Pittsburgh Christmas Carol

[Sam Clements]

Doug,

Yinz do come up with the most interesting posts.

Sam Clements


----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 11:40 PM
Subject: Pittsburgh Christmas Carol


> A while back, the Pittsburgh pronunciation of "couch" came up. Here I find
> it in a version of a Christmas song which has appeared in slightly varying
> forms on the Web, and which I am told has been performed on the radio:
>
> ----------
>
> Yinz better watch aht,
> Yinz better not cry,
> Yinz better not paht,
> I'm tellin' yinz hahscome:
> Santa Claus is comin' dahntahn.
>
> He's makin' a list,
> He's checkin' it aht,
> He's gonna find aht who's nebby an' 'at:
> Santa Claus is comin' dahntahn.
>
> He knows if yinz's a jagoff,
> He can see inside your hahss,
> He knows if you've been workin' hard
> Or sittin' on your cahch.
>
> Yinz better watch aht,
> Yinz better not cry,
> Yinz better not paht,
> I'm tellin yinz hahscome:
> Santa Claus is comin' dahntahn.
>
> ----------
>
> I've made my own judgement on the spellings. "Hahscome" = "how's come" =
> "why". "An' 'at" = "and that". "Ah" generally = "ow" or "ou" (Pittsburgh
> /a/ for /au/ or /aw/), thus "hahss" = "house" etc. This MAY furnish an
> example of singular use of "yinz" = "you-uns" = "you-ones", the usual
> Pittsburgh 2nd-person plural pronoun. "Jagoff" is presumably originally
> "jackoff", like British "wanker", with its original meaning and obscenity
> forgotten (cf. "[cute little] bugger", "bollix up", etc.).
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>