Scotticisms

[Beverly Flanigan]

Not just Pittsburghese!  As we've said before on this list, Pittsburgh
isn't as unique dialectally as it thinks it is.  Western PA forms extend
into southern Ohio and westward throughout the South Midland.  Of the
listed forms below, 'red up', 'slippy', and (more rarely) 'fornent' are
still used around here.  And does anyone know 'brigady' (various spellings
are found)?

At 03:43 AM 3/21/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Some Scotticisms noted in US English in an 1875 reference book:
>
>"anunder" = "under"
>"bowl" = "basin"
>"chuck" = "throw"
>"fornent" = "opposite"
>"glasses" = "spectacles"
>"[not a] hait" = "[not a] whit"
>"red up" = "arrange"
>"slippy" = "slippery"
>"sundown" = "sunset"
>"tantrum" = "outburst"
>
>Some of these are now general, some obsolescent, some Pittsburghese.
>
>Questions for the dialectologists:
>
>(1) Is general Scots "hate"/"hait"/"haet" still in US use, as in "I don't
>give a hate" = "I don't give a damn", or "I haven't had a hait to eat all
>day"? (DARE shows an example as late as 1971. It's in the OED. It's not
>familiar to me.)
>
>(2) Is the general Scots word "rift" = "belch" still usual anywhere in the
>US besides Pittsburgh and vicinity? (Recently I met an adult native
>Pittsburgher who didn't recognize this word, so it may be on the way out.)
>
>-- Doug Wilson


_____________________________________________
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