ah/ awe

[Paul Johnston]

And just south of Pittsburgh, in Northern West Virginia and Greene
County, PA, Don and Dawn come out with something like a Philadelphia
dawn.  My mother-in-law's (male) cousin, from Waynesburg, PA, is
"Dawnie" with quite a raised open o.

Paul Johnaston
On Oct 1, 2006, at 7:28 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: ah/ awe
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Here is my perception of the situation in Pittsburgh.
>
> In (say) Chicago, in my experience, there are usually two distinct
> vowels
> in "Don" and "Dawn": say, "Don" /dan/ 'unrounded', "Dawn" /dOn/
> 'rounded'.
>
> In stereotypical Pittsburgh pronunciation, to my ear, "Don" and
> "Dawn" are
> both /dOn/. Pittsburghers regard them as sounding the same. They
> both sound
> (to me) like Chicago "Dawn".
>
> This does not by any means imply that stereotypical Pittsburghers
> have any
> trouble saying /dan/ or distinguishing it from /dOn/. Pittsburghers
> say
> /dan/ (which sounds to me the same as Chicago "Don") all the time:
> but it's
> spelled "down" (this is a sort of local shibboleth, I guess).
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
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