# That effing Philadelphia-area accent **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 22, 2005, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083 "2005-01-22T15:06:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Magickly\_Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/41 "2005-01-23T04:09:26Z")
**Catsix** , for a perfect example of an Altoona accent, tune to the radio station 100.1 and listen to Danice Bell, one of the hosts. The now-defunct morning show, called something like “Tommy and Danice in the morning,” was serious overkill on the Altoona accent - those two just reinforced each other’s accents. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/42 "2005-01-23T04:48:09Z")
My husband is well-educated, but one of the things that appealed to me from the beginning was that he dropped all pretense when referring to carbonated beverages. They are deliberately called “co dranks” in our family. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/43 "2005-01-23T04:50:04Z")
> [@Magickly Delicious](#): > > **Catsix** , for a perfect example of an Altoona accent, tune to the radio station 100.1 and listen to Danice Bell, one of the hosts. The now-defunct morning show, called something like “Tommy and Danice in the morning,” was serious overkill on the Altoona accent - those two just reinforced each other’s accents. Goodness God! I graduated with Danice! Is she in Pittsburgh now? ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/44 "2005-01-23T04:55:21Z")
What I wouldn’t give to hear a little Philadelphia accent again, after all dese Cajuns. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/45 "2005-01-23T05:14:48Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Good Og! Is old Myron still alive?! Yea, but I’d say he is getting up there quickly - he has really detoriated in the last couple of years. Mid-seventies by now atleast, so he has his reasons. Oh, and younz will usually get you blank looks here in NC. Maybe it is how exotic it is in this part of the globe, but I really do like the Pittsburgh/Philly accent. To each his own, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/46 "2005-01-23T05:36:47Z")
My SIL was from Pittsburgh, or somewhere near, and my nephew has lived there all his life. Somehow my brother still sounds like the Midwest, even after fifty years\*, but his son, oh my! There’s no doubt about where he comes from. I actually like to listen to him, but what drives me crazy after a while is that rising inflection at the end of every sentence. They’re not all questions, people. Scared myself there, I did. I did a quick mental calculation to figure out how long he’s been out there – thirty? no, forty? no, oh my gosh, fifty! Aaaagh!!! Nothing that close to within my lifetime should be that long. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/47 "2005-01-23T06:10:15Z")
> [@Harimad-sol](#): > > What I wouldn’t give to hear a little Philadelphia accent again, after all dese Cajuns. It’s still too cold to plan, but I’m confident GettysDope II will happen this summer. Last year, all PA dialects were represented, as well as some other out of staters who talked funny. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/48 "2005-01-23T06:13:44Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > It’s still too cold to plan, but I’m confident GettysDope II will happen this summer. Last year, all PA dialects were represented, as well as some other out of staters who talked funny. 😛 _brightens up_ Talk of GettysDope makes this damn snow much easier to take… ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/49 "2005-01-23T07:00:24Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > I can’t be the only one here that has Stanley P. Kachowski and Pants an’At sketches running through his head now. That’s more of a hardcore flat-a Buffalo accent than Pittsburghese. ---
**Author:** ![hyperjes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@hyperjes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyperjes)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/50 "2005-01-23T07:14:10Z")
Og, this thread has made me homesick! ☹ I grew up in Altoona, spent my late teens and part of my early twenties in Pittsburgh and then moved to Buffalo for a few years. For the past several years, I’ve lived in Durham, North Carolina. I bet I sound pretty strange by now. (What I really miss is Sheetz, though I’m told there will be one down here soon.) ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/51 "2005-01-23T13:20:27Z")
> [@catsix](#): > > I had a friend move here from Melbourne, Australia this summer. We went to Ikea. I had to translate what he said to the kid working there, and what the kid working there said to my friend. > > I was reminded of how different a language we have here, n’at. Gosh, your friend must have an extremely broad accent. I’ve never heard of that happening before with an Australian visiting the USA. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/52 "2005-01-23T13:43:16Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > I can’t be the only one here that has Stanley P. Kachowski and Pants an’At sketches running through his head now. “My brudder is a jagoff and he don’t think dad knows nuttin about him and Ronnie smokin pot in Dad’s Bonneville” “Triplets, what’s up wit dat?!?” Hehehe. It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to those. And today is Myron’s 76th birthday, which hopefully will be a good Omen for the Steelers/Pats game today. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/53 "2005-01-23T14:17:19Z")
