Scots-Irishisms

[Beverly Flanigan]

The traditional term for the area we're talking about is the Midland
dialect area, which, as Tim Frazer has pointed out, starts in
Pennsylvania.  The cut between North Midland and South Midland starts in
western PA and extends down the Appalachian plateau into southern Ohio,
southern Indiana, and southern Illinois.  (Some cuts split West Virginia
into No Mid and So Mid, but I'm not sure that's appropriate.)  Columbus is
in the North Midland, but in- and out-migration causes "bleedings" of forms
northward and southward across these lines; in fact, "needs + p.p. -ed/-en"
is spreading all through the general Midland and westward (see surveys by
Tom Murray and Beth Simon).

I'm waiting for more responses on "brigady."  My native speaker informant
some years ago defined it as "rowdy, rambunctious, wild, ornery" so I'm not
sure about the "biggity/smarty pants" idea.

At 01:19 PM 3/21/01 -0500, you wrote:
> From Beverly Flanigan:
>
>>Not just Pittsburghese! ...
>
>I forgot to put my smiley-face after the designation. I know the so-called
>"Pittsburghisms" extend to SE OH, central PA, much of WV ... is there a
>proper term for this territory? I've lived in Columbus OH, where I
>encountered a little of this (including the "needs cleaned" sort of thing),
>and in Urbana IL, where I didn't. I haven't done a survey.
>
>>... 'red up', 'slippy', and (more rarely) 'fornent' are still used around
>>here.
>
>That means you're in "Greater Pittsburgh"! (^_^)
>
>>And does anyone know 'brigady' (various spellings are found)?
>
>I used to hear "briggity britches" occasionally years ago. I assumed this
>to be an alteration of "biggity" (which I thought was standard, but which
>the dictionaries localize). Haven't heard either for a while as I recall.
>Is this the same? My little Scots dictionary shows "bigsie" with similar
>sense ("conceited").
>
>-- 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