Via the American Dialect Society’s mailing list, I discovered this CMU site on Pittsburgh Speech & Language.
The site is similar to Pittsburghese.com, but this one includes the etymology for each word as well. For instance:
Jag (as in jag off or jagging around)
Definition: Various forms involving jag have to do with annoying, irritating, teasing, or playing tricks on. To jag someone or jag someone off means to irritate or tease. To jag around means to fool around, goof off. A jagoff is a person who is irritating because of being inept or stupid.
Text example: “I don't know why she keeps jagging me all the time”
—Dictionary of American Regional English, 1968.Origin: The exact origin of this word is unknown, but the source language is probably Scotch-Irish English. “To jag” means to turn sharply.
And, yes, people really do talk like that in Pittsburgh :-)
I just moved here. Pittsburghese sounds and IS STUDID!!!!!!!!!
I meant stupid. Okay, so I can’t type, at least I can talk normal.
Kevin,
Wow, you’re smart.
Look at me mommy, I’m so stupid that I can’t speak correctly! That makes me special!! I wanna go dahn tahn mommy!
Mike,
Wow, you’re stupid.
uh, yeah, having not grown up in pgh and now living here, i must say the pittsburghese is very caustic to transplanted ears. however, it’s not as widespread as anyone assumes. you actually have to get away from the downtown and east city area to hear it with any certainty. south hills are particularly suspect. that’s all
I lived in Pittsburgh at one time. The local talk didn’t bother me in the least. What _did_ bother me was the way locals made fun of the way _I_ talked. Just a different accent on my part, but impeccable pronunciation and usage.
Other than the bright leaves in the fall, nothing for me that’s pleasant in the part of the country north and east of Pittsburgh. Old and dirty. And that’s just the people.
I think that everyone has their ways of saying things, whether it be Pittsburghese or not. All of you talking smack on Pittsburgh are ignorant to the pride that Pittsburghers have in their not so dirty anymore city. We say,”The car needs washed” while everyone else in to country wastes an extra second of their life saying, “The car needs to be washed.” To understand Pittsburgh, you need to become apart of it. There may be a lot of old people, but thats because it is a great place to live, you never need to leave because your whole family is here, everything is here. Don’t talk shit on a city that none of you know nothing about.
J,
Well put. Pittsburghers are different (confirmed in in various statisics by the U.S. Census Bureau), we don’ follow he national trends or try to compete with other cities. Interestingly though Pittsburgh has consistently been voted one of the most liveable cities in the world.
Pittsburgh is a unique city and maybe those unfortunate to have not been born there cannot fully appreciate. To those people, they can have their Raleigh, Phoenix, Portland or some other bland city that is currently trendy.
I’m from Pittsburgh. About 15 years ago, I had a date and while eating dinner, my date asked me
” When did you leave Pittsburgh ? “
I was dumfounded ! I’d not been back to the ‘Burgh in years. Turns out that she was from Pittsburgh too, yet I could not detect any accent in her speech.
I heard on a site that the Pittsburgh accent is disappearing. Not from what I can hear everytime I call back there and talk to someone, it isn’t.
Happy Birthday Pittsburgh !
I hope it won’t take 250 years before the Bucs have a winning season again…
:)
In the immortal words of Pittsburghers when I grew up..
” Kevin, yer a real jagoff ! “
Go back to wherever you came from and stay outa dahntahn, too “
Oh, yes…
GO BUCS !
Hey, if everyone from Pittsburgh doesn’t mind sounding like a total moron to the rest of the country, go ahead! But “Your car needs washed” will make me think you are way less intelligent than me every single time without fail.
Well said Maria…I trash Pittsburgh because I lived there for 3 years. If a person wants to sound like an uneducated moron, I guess that’s their prerogative. Just keep in mind that it’s nothing to be proud of. My grammar isn’t great, but at least I don’t publish websites and go around bragging about how stupid I sound. And George — it’s spelled d-o-w-n t-o-w-n; look it it up.