Southerners (Republic: tornado, trailer, horses)

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

You're right; there are a number of them on this forum. Even some who used to think yinz, youns, whatever was awful have now decided "it's not so bad". You don't lose your identity b/c you speak proper English. Some of this Pittsburghese is just plain poor grammar and pronunciation. "Iggle" isn't as bad to me as "Giiian" or "gine" (Giant). What's wrong with pronouncing it Gi-ant? S'Liberty? What's wrong with East Liberty? Does this make you "one of the people" if you talk so people from maybe 100 miles away in Cleveland can't even understand you? Blue collar people in other parts of the country can speak with decent grammar and pronunciation.

I can see both sides of things. It is OK to have an accent. Many people feel this differentiates them from other people and if there is one thing Pittsburghers feel strongly about it is their "pride in being a Pittsburgher". So, if an accent is what does it for you, that's cool with me.

Having said that, I just subjectively think the Pittsburgh accent is just ugly. It does, to me, conjur up a feeling of "hillbilly-ness", for lack of a better term. It is just too "back woods" sounding to me. I just don't like it at all. I actually like Georgian accents and even the French-influenced New Orleans accent, and I don't really know why. It is all subjective I suppose.

MOST intelligible, well-read, "learned" people in the US have the newscaster-style "neutral accent", so maybe that is part of it. Think of the great orators of our time... you could tell Martin Luther King was from the south, but he at least formed the words correctly...you never heard him say "chillren". You could most definitely tell JFK was from Massachusetts, but even he wouldn't "pahk his cahh in the drive". I was actually shocked when I moved to Pittsburgh to see the local newscasters had such thick accents (think Joe Denardo), and what's more- that was what their appeal to the locals was. When I go on vacation to South Carolina, the local newscasters there have the same accent the newscasters do when I vacation in Missouri. Same with Chicago. Pittsburgh is kind-of unique in the way it views it's accent I think.

Cap

[guylocke]

It is all subjective I suppose.

Well yeah, definitely. I don't hear hillbilly, I hear a lot of Scottish-gaelic influence.

[Katiana]

Well put, Captain O. That was my point, but I think you said it better. That's what I mean about words like "Giian" and "mere" (for mirror). They are mispronuncitions. "Slippy" is kinda cute. DH is from the midwest, and has a southern midwestern accent, but he pronounces all his words correctly and uses good grammar. Even the Albanians in Albany NY, pronounced words correctly, and their accent was very distictive and nothing like NYC or LI. I loved listening to Dan Rather do the news with his Texas accent, and there was never any doubt about what he was saying. And I have never heard an Irish or Scots person talk like a Pittsburgher.

[WVUPharm2007]

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

MOST intelligible, well-read, "learned" people in the US have the newscaster-style "neutral accent", so maybe that is part of it.

This is actually an interesting phenomenon in and of itself. Say I'm in WV with my friends.....I sound like an Appalachian...which I am.

Now put me in a hospital or some other professional setting and let me round with a team. I sound like Tom freakin' Brokaw.

It's a sad necessity in the real world that several people, myself included, let seep into our subconscious. We allow it to change our linguistic tendencies. I know that if I speak with an accent, I will not be taken as seriously - because there is a certain level of prejudice against those with certain accents....Appalachian being one of them.

It makes you wonder...who's really the ignorant hick? The slack-jawed Appalachians or the idiots that think an accent makes a man? (Don't take that as a personal attack, it isn't, it's just a comment on societal influence, I guess...) And what does that say about me? That I'm willing to change myself in a significant way to do what I perceive as pleasing to the masses so they don't think I'm intrinsically a moron?

Eh, whatever....it's too late to think...

[guylocke]

That's what I mean about words like "Giian" and "mere" (for mirror). They are mispronuncitions.

This is still a silly argument when you are talking about accents. The accents we are talking about, by nature, are mispronunciations, or it wouldn't be an accent. The population in many parts of Great Britain don't pronounce "TH" - how "correct" is that? They speak older and truer English than we do! There are plenty of local Pittsburgh'ers who do the same thing the rest of the world does, we mask our speech when appropriate. You think the news anchors and journalists and Luke are using yinz? They aren't. LOL. They sound like everybody else.

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Well put, Captain O. That was my point, but I think you said it better. That's what I mean about words like "Giian" and "mere" (for mirror). They are mispronuncitions. "Slippy" is kinda cute. DH is from the midwest, and has a southern midwestern accent, but he pronounces all his words correctly and uses good grammar. Even the Albanians in Albany NY, pronounced words correctly, and their accent was very distictive and nothing like NYC or LI. I loved listening to Dan Rather do the news with his Texas accent, and there was never any doubt about what he was saying. And I have never heard an Irish or Scots person talk like a Pittsburgher.

LOL! "Mere" is one of my biggest peeves! I always want to stop and yell "It has 2 syllables you know!!!" Ok...bear with me here...good story...

I spent most of my elementary-school days in the deep rural south. I had a teacher in first grade that was helping us to "sound-out" words and letters. One day I was asked to stand-up and recite the alphabet. I made it all the way to "r" and pronounced it something like "are". The teacher (whose name I still remember, but I will withhold it in case, God bless her, she is still alive) actually corrected me and said in her thick souther accent, "No, that letter is pronounced 'are-ruh' " I specifically remember the parent-teacher conference that followed and my parents being absolutely livid that that is what the education system was teaching me. But it was true of the local dialect! "R" was "RRRR-UHHH" with TWO SYLLABLES! Many words in the south seemed to take on extra syllables...one of the big ones I can remember was "Fayetteville" was "Fey-et-vee-ull", with distinct pauses between each syllable. Here in the North it is "Fay-et-vill".

[Katiana]

I didn't say anything about newcasters. That was someone else. A "Cockney" accent is not considered the King's English, either. It was/is for the uneducated. Remeber Pygmalian and My Fair Lady?

[guylocke]

A "Cockney" accent is not considered the King's English, either.

Not just cockney, almost the entire Scottish population, too, and many other regions of Great Britain. The point is, if people didn't mis-annunciate, there would be no accents. And Pittsburgh'ers accent is a blending of several European languages. You can think it sounds hillbilly or stupid or awful or whatever, but those are the facts, it has nothing to do with under education.

It's the Queen's English when the Queen is reigning, btw. :P

[Katiana]

I didn't say hillbilly, either. Or uneducated.

[CaptainObvious]

And speaking of Dan Rather, off topic I know... The Presidential Election 2000 will go down in history as one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed. Here are some classic Dan Rather quotes from that night:

"This race is humming along like Ray Charles"
"This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex"
"This situation would give an aspirin a headache"
"Bush is sweeping through the south like a big wheel through a cotton field"
"Kerry's rapidly reaching the point where he's got his back to the wall, his shirttails on fire, and the bill collector's at the door"
"We don't know what to do. We don't know whether to wind a watch or bark at the moon"
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you believe that you'll believe rocks can grow"
"If a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun"
"The race is tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long ride home"
"It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat, Republican, or mud wamp. Elected officials play it straight"


and my personal favorite...

"We keep talking about Ohio--whether you've been tuning in or out--or if you put the baby to bed--or you went to pop the cap on an adult, or otherwise, beverage"

That guy is just ape-poo crazy

Cap