A Note from Nittany about Pittsburghese

Dear Readers,

It has come to my attention that some of you had a wee bit of difficulty understanding Steely-Eyed’s recent post. Since the Pittsburgh Steelers are Super Bowl bound, Steely-Eyed may have more contributions in the days leading up to the big game. So I thought it best for me to offer an explanation of Steely-Eyed’s manner of speaking and writing.

Steely-Eyed is a descendant of the great gnome tribe of Western Pennsylvania, Yinzus Gnomus. After hundreds of years of mixing with the locals, the Yinzus Gnomus have adopted the local dialect, Pittsburghese. According to the English department at Carnegie Mellon University:

Many people in Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania think that there is a distinctive dialect of English spoken in this area, which they call "Pittsburghese." When people in this area talk about "Pittsburghese," they often mention words like "yinz," "slippy" and "nebby," sounds like the vowel in "aht" (out) or "dahntahn" (downtown), and expressions like "n’at."

The late, great Steelers announcer Myron Cope was one of the most famous purveyors of Pittsburghese. With the Super Bowl fast approaching, here are some examples of Pittsburghese sports talk.

Here are some common nouns and verbs.

And last but not least, an excellent example of Pittsburghese was left as a comment by Mrs. S's brother on this very blog:

Yoi Steely-Eyed!

After yunz get dun reddin up dahn there, come on dahntahn and i'll buy yinz an arn and a chipped ham hoagie, n'at. Just lemme know when yunz are prolly gonna be here so i can run dahn to the sahside to the jynt igl and get some pop, sketti, n'at. Gotta go, need ta worsh my gutchies.

HERE WE GO STILLERS... N'AT!

That translates to:

Hey, Steely-Eyed!

After you are done cleaning up down there, come on downtown and I'll buy you an iron (likely short for an Iron City Light, a popular local beer) and a ham (chipped ham was invented in Pittsburgh and is a local delicacy) sandwich. Just let me know when you are probably going to be here so I can run down to the Southside (a section of Pittsburgh) to the Giant Eagle (a popular local grocery chain) and get some soda pop, spaghetti, and other stuff. I gotta go, I need to wash my underwear.

I do hope that clears some things up.