Pittsburgh Dialect

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 08:24 PM 10/19/00 +0800, you wrote:
>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

Right--the area extends both east and (south)west from a "core" which just
happens to include Pittsburgh, in my opinion (with of course the usual
further urban area changes that happen with waves of in-migration and
immigration; see McElhinny in LVC 1999).  This isn't my "invention" (in the
classical sense); it was suggested by Kurath and McDavid (1961), Dakin
(1966), and most recently Johnson (1994).  But I see confirmation of it in
this SE Ohio area, and Terry Irons finds more in Eastern Kentucky (note an
ADS writer's mention of 'mamaw' and 'papaw' in E. KY too).  I had a grad
student from Pittsburgh who came to OU 20 years ago for his M.A. and then
went on to do his Ph.D. at Penn under Labov, and he's told me he always
protested when people said Pitt was "unique"; having lived in both SE Ohio
and West PA, he heard the basic similarities.  See also Hankey (1972) on
what he calls "West Penn-Ohio phonology"--he's right on!

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm