|
|
 The city of Philadelphia
|
The
Philadelphia Dialect
|
"The dialect of the
citizens [of Philadelphia],
particularly of the children... is
very defective."
|
|
The local dialect of
Philadelphia is not as well known as
that of its neighbor to the north,
New York City, but has nonetheless
been fairly well studied. Linguists
have been able to confirm through
studies of Philadelphia and other
urban centers that not only are
dialects alive and well in America,
but that in many places pronunciation
is actually continuing to diverge
from the national standard.
Americans commonly understand the two
types of dialects as northern and
southern, and they would certainly
recognize Philadelphian as a dialect
of the northern type. However, most
linguists today recognize a third
group, the Midland, which runs
between the true Northern dialects
and the true Southern dialects.
Philadelphian is classified by these
linguists as a North Midland dialect.
Other researchers, notably Craig
Carver, recognize only two major
divisions of American English:
Northern and Southern, and the
Pennsylvania dialects as layers of
the Northern group.
Included within the general area of
the Philadelphia dialect, though
naturally some differences can be
expected, are the Pennsylvania
suburbs as well as southern New
Jersey and northern Delaware. |
| |
|
| Pronunciation |
| One interesting
feature of the dialect, in light of
its geographic position, is its clear
pronunciation in all positions of the
'r', including before consonants and
at the end of words. Philadelphia and
Baltimore are two of the only major
port cities of the Atlantic coast to
retain the 'r' in these positions, in
contrast to New England, New York
City, and the Coastal South, where
they are dropped. The dialect
also has the following
pronunciational characteristics:
words with "-er-"
like "ferry" are
pronounced "furry"
with the short 'u' of "cut"
The "l" is very
indistinct (dark or vocalized
l), especially at the end of
words, pronounced at the back
of the mouth rather than the
front, and the tip of the
tongue does not touch the
roof of the mouth.
the "-ow-" sound is
pronounced as "al"
with the type of indistinct,
backed "l"
described above.
words with "-ore"
like "core" are
pronounced "coor".
words with "-ar"
like "car" are
pronounced "caur" (non-locals
may hear this as 'core')
words with "-ague"
and "-eeg" are
pronounced "-egg"
and "-igg"
respectively.
words with long "i"
and an unvoiced consonant
such as "ike" and
"ite" are
pronounced "uh-ee".
short 'a' in two forms -
tense and lax - with complex
distributions according to
the following consonants.
The common local pronunciation of
"Philadelphia" is "Fulladulfya,"
very often even in careful speech. It
is spoken just like the separate
words "full", "a",
"dull", and then the
monosyllabic ending "fya",
in which the 'y' is consonantal.
|
| |
|
| Vocabulary |
Naturally,
Philadelphian has its own peculiar
vocabulary. Some words are purely
local, others are being used in other
regions as well. Ten of the most
commonly cited usages are as follows.
anymore, at the present time,
currently.
baby coach, baby carriage.
bag school, skip school.
hoagie, submarine sandwich.
hotcake, pancake.
scrapple, a local breakfast
dish.
square, city block.
pavement, sidewalk.
yo, hey there; hello.
youse, you all, you plural. |
|
|
