Pittsburgh English - House Cleaning Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh English, popularly known by outsiders as Pittsburghese, is the traditional dialect of American English spoken by many residents of Pittsburgh and parts of surrounding Western Pennsylvania in the United States, a group referred to by locals and others as Yinzers.

Overview

Many of the sounds and words found in the speech of Pittsburghers are popularly thought to be unique to the city. This is reflected in the term "Pittsburghese," the putative sum of these features in the form of a dialect. However, few of these features are restricted solely to Pittsburgh or the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Instead, many of them are found throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, the Midland dialect region, or even large parts of the United States. Perhaps the only feature whose distribution is restricted almost exclusively to the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is /a?/ monophthongization. This means that words such as house, down, found, or sauerkraut are sometimes pronounced with an "ah" sound instead of the more standard pronunciation of "ow", rendering pronunciations such as hahs, dahn, fahnd, and sahrkraht.

The language of the early Scots-Irish settlers had the greatest influence on the speech of southwestern and western Pennsylvania. This influence is reflected mainly in the retention of certain lexical items (cruds or cruddled milk (cottage cheese), hap (comforter), jag (to tease or annoy), jag around (to fool around or act foolishly), jagger (a thorn or burr), jagoff (an annoying or irritating person), neb/nebby/neb-nose (nosy), redd up (to clean), slippy (slippery), yinz/yunz/you'uns (second-person plural), "punctual" whenever and possibly "positive" anymore and reversed usage of leave and let), but also in the like, need, or want past participle grammatical constructions (e.g. "the yard needs mowed") and the discourse marker n'at, literally meaning "and that" (e.g. "The yard n'at needs mowed", meaning "the yard and surrounding areas need to be mowed"). According to a study based only on pronunciation, the dialect region of western Pennsylvania ranges north to Erie, Pennsylvania, west to Youngstown, Ohio, south to Clarksburg, West Virginia, and east to Johnstown, Pennsylvania (Labov, Ash and Boberg 2005), but different features may be differently distributed.

Documented contributions from other languages are pierogi and kolbassi from Polish; babushka from Russian, Slovak, and Polish; and, from German, falling intonation at the end of questions with a definite yes or no answer. Possible contributions from other languages are reversed leave~let from German and monophthongal /aw/ from contact between English and one or more Slavic languages (Johnstone 2002; Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2005), though these influences are openly posited as speculative.

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. (For more on the pronoun yinz, see the entry below.) Older, long-time residents of Pittsburgh are more likely to use Pittsburghese. Additionally men are more likely to use the accent than women, "...possibly because of a stronger interest in displaying local identity..."

Phonology

• /?/~/?/ -> [?~?] merger (Kurath 1961; Layton 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2005; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).

• fronting of /o?/ (Kurath and McDavid 1961; Labov, Ash and Boberg 2005)

• fronting of /u:/ (Kurath and McDavid 1961; Labov, Ash and Boberg 2005)

• /a?/ monophthongization (Kurath 1961; Layton 1999; McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2005; Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006).

• /??/ monophthongization (Kurath 1961; Layton 1999; McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006).

• Epenthetic /?/ (Layton 1999; McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006).

• /i/~/?/ and /u/~/?/ tense-lax mergers (Layton 1999; McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2005; Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006).

• /i/~/?/ merger (e.g. in eagle) towards [?] (Wisnosky 2003).

• /l/ vocalization (Layton 1999; McElhinny 1999; Wisnosky 2003; Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006).

• /o/~/u/ and /?/ merger towards [?] (Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2005).

• /?/ lowering into /?/~/?/ -> [?] (Thomas 2001).

Vocabulary

• 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 someone that their fly is open, i.e., pants zipper is down. Prevents embarrassment for that individual. Kennywood refers to the famous Kennywood Park located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

• kolbusy or kolbassi n. sausage.

• 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).

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" (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).

Array

See also

• Central Pennsylvania dialect
• Pennsylvania Dutch English
• North American English regional phonology#Northeastern dialects
• Regional vocabularies of American English
• Pittsburgh Dad
• Yinztagram
• Jagoff

Array

References

Array

Sources

External links

• Yinzer Bible - Book about Pittsburgh
• Pittsburgh Speech and Society A University of Pittsburgh site for non-linguists, created by Carnegie Mellon University linguist Barbara Johnstone.
• [1] University studies on Pittsburghese.
• Western Pennsylvania Dialect Survey, Clarion University of Pennsylvania
• Pittsburgh is the Galapagos Islands of American dialect, New York Times article, March 17, 2006
• American Varieties: Steel Town Speak, part of PBS's Do You Speak American?

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