Wiggle Room?

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:53 PM -0800 11/20/06, GLL wrote:
>Douglas Dee writes:
>: Here in New Jersey, I definitely hear the "short i" in the first syllable
>: of "English."
>
>That reminds me of my last trip through western Pennsylvania, where I heard
>'eagle' pronounced likw 'wiggle' without the 'w.'
>
>The speaker was naming a local supermarket chain, Giant Eagle, yet to my ears
>it sounded like she said 'jint iggle.'

This is in fact a shibboleth of the area, in fact the whole state,
whence the spellings "Iggles" and "Stillers" for the NFL teams in
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh respectively.  (Laxing before /g/ and
/l/, and a couple of other environments.)  The chain is also widely
referred to as "Giant Iggle" in writing (260 google hits).   There
are a lot of traits specific to "Pittsburghese", as one of the most
widely described variations of US English, although some of them
(like the "needs/wants" + past participle) are indigenous to a wider
area including SE Ohio (as discussed on this list from time to time).

LH

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