Expert says fewer folks use Pittsbughese? Git aht!
From all of that listening and researching, Dr. Johnstone has at least two basic — seemingly contradictory — conclusions: There are less of yunz tawkin’ funny ‘n’at then there used to be, but more of yunz go aht the way to try to.
I find this article very interesting. As a kid I was prohibited from using Yunz it was considered low-class by my working class family, so I substituted y’all! But I find I use n’at, warