrates reflecting the ethnic heritage of the region: Scotch-Irish, German, and most prominently, Slavic. The distinctive features of the dialect emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when a large influx of immigrants arrived and found work in the booming steel industry. There are still vibrant ethnic communities in Pittsburgh, composed of both recent immigrants and third- or fourth-generation Americans, particularly in the South Side and Squirrel Hill, where it is not uncommon to hear people speaking Polish, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian. There are many heritage speakers of Eastern European languages, and some exclamations and babytalk expressions are common even among those who have otherwise been totally assimilated. There has also been significant influence, in the speech of younger Pittsburghers, from African American Vernacular English, especially in syntax.
With the advent of mass media, along with an influx of technology industry workers, certain localized vocabulary items are becoming less common, though still definitely noticeable; continuation and even some innovation are present among young people who feel a strong sense of local pride. Regional features in speech are heavily class-marked; working class Pittsburghers use far more local features than the upper middle class. Education also plays a large part as recent generations who move away from the region to attend college lose some patterns of Pittsburgh English. Geographically, frequency of regional features is highest in the south and north, weakest in the center and east. Such generalizations are hard to make, however, due to the vast number of neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, their insular character, and irregular distribution, with some of the most conservative dialectic regions abutting the most deregionalized.
(A note on terminology: Pittsburgh English is the proper name of the dialect. The term Pittsburghese, though in common use, is considered derogatory, and is most commonly used by Pittsburghers who eschew regional linguistic features; much to their chagrin, these people are quite likely to use the forms they stigmatize themselves.)
The dialect is defined by idiosyncrasies of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
Pronunciation
- The vowels {{IPA, so that pairs like full/fool and pull/pool become homophonous as /fʊl/ and /pʊl/ respectively (Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006: 69–70).
- Unlike other Midland dialects, or [l] standardly change to a diphthong [ɛə]. This new phoneme often merges into [æ], especially among younger Pittsburghers. This second merger creates a new set of homonyms such as pal and pale.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- [l] is "dark" (i.e. velarized), and sometimes purely velar, postvocalically and often in other positions.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- Stops, including nasal stops, are flapped and voiced noninitially before vowels in rapid speech.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- Epenthetic r occurs after vowels in a small number of words, e.g. wash becomes [wɔɹʃ].[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- The h is commonly dropped from the beginning of many words, e.g. here/ear hear/ear.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
For information on IPA symbols used, see International Phonetic Alphabet for English.
Dialectal terms
Please do not add items to this list that cannot be verified in print.- Ahrn n. Abbreviated form of Iron City, a beer produced by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company
- aht v. out "Get aht of here!"
- ‘at prep. contraction of 'that'.
- babushka (accent on the second syllable) n. bandana or headscarf. Occasionally refers to an elderly woman or your grandmother, based on the commonality of wearing a headscarf.
- Bucs or Buccos n. The Pittsburgh Pirates.
- buggy n. shopping cart
- chimbley n. a chimney. From Scots English.
- chipped ham (pronounced "chipp'tam") or chip-chopped ham n. very thinly sliced ham for use on sandwiches.
- city chicken n. a breaded pork dish (ironically, it does not contain chicken)
- cousint n. cousin
- crick n. creek
- cue-pons n. coupons
- da 'burgh n. Pittsburgh.
- dahn adj. down
- dahntahn n. downtown
- dippy eggs n. eggs over easy which are not fully cooked, so that the yolk is still runny
- guchies n. underwear, as in, "Always wear clean guchies n'at, 'cause what if yinz'er in an accident?" ("Always wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident.")
- gumband n. a rubber band.
- hoagie n. a submarine sandwich.
- "The Hill" n. The Hill District neighborhood, particularly where August Wilson grew up. It was a center of the black community in the city until the late 1950s, when an urban redevelopment project razed much of the fiscal community of the Lower Hill.
- Igloo n. refers to the Mellon Arena, where the Pittsburgh Penguins play hockey.
- jag-off n., vulgar an asshole; an extremely disagreeable person; jackoff
- jagger bush n. any shrub with thorns
- jag around v. 1) to waste time; 2) to mess with someone in a non-serious fashion
- jimmies n. candy flecks put on ice cream or cupcakes; sprinkles
- jumbo n. synonym for bologna lunchmeat. Isaly's, a local chain of delis, sells a popular variety known as square jumbo
- Kennywood's open ''interj., indicates that the zipper of one's pants is open. Kennywood is a popular amusement park that is only open during the summer months.
- kolbassi n. kielbasa.
- melk n. Milk.
- n'at contraction "and that". Means, "along with some other stuff", as in, "Yinz wanna go dahn ta Isaly's n'get sommadat square jumbo n'at?" (Do you all want to go down to Isaly's and get some of that square baloney, and a few other things?)
