Pittsburghese
South Western Pennsylvania has a distinct dialect and accent. Distinctive enough that, when I took a trip to Florida with my other Pittsburgh cousins, people were able to identify that they were all from Pittsburgh simply from the way that they were speaking. We were not allowed to speak “Pittsburghese” in the house while I was growing up (I found out years later that my mother thought that the accent/colloquialisms made people sound like “blue collar hillbillies “); my mother is not a local, having grown up travelling all over the Midwest, and made it a point to teach my siblings and I “Standard” Mid-Atlantic English. The strange phenomena of not being permitted to speak a dialect that I was surrounded by ended up making it so that we can understand Pittsburghese perfectly fine (most of the time) but are unable to speak the accent and the colloquialisms sound “wrong” when we speak them.
As a result, any time that my mother’s nieces and nephews (our cousins from her side of the family who all lived in the Midwest) or our distant cousins from New York, or Florida (or anywhere outside of Pittsburgh) would come to visit, one of us would have to act as the “official” unofficial standard English to Pittsburghese and back translator between the local family and the visiting family. We would take turns doing it (there are four of us, after all) based on who was visiting and what our availability was. The last time that I had to act as a translator was when I went home in 2018 for my younger sister Amber’s wedding.
Randi and Ryan (my mother’s niece and nephew) had flown in from Kansas, and everyone was meeting at my (paternal) grandmother’s house for the pre-wedding picnic. Aunt Tina saw us as we walked into the back yard, ran up to us, and gave each of us a big hug.
“O ma Gawd! ‘Ow yinz ben doon?! Ain’ seen yinz guys in a coon’s age! Wut’s it ben, fiv yeers?”
Ryan grinned awkwardly, unsure of what was happening, so I stepped in.
“I’ve been good. Just working, travelling, and relaxing. Haven’t really been up to much else, really. It’s been two years, I think, since I was home last.”
After making it past the Tina hurdle, I guided them to the grill, where my sister’s fiancé Rizzo was talking with some of my local cousins. He was a writer for the local paper, so he definitely, 100%, knows standard English, so I don’t understand why he chose to speak in Pittsburghese. Maybe Amber told him about how we translate for others and thought that it would be funny or something, I don’t know.
“Yello, I’m Rizzo. Welcome to Pixberg. Yinz must be Ryan and Randi. We gots some kabosy grillin’. Yinz can toss some sarkrot on a bun and get some eats. We also gots Jumbo, Hienz, an’at if’n yinz want a sammich’ instead.”
After we got our food and sat down, Randi and Ryan began to discuss what they wanted to do after the wedding. Immediately, my older cousin Mickey plopped down on the table next to me, interjecting himself into the conversation.
“’Scuse me, don’ mean t’be nebby, but’cha need t’see all’a t’city, not just dahntahn. Hit the strip, catch a bar in the Sou’ Sih, walk through sum o’t’parks in t’Nor’ Sih (jus’ don’ take anyone’s parkin’chairs), an’ most important, yinz can’t leave pixberg w’out takin’ t’Incline up Moun’ Warshington (jus’ don’ try climin’ it, too slippy). Yinz can see t’whole city, an’ oll three rivers, the Mon, the AllyGheny, and the Ohio. It’s bootiful. Too bad ‘s summer, if’n twer later yinz could see t’Stillers”
Before I could explain what Mickey was trying to say, my nephew Christain (not a typo, that’s how my sister spelled his name on his birth certificate) walked past us with what appeared to be a six pack of beer stuffed in his shirt (he was eighteen and had just enlisted in the Marines). I looked at him and he froze, dropping all six of the beers on the ground.
“Don’ tell m’mum. ‘ll get on punishment. Yinz wan’ some Arn City? ‘s better than pop.”
“What she goan do t’ya,” Mickey asked him.
“Las’ time, I had to reddup t’whole house! Run t’sweeper, organize all o’t’clickers, warsh the dish rags and hand warsh her babushka’s. An’ now I have to run t’cookie table tomorrow. Tried t’argue, but she was like ‘Needs done.’ Don’ matter tha’ there’s a whole buggy o’ Gin’Iggle cookies and cakes.”
Mickey’s jaw dropped. “Yeesh. ‘d rather jump in a crick than do that. Hey gum band arms, Kennywood’s open!.”
The wedding was fine, and they had fun, but to this day neither of them will step foot in Pittsburgh.
Translation guide: Pittsburghese to English
- Nebby- interested in other people’s business
- Yinz- plural form of “you” (you all)
- Dahntahn- downtown
- Sou’ Sih- South Side, an area of Pittsburgh
- Pixberg- Pittsburgh
- “Reddup”- clean up
- Jumbo/chipped ham – a type of thinly sliced ham lunch meat
- Cookie table – dessert table, specifically for cookies, specifically for wedding receptions
- Slippy- slippery
- “Kennywood’s open.” –colloquial term for letting someone know that their pants zipper is open.
- Nor Sih – North Side, an area of Pittsburgh
- Warsh/woosh – wash
- Warshington – Washington
- Moun’ Warshington – Mount Washington, an area of Pittsburgh
- Parking Chair – chair used to save a parking spot
- Kabosy an’ Sarkrot – kielbasa and sauerkraut, traditional meal eaten on New Years Eve.
- The Mon – Monongahela River
- Stillers – Pittsburgh Steelers Football Team
- Gin’ Iggle – Giant Eagle, a local grocery store
- Buggy – shopping cart
- Crick – creek
- Get some eats – get something to eat
- Gum bands – rubber bands
- Pop – soft drink
- Sweeper – vacuum cleaner
- Clicker – remote control
- Face/dish rag – wash cloth
- Needs done – needs to get done
- Yello – hello
- Heinz – ketchup
- Sammich – sandwich
- Babushka – scarf that women wear on their heads
- Arn city – Iron City, a local brand of beer produced and drank in Pittsburgh
- Coon’s age – a very long time.
- An’at -and that. There are other things.
- If’n – if
- On punishment – grounded
- Yeesh – “oh my god”