Words (or syllables) that give an indication of where you're from

[Clawdio]

Many have already documented Western PA’s many unique colloquialisms, but one that really sticks out to my ears when i return there to visit family is replacing “o” sounds with “ah” in pronunciation. For example:

1. house = hahs
   or the more exaggerated:
2. downtown = dahntahn.

And one i didn’t even know was a local thing: in Western PA/Northeastern OH “pigs in a blanket” are stuffed cabbage rolls. Everywhere else they are those cocktail weenies wrapped in dough.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

Well, I’m not so stupid as to claim there are any absolutes in language use. And I know anecdote is not data. But I’ve lived in the South for thirty-odd years, and everyone I know - family included, and my Dad was the only one to ever leave North Carolina - uses y’all as a plural.

Now, there are occasions when I’ve heard y’all addressed to a single person. But even then, it’s with a plural meaning. For example, when I talk to my cousin, she’ll ask me “how are y’all?” She’s talking just to me, but she’s asking how my family - wife, parents, sister - are.

I have heard both y’all’s and all y’all. Y’all’s is a possessive - “I cain’t wait to meet y’all’s new dawg”. All y’al" is to specify a large group, rather than just two or three people. “Are all y’all coming back to the house, or just y’all?”
As I said, I have no doubt that some Southerners have used y’all as a singular. And I’m only really familiar with northern Georgia, and North Carolina. But around here, the word is pretty much exclusively plural. Y’all’s MMV, of course.

+1. Agree with all the points, and in nearly six decades have never heard “y’all” referred to a single person, with the exception noted above. But also, as noted above, “y’all’s MMV.”

[Annie-Xmas]

New Englanders pronounce “orange” with one syllable: “onge.” It was only after I left Boston that I realized most people pronounce it “or-ange” with two syllables.

[Leaffan]

@Annie-Xmas

New Englanders pronounce “orange” with one syllable: “onge.” It was only after I left Boston that I realized most people pronounce it “or-ange” with two syllables.

I recall Steven Wright (the Bostonian comedian) saying that growing up he thought one of the Cartwright brothers on Bonanza was called “Horse,” not “Hoss.”

It wasn’t until he moved away from New England that he discovered it really was Hoss!

[eschereal]

@Arcite

There have only been two people in my life I’ve heard pronounce the word “tour” as a two-syllable word, rhyming with “sewer.” They were both from the St. Louis area.

That pales in comparison with some areas of England and Australia (based on movies I have seen) where people are capable of turning “no” into a 3-syllable word.

[Red_Wiggler]

The “Don and Dawn” debate remains active on another one of my boards after several years. It has become ingrained into board culture.

[Mama_Zappa]

@engineer_comp_geek

…

Yinzers also often leave out the words “to be” in a sentence, as in “my clothes need washed”, instead of “my clothes need to be washed.” The Yinzer accent also sometimes inserts an R sound where there isn’t one, so “washed” can sound like “warshed”.
…

Those are also used in central PA - I grew up near Harrisburg and I recall raising my hand in 1st grade and asking the teacher why there wasn’t an R in the word she’d just written on the blackboard. My husband is amused by the “my clothes need washed” phraseology. I’ve largely outgrown that, and have LONG since gotten over the “r” in “wash” - I think a father from Georgia, and years of studying French and Italian in high school and college, sorted that out.

[Acsenray]

@engineer_comp_geek

FYI, it’s “redd” up, not red up.

Yinzers tend to use the word “leave” and “let” interchangeably in ways that they aren’t used elsewhere in the country.

Yinzers also often leave out the words “to be” in a sentence, as in “my clothes need washed”, instead of “my clothes need to be washed.” The Yinzer accent also sometimes inserts an R sound where there isn’t one, so “washed” can sound like “warshed”.

I grew up in West Virginia, but I was close enough to Pittsburgh that I have a lot of the yinzer-isms in my speech.

Buggy for grocery cart is a southern thing. It’s not specific to western PA.

Bumbershoot isn’t a common word these days, but it’s not specific to PA. There’s a yearly Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, for example.

Jumbo Balogna used to be a local brand name. I don’t think it exists any more, but that’s where the name comes from.

To add to your list:

Hoagie is mostly a Pennsylvania word for submarine sandwich. It’s not a Pittsburgh-ism but it is mostly PA specific. I believe it started in Philadelphia.

We also often call a thorny bush a “jagger bush”.

@Mama_Zappa

Those are also used in central PA - I grew up near Harrisburg and I recall raising my hand in 1st grade and asking the teacher why there wasn’t an R in the word she’d just written on the blackboard. My husband is amused by the “my clothes need washed” phraseology. I’ve largely outgrown that, and have LONG since gotten over the “r” in “wash” - I think a father from Georgia, and years of studying French and Italian in high school and college, sorted that out.

I believe a lot of these features are part of the broader Appalachian dialect group. It can be misleading to use state names as labels for dialects and varieties because these things don’t follow political borders.