Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: cloutier@critpath.org (Diane Cloutier)
Subject: Re: Central & Western PA Idiosyncrasies
Message-ID: <DALvyy.493@critpath.org>
Organization: Critical Path Project
References: <3s799v$e58@hearst.cac.psu.edu>
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 03:20:58 GMT
Lines: 29

In article <3s799v$e58@hearst.cac.psu.edu> mam@arlvax.arl.psu.edu (Martin A. Mazur) writes:
>I've lived in State College, PA for seven years now. It's smack in the middle 
>of the state, and in the northern fringe of Appallachia. I've noticed that the 
>locals speak with certain idiosyncrasies. Many of them seem to be common to 
>Appallachian speech in general, but some seem to be local to central and 
>western PA. There are two in particular that I'd like to bring up for 
>discussion here. One is a usage idiosyncrasy, the other is in pronunciation. 
>Tell me if you've noticed these, too, and if they are more widespread than I 
>realize. 
>
>The first is substituting "needs <past tense of verb>", or "wants <same>" for 
>the infinitive. An example would be "The grass needs cut", or "The dog wants 
>fed". The educated locals recognize this, but usually say it anyway. 

I heard that growing up in Central Ohio. I think of it as folksy but not
abnormal.
>
>The second idiosyncrasy is not fully pronouncing 'L's.
>An extra -oo- sound often appears in words near the incomplete 
>l. Thus, 'cold' is pronounced 'co-oo-(l)d', and 'full' almost rhyme with 
>'fool' except that last 'l' is '(l)', so it sounds more like 'foo'. Most 
>people around here don't recognize it, but even the local announcers do it. I 
>first noticed this not in PA, but in California when I worked with two people 
>from Pittsburgh.
>
Haven't noticed that in Pittsburgh or anywhere else for that matter.

- Tony West (from Diane's address)

