Pittsburgh--WHY with an "H" ?

[vida morkunas]

re 'boro' - when I was reading your response Doug, I immediately thought of
Brattleboro, Vermont (where I spent many summers).

Why would spelling change from borough (clearly British) to boro? Is this a
spelling shortcut, or is there another root to 'boro'?

cheers -

Vida.
vidamorkunas at telus.net



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: August 29, 2003 7:16 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Pittsburgh--WHY with an "H" ?


>Why the "h"?

Without claiming to be authoritative ....

Same reason it's "borough" instead of "boroug" ... or "though" instead of
"thoug" etc. (I guess).

"Burgh" is the Scots version of "borough", I believe ... "burgh" pronounced
usually like "burra"/"boro"/etc. but in the past sometimes "burch" with
Scots "ch" sound. Spelled "burgh" (OR "burg" etc.) back to Middle English
at least.

Pittsburgh was named after Pitt, of course, and the "-gh" is apparently
original:

http://www.pittsburgh.net/about_pittsburgh_h.cfm

I believe there were several major "-burgh" places before US Government
fiat deleted the "-h", apparently in 1890. I think most of these places
stayed "h"-less ("Pittsburg" etc.), the conservative/regressive exceptions
being Pittsburgh PA and Plattsburgh NY where some insisted on the "h",
eventually successfully. Pittsburgh newspapers had the spelling "Pittsburg"
for a while, for example.

Municipalities around Pittsburgh are often named "borough" ... often
spelled "boro" ... still (as opposed to "village", "township", etc.).
Standard abbreviation for Pittsburgh is still "Pgh."

-- Doug Wilson, Pittsburgh