The Philadelphia accent
October 26th, 2012 at 8:52:51 AM permalink | |
rdw4potus Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 10 Posts: 147 | I like almost everything about Eastern PA so far. But the accent drives me freaking nuts(er). Mostly for four reasons: 1. multi-syllable expansions of short words. It's like talking to a 6 year old. For example, the word "away" is pronounced awayahuh in Philly-speak. 2. een. there is a g right there at the end of the word. why the F would fishing be pronounced "fisheen?" 3. height. The h is before the t. If this word were to be pronounced with a th sound, there would be a terminal h. 4. A. There are two accepted pronunciations of this shortest of words. It can have an uh sound like in utter or enough, or it can have hard A sound like in the first syllable of anal or asian. Here in Philly, it's pronounced with a soft "a" like in an or apple. I'm not wearing any pants, film at 11 |
October 26th, 2012 at 9:01:02 AM permalink | |
FarFromVegas Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 3 Posts: 121 | Isn't that where they pronounce "feeling" like "filleen"? I'm filleen tired today. This space for rent |
October 26th, 2012 at 9:28:23 AM permalink | |
rdw4potus Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 10 Posts: 147 |
Every word that ends with ing gets the een. and I cringe every time. It's odd. There seem to be far fewer vocal inflections here than other places. The sentence "I've been fishing by the sea" includes three words (been, fishing, sea) that get the ee sound here. They have three distinct sounds most other places (in, ing, ee - respectively) I'm not wearing any pants, film at 11 |
October 28th, 2012 at 5:08:09 AM permalink | |
MonkeyMonkey Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 0 Posts: 111 |
I don't think I've ever encountered that accent, but it sounds like it would grate on the nerves. I did once talk to a guy from New Hampshire and I'm pretty sure English was his native language but it was hard to be sure. World's most discriminating Kool-Aid connoisseur |
October 28th, 2012 at 10:14:23 AM permalink | |
Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
William Labov has done extensive research on the Philadelphia accent. It is not nearly as well known as the New York, the Boston, or the New Jersey accent. Most of the time in movies like Rocky, they use a new Jersey accent in place of a Philly accent.
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