Let's talk accent (Philadelphia, York: live in, metro area, county)

[Avalon08]

Originally Posted by BTA88

The hard A is common in a lot of words. Sair-uh, Hair-y, Hair-isson, Pair-ents, a-pair-ent, etc. I never knew that was a poor people of Philly thing.

Do you mean Hair-y for Harry? Philly people do say Sair-uh and pair-ents, but Harry and Harrison are not pronounced with the same hard A. They rhyme with marry. Nor is apparent pronounced appair-ent; it also has a soft A and sounds like the A in marry.

Yes, I guess that "educated Philly guy"'s accent was so much less grating than the "working-class" version, that I didn't pick up on much of an accent at all. I'll have to listen again, along with the other examples.

[Avalon08]

I have a funny example of a non-local in the media not knowing the correct "Philly" pronunciation.

It's the radio ad for Harrah's Chester....oops, I mean Harrah's PHILADELPHIA, as it's now known. The guy pronounces the HARR part as HAIR, and drops the AH altogether. So it sounds like "HAIR'S Philadelphia". Literally, I had no idea what he was advertising, between the switch of the casino name from "Chester" to "Philadelphia" and the weird pronunciation of Harrah.

[Truth11]

Originally Posted by mancat100

How about when the name "Mike" is pronounced "Moik". I've heard that from blue collar white guys from Delco.

That's more a shanty Irish pronunciation;

[mancat100]

Originally Posted by Truth11

That's more a shanty Irish pronunciation;

They were indeed Irish. Thanks for making that connection. You taught me something.

[G Goo]

Phillyspeak

Great article (from 1997) about how we talk.

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by G Goo

Phillyspeak

Great article (from 1997) about how we talk.

This is exactly what I'm talking about with the "a" . . . this is exactly how i pronounce these words.

The Philadelphia A

This is the most complicated Philly sound of all. Remember Ian and Ann? Most Philadelphians pronounce both as "Ian," something like "Ee-yan" squeezed into one syllable. In the Midwest, all -a's are pronounced like that; it'scalled a tense -a. In Boston, all -a's have a sound closer to upper-class British: "ah," or a lax -a. Boston: "I rahn from the bahd mahn holding a fahn, a hahm and a hahmmer." Midwest (remember that ran here rhymes with Ian):"I ran from a bad man holding a fan, a ham and a hammer." Philly: "I rahn from a bad man holding a fan, a ham and a hahmmer."

Great, right? Philadelphia mixes the two -a's!

Of course there's a rule for this. Not a rule we have to follow because a grammar book says so. This is a real rule, one that simply describes what we do without thinking.

You use tense -a:

— Before -m and -n: e.g., ham, man, fan, pecan (high-class Philadelphians sometimes say pe-cahn, but of course without changing any of the other words).

— Before -f, -th, -s: laugh, staff, bath, glass.

— In three words ending in -d: mad, bad, glad (but lahd, pahd, brahd, gahd about).

Exceptions:

— -ng gets lax -a: fan is tense, fang is fahng.

— Irregular verbs get lax a: can (a can of peas) is tense; can (I cahn do it) is lax. So are ran, swam, began, am. And the sub-literate dialect word wan, as in "We wahn the war."

— Exception to the exception: can the verb is lax, can't is tense.

— The article "an" is lax.

— If a vowel comes after -m or -n in the word, the "a" turns lax: ham is tense, hammer is lax. Fan tense, fanny lax.

It's probably the complicated Philly A that makes us pronounce radiator to rhyme with gladiator.

Got that? You do. You follow that complex rule every day. But you can confuse your Philly-born pals by getting them to read this list: bat, bad, sat, sad, mat, mad, mash, grad, path, grab, pat, pad, glad, pass, laugh, bath, past, calf, badge, jazz,jam, ham, bag, bang, began, fad, mad, dad. Most kids can do it effortlessly. Most college grads, me included, get hopelessly tangled. Thinking about language, even your own language, isn't the same as using language.

Murray Christmas

But you may refuse to recognize your own speech, and get angry when it's pointed out to you. Philadelphians make fun of Midwesterners who rhyme Mary, marry and merry. We say all three words differently. But Philadelphians don't make a distinctionbetween merry and the man's name Murray — though Philadelphians insist that we do make the distinction, and do hear it when others make it.

[Truth11]

Like nails on a chalkboard

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by Truth11

Like nails on a chalkboard

hah. no way. music to my ears. nails on a chalkboard would be the midwestern "hey myan, cyan i git a hyam syandwich"

[BTA88]

Originally Posted by Truth11

Like nails on a chalkboard

Hahaha, no way man. The Philly accent is a beautiful thing. That northern accent a-la Sarah Palin is nails on a chalk board. Just something about it that makes a person sound instantly uneducated.

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

This is exactly what I'm talking about with the "a" . . . this is exactly how i pronounce these words.

I always thought you were a New Yorker?

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by BR Valentine

Interesting thread. You are absolutely correct about the private school guy. People associate the working-class (I can't come up with a better label) version of the Philadelphia accent as being true, or quintessential, when in fact the accent varies with a speaker's SES. In addition to the words you mentioned, his pronunciation of Sarah is actually common among his sub-group.

I don't think I ever heard "Sarah" pronounced that way growing up on the Main Line, although my mostly Jewish, new money peer group probably doesn't speak for the myriad multi-multi-generational blueblood WASPs.