- neb v. to investigate or take interest in things which are none of one's business. He was nebbin' around in my business.
- nebby adj. Given to prying into the affairs of others; nosy.
- nebshit n., vulgar An individual who persistently or habitually cannot mind their own business.
- NorSide n. The Northside district of Pittsburgh.
- nuh-uh interj. No way. Opposite of yuh-huh
- pal n. a pile.
- pierogie (often shortened to progie) n. a Polish pasta product usually filled with mashed potatoes and cheese. See Pierogi.
- Pixburgh/Picksburgh n. Pittsburgh.
- pop n. carbonated soft drink
- pronounciation n. pronunciation
- redd up v. intermediate step between tidying and cleaning ' Yinz better redd up this room ' From Scots English.
- SaSide n. The Southside district of Pittsburgh, more over known for its bars and arts, most of the Pittsburgh Steelers parties occur here along with the restaurant [Primanti Bros.] in the Strip District (Pittsburgh).
- soda n. refers strictly to only unflavored seltzer water
- Sliberty n. the East Liberty district of Pittsburgh
- slippy adj. slippery
- Stan n. a stereotypical Pittsburgher, after Stan Savran of "Stan & Guy"[link] and radio DJ Jim Krenn's "Stanley P. Kachowski"[link] character.
- Stillers n. the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.
- Strip The Strip District (Pittsburgh) district of Pittsburgh where specialty foods and groceries are bought.
- sweeper n. A vacuum cleaner.
- ta'el n. A towel.
- Tazzy n. Cops, task force
- Tele-pole n. Telephone pole
- tennies or tenor shoes n. tennis shoes
- the tube or tubes n. either the Fort Pitt or Liberty Tunnels, tunnels drilled through Mt. Washington which separate the South Side from the South Hills
- you guys'es used to address more than one person as in "You guys'es house is rill nice."
- yuh-huh interj. Yes, absolutely. Opposite of nuh-uh
- yinz, yunz, or yunz guys pr. Second person plural pronoun; losing some ground to both you guys and yall.
- W'Sliberty n. a major avenue going through the South Hills area of greater Pittsburgh.
- Whenever conj. used normally, but also used in place of when. ("Whenever I went to the store, I bought some melk and some Jumbo.")
- Worsh n. Wash "The car needs worshed."
- Worshington or Little Worshington n. The City of Washington, PA.
Older idioms not used much among younger generations
- Does Kaufmann's tell Horne's its business? None of your business. I aint telling yinz about it, Does Hornes tell Kaumann's their business?[link]
- Kiss my ass under Kaufmann's Clock! "Go to hell!" Refers to an ornate clock on a busy streetcorner in downtown Pittsburgh attached to the Kaufmann's department store, which is now part of Macy's. The clock is a popular meeting place for people to find each other downtown, and the public nature of it makes it part of a mock bet often made by Pittsburghers. "You make that shot again and I'll kiss your ass under Kaufmann's clock."
Grammar
- Dependent verbs containing "to be" in standard English lack it in Pittsburgh English thus ASE "the cat wants to be let in" corresponds to Pittsburgh "the cat wants in" and standard "the car needs to be washed/the car needs washing" to "the car needs washed." This grammatical structure is a calque from Scots Gaelic, which historically had major linguistic influence in the region.
- The adverb "down" is frequently used in expressions with "to go" and the preposition "to" is removed; Pittsburgh English "I'm going down the Benches" [the benches outside the Squirrel Hill post office, a popular hangout for teenagers] corresponds to standard English "I'm going to the Benches."
- Zero auxiliary in the perfect, and therefore merger of perfect with simple past: PE I seen it for ASE I saw it and I've seen it.
- Related to the above, merging of pluperfect into simple past and of future perfect into simple future.
- Pittsburgh English also contains the "positive anymore" construction. While in Standard English anymore must be used as a negative polarity item (NPI), Pittsburgh English does not have this restriction. When not used as an NPI, anymore means approximately the same as "these days". For instance, a Pittsburgher may say "It seems I always wear these shoes anymore."
References
- [Johnstone, B. and Danielson, A., "Pittsburghese" in the Daily Papers, 1910-1998: Historical Sources of Ideology about Variation, New Ways of Analyzing Variation Conference, October 2001.]
- Johnstone, B., Bhasin, N., and Wittkowski, D., "Dahntahn" Pittsburgh: Monophthongal /aw/ and representations of localness in Southwestern Pennsylvania. American Speech 77(20):146-166.
External links
- [Pittsburgh Speech and Society] A site for non-linguists, created by Carnegie Mellon University linguist Barbara Johnstone.
- [Pittsburghese] A site made for laughs, mostly
- [Western Pennsylvania Dialect Survey], Clarion University of Pennsylvania
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