To Be or Not To Be...in Pittsburgh

Once I was presenting the iconic "I'll be there" passage from The Grapes of Wrath to my Communications Seminar class in college (gamely tackling both the parts of Tom and Ma Joad) when my professor, the late great Dr. Roger Emelson, stopped me.

"No, no, no, no, Sharon!"  he said, his voice dripping with disdain. "You sound like someone who was born and raised in Pittsburgh."

I thought about that for a minute before I responded.  "I am somebody who was born and raised in Pittsburgh."

"Well, of course," said the exasperated Dr. Emelson, "but you don't want to sound like someone who was born and raised in Pittsburgh."

Pittsburghers get no respect when it comes to the way we talk.  I for one can't imagine why so many people get so riled up about this.  What we like to call "Pittsburghese" is actually the Midland North American dialect, and is practiced in some form in southwestern Pennsylvania and in many areas west and south of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.  It is just one of an estimated 24 dialects in America.* It's as good as any other dialect in my humble opinion.

I find the study of language and its evolution fascinating, and occasionally I even think I'd like to study it in more depth or at least read an internet article or two about it, maybe while eating a jumbo (bologna) sandwich with a nice cold glass of pop.  If I were not from Pittsburgh, I might have said I find language to be  fascinating. Here in the 'Burgh our dogs need walked and our cars need washed (well, at least mine does). 

I did not realize that there was anything grammatically questionable about that until I was 31 and a professor with whom I was working pointed it out to me.  It seems that "To be or not to be" has an entirely different meaning in Pittsburgh.  I had no idea.  See, if you hang around with professors they're going to teach you things.  They can't help themselves.

Is it the fact that we use fewer phonemes than most of the country that bothers people?  I like to think of it as being economical in our speech. Why waste time using two or three different small "o" sounds when one will do the trick?  When you look at it this way it makes sense, doesn't it?

Is it the way we redd up the house when yinz are coming over or fall on those slippy  hills of ours when it's snowing or get all nebby sometimes and put our noses in some jagoff's business?  Well, we have the Scotch-Irish (some of the early settlers to our area) to thank (or blame) for those expressions, and for the "to be" conundrum for that matter.* 

It really could be worse.  The Scotch-Irish are also responsible for bringing bagpipes into the country, which sound a lot worse than any Pittsburghese I've ever heard.

* Source:  http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/pittsburghese/

Can't get enough of the Pittsburgh dialect and want to read more?  There's a new book out on the subject that is on my Christmas Wish List... http://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Pittsburghese-Dialect-Studies-Sociolinguistics/dp/0199945705/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1385392486&sr=8-3&keywords=pittsburghese