Pittsburgh Dialect

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:04 PM -0400 10/19/00, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>I'll modify your comment on the /au/ --> /a/ "shibboleth" in
>Pittsburgh:  We have the same loss of glide in SE Ohio, though perhaps not
>to the degree in Pitt nor in all the same environments.  We also have some
>of the laxing and merging you refer to above (as I wrote in a previous
>note).  If I ever get my recent PowerPoint demo on all this up on my
>website, you'll get more details (or see my upcoming article in LVC on this
>region).  The only reason Telsur maps don't show this is that work thus far
>has been concentrated on large urban areas; the hinterland (including
>southern Ohio) ain't there yet!
>
Beverly,

Given the geography involved, would be a case of the Pittsburgh
isogloss (at least on these vowel mergers) extending to encompass
southeastern Ohio?  That is, this wouldn't be a separate fact (the
way the occasional monophthongization of /au/ on Okracoke would be)
but just a more accurate drawing of the relevant isogloss(es).

larry