There’s this commercial for Carl’s Junior featuring a couple of Philadelphia cab drivers talking back and forth. The joke of it is, I think, that their thick dialects combine with their (disgusting, as always for a CJ commercial) fully-burger-loaded mouths to make what they are saying incomprehensible.
Abstracting away from the full mouths, I have been trying to get an idea of what their “Philly” accent sounds like. And it seems to have a lot of really bizaar elements to it that I’d never heard of before. Unfortunately, examples escape me atm. But those of you who have seen the commercial, and are familiar with the dialect in question: Is the portrayal accurate? I’m not sure I’d have understood them even if they weren’t talking while chewing on burgers.
Weird that CJ’s would be using Philadelphia anythings, since CJ’s aren’t found anywhere near Philly (though sister franchise Hardee’s is). How do we know they are from Philadelphia?
I’m sure that CJ’s and Hardee’s use the same commercials but with different logos at the end. I imagine that they don’t show that particular one in Philly though.
We know that they’re from Philly because it is an ad for their version of a cheesesteak sandwich and also they explicitly say so.
The most memorable aspect of the accent in the commercial is that they keep saying “boygah” for “burger”. Is this is a plausible utterance from a Philadelphian? Sounds almost like a 40’s attempt at a Brooklyn accent.
I’ve seen the ads in question as I travel a bit and have direct reports in California who’ve been here and we all agree the ads are very very off the mark.
Some Phiilly speak: water is wudder. eggs are ayggz. legs are laygz. talk/walk are tawlk/wawlk. Going to the coast or to beaches is ‘going to da shore’, or down the shore.
The plural of you is ‘youse’. These are some examples.
Overall, the Philly accent is not as trashy as the New Yawk accent or Nort’ Jersey accent.
For a good Philly cheesesteak, youse guys need Amoroso rolls an’ Cheez Whiz® applied widda wood ruler…den wash it all down wid some Schmidts beer, got da idear? An’ don’t forget an umbreller in case it rains when you go down the shore or else youse’ll get soaked wid wooder.