> [@](#): > > **Guinastasia** said: > (I’m lucky-I have a trace of a Pittsburgh accent, but it’s not nearly as bad as some of the people I went to school with. I worked with this one chick who had a really thick one and a high-pitched, nasally voice. God, I hated her). I can do the extremely thick Pittsburghese accent, but I usually _only_ do it to illustrate that such a thing exists to out of towners, or when I am traveling to other lands. > [@](#): > > **jayjay** said: > Good Og! Is old Myron still alive?! I suppose technically so, but he’s going downhill so fast that he has extreme difficulty getting in on-topic commentary for the game, and often doesn’t know what the Refs are signaling, even if it’s the end of the quarter. He also does lots of ‘double yoy’ and ‘triple yoy’ these days. > [@](#): > > **Magickly Delicious** said: > Catsix, for a perfect example of an Altoona accent, tune to the radio station 100.1 and listen to Danice Bell, one of the hosts. The now-defunct morning show, called something like “Tommy and Danice in the morning,” was serious overkill on the Altoona accent - those two just reinforced each other’s accents. I’ll give it a shot if I can get that station in my car. > [@](#): > > **elmwood** said: > That’s more of a hardcore flat-a Buffalo accent than Pittsburghese. Considering that both of them are staples on the WDVE Pittsburgh morning show with Jim and Randy (formerly with Scott and Jim), they most definitely are Pittsburghese. The Pants N’at sketches feature things like ‘gohn shawpin wit yer grammuder’ and their tagline is ‘Ah git mah disabiwity chek n POW, it’s dahn tah Pants N’at.’ Definite Pittsburghese. > [@](#): > > **Cunctator** said: > Gosh, your friend must have an extremely broad accent. I’ve never heard of that happening before with an Australian visiting the USA. To be fair, he’s not really in the ‘USA’. He’s in Pittsburgh, where English is a second language. His last name has an E in it, and the kid at Ikea had to ask him to spell his last name. My friend is going ‘E’ and the kid is saying ‘A’, and finally I just said ‘E, dude. It’s an E’, or we never would’ve gotten out of there. > [@](#): > > **mouthbreather** said: > “My brudder is a jagoff and he don’t think dad knows nuttin about him and Ronnie smokin pot in Dad’s Bonneville” And still so hard to get the accent across. It’d have to come out like: "My brudder is a jagawff an he don’ think dad knohws nuttinabaht himn Rawnee smokin pawht in Dahd’s Bawnuhvill.’ n’at. So, yinzun goew da stay-jum? > [@](#): > > And today is Myron’s 76th birthday, which hopefully will be a good Omen for the Steelers/Pats game today. Happy birthday Myron! Go Stillrz! Pittsburgh’s go-win ta da Sooper Bowl! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/54 "2005-01-23T14:47:52Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > Yea, but I’d say he is getting up there quickly - he has really detoriated in the last couple of years. Mid-seventies by now atleast, so he has his reasons. Didn’t he just get out of the hospital? ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/55 "2005-01-23T15:18:54Z")
I think so, but Myron is Pittsburgh’s own Dick Clark. The man will be annoucing Stillrz games from his grave! ---
**Author:** ![Theobroma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@Theobroma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theobroma)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/56 "2005-01-23T21:26:44Z")
? My dad grew up in South Philly, and he always referred to my sister and me as “yiz.” Half of the other stuff you mentioned I don’t remember… and the defining Philly thing, I’m told, is “atty-tude” for attitude. My dad did that one, too. (“I don’t like your atty-tude!!”) We are from NE Philly, and we don’t say “wooder”…we say “waw-ter” (sort of). But a kawfy and Tastykake from the Wawa sounds pretty good! My favorite to date: my home since 1972, “Ariz EAUU na.” Hm. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/57 "2005-01-23T21:40:39Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Talk of GettysDope makes this damn snow much easier to take… Maybe I’ll get my sweater by then. 😃 > [@Eve](#): > > I worked and worked to lose my Phila. accent (I am not making this up) by recording Joan Crawford movies and copying her perfect Hollywood, MGM-trained enunciation. Can anyone who’s met me in person let me know if I’ve succeeded? Yes. You don’t really have any sort of accent. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/58 "2005-01-23T23:59:59Z")
I-G-G-L-E-S! Iggles! ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/59 "2005-01-24T00:26:55Z")
> [@hyperjes](#): > > … > (What I really miss is Sheetz, though I’m told there will be one down here soon.) We just got a Sheetz here in Greensboro; maybe they will migrate east soon enough. Sheetz, though, is not what I miss the most - whenever you ask for hoagies, gnoccis, or pepperoni rolls down here you mostly get a good long contemplation. Ah well! ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083/60 "2005-01-24T13:47:22Z")
> [@catsix](#): > > Considering that both of them are staples on the WDVE Pittsburgh morning show with Jim and Randy (formerly with Scott and Jim), they most definitely are Pittsburghese. The Pants N’at sketches feature things like ‘gohn shawpin wit yer grammuder’ and their tagline is ‘Ah git mah disabiwity chek n POW, it’s dahn tah Pants N’at.’ My bad. I was thinking of the\*Pat 'N Patti’s Scharacters in that sketch speak with a Buffalonian flat-a that is so harsh, it would break glass. My first name, Dan, would be pronounced as “DeeHEANN” in Buffalo. It sounds truly awful, and is deserving of all the ridicule Torontonians dish out when they encounter it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-effing-philadelphia-area-accent/286083.md?page=4)