Re: PA dialect (was: Re: i'm reforming one of my conlangs)

Mark J. Reed wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:01 PM, Carl Banks <conlang@...>
> wrote:
>
>> "Hey, kids, whah don't yinz take some gum bands and trah to shoot those
>> grinniz out of the gutter, and then get in the hause an' woosh up an'
>> fill
>> the fridge with Ahrn City, the Stillers are on it one, n'at."
>
>
> OK, I give up  - what is the spelling "hause" meant to convey?  It sure
> looks like it would be pronounced the same as the standard AmE (/h&Us/ or
> so).
/has/, rhymes with sauce.

I am not the biggest expert on dialectal English, but I've never heard of
au being pronounced /&U/ in any English dialect, only foreign languages.
I only pronounce it /a/, and I've only heard of it being prounounced in
other dialects as /O/.


> I'm very skeptical of "woosh" for "wash". I mean,  "worsh", sure,
> but
> "woosh"?
/wUS/, rhymes with toosh.

Yes, my grandmother and other elder peoples of my family certiainly
pronounce it this way, no r at all.  I've never heard /wOrS/, /warS/ or
any variant with an r.  I suspect either the r was imagined by observers
from less rhotic dialects (e.g., New York), or there was a conspiracy to
eliminate dialectal variations of the City of Allegheny (where my family
comes from) and which was forcibly annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in
the early 20th century.  Or my family's weird.

For the record, this pronounciation grates on my ears (I just say /waS/)
because whenever I heard this word in my youth it meant that there would
soon be a hot, soapy washrag thrust forcibly into my face.


Carl Banks (who has never as an adult ever wooshed his face outside the
shower)

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