It is impossible to explain culture without a discussion of language. The regional dialects of an area help to define its personality and identity. Hearing the phrase “ya’ll” may recall memories of the south, or you may hear someone say that they’re from “nu yawk” or “nu joisy”. I love hearing accents because I find it so unique that one language can have so many different dialects and variations in pronunciation.

Map of the regional accents of the U.S.

It would be a crime for me to continue our tour of Pittsburgh without touching upon my city’s own regional dialect, known as “Pittsburghese”. Instead of “ya’ll”, Pittsburghers refer to each other as “yinz”. “Caught” and “cot” are pronounced the same. We “worsh” instead of “wash” our clothes. My grandfather got “redd up” everyday to go work at the “still” mill. Every Sunday, my family and I sit around the TV to watch the “Stiller” game while my father “pahnds” down an Iron City beer. And we drink “pop”.

The Pittsburgh-English dialect derives from Scots-Irish, German, Central European, and Eastern European immigrants. The language of these immigrant groups mixed together to create the Western Pennsylvanian language and accent. Commentators have remarked that Pittsburghers sound like they speak with a golf ball in their mouth for the way that they slur their words together. Pittsburghers, or Yinzers as we’re called, characteristically slur our words together, turning phrases like “did you eat yet?” into “jeet jet?” A recent internet poll crowned Pittsburgh as possessing the nation’s ugliest accent, something that us Yinzers actually strangely took pride in. We beat major cities with notable twangs like New York, Boston, and Chicago, and proved that our steel city’s dialect proves to be the most unique, albeit ugly.

An entire Youtube channel is dedicated to the quirkiness of Pittsburgh and its accent. Pittsburgh Dad is one of the most followed and subscribed channels on the online streaming website. It is an online series of short films that documents the observations of a blue-collared father from Pittsburgh who speaks with a thick PIttsburghese accent. He looks like the stereotypical Pittsburgh father (and reminds me of my own dad) with his thick grandfather glasses, facial hair, and Iron City beer in hand. The videos are hilarious and hit home for anyone from the Pittsburgh region. I don’t know if non-Pittsburghers will appreciate the jokes or even be able to understand him, but here’s one of my favorite episodes of Pittsburgh Dad.

I was surprised by how many of my friends that I made at Penn State said that I had an accent. I knew that my parents did, because when we would go on vacation people would be able to instantly tell that we were from Pittsburgh the minute my dad opened his mouth. Sometimes waiters would even ask my dad to repeat himself because they couldn’t understand him through his thick Pittsburgh accent. When we learned the Washer Method in calculus, all of my classmates and I were relieved that our parents weren’t in the room because we knew that we’d cringe as they’d pronounce it as the “Worsher Method”. People could understand me, so I guess I was in denial of the truth of my Pittsburgh-twang.  My friends asked me why I said things like “slippy” instead of “slippery”, “dahntahn” rather than “downtown”, or why I ended every sentence with “and that”, and the fear hit me that my speech was as bad as my parents’.

But I’m proud of my accent. It makes me who I am and prideful of where I grew up. I became extremely homesick my first semester following the death of my brother. Whenever I told people about my situation, they always asked where home was, as if implying that that’s where I should be. My heart would hurt as I answered “Pittsburgh” because I missed home and my family so badly. I love Penn State, but I definitely missed the tall buildings and rivers of my hometown. I would google image search my favorite places in the city, like the Strip District that my blog visited last week, or pictures of the city at night. When I called home and heard the Pittsburghese on the other side of the phone, it was incredibly comforting. Hearing my dad talk about how he got pricked by a “jaggerbush” while “woshin’” his car lifted my spirits here in Happy Valley.

Since being here, I’ve learned that the language that we grow up with is a huge part of who we are and serves as a comfort mechanism for when homesickness strikes. Language isn’t limited to a regional dialect or accent, but can be words or phrases that are significant to you and your family, such as nicknames or phrases. Our communication will always have a comfort zone with the uniqueness of our “native” language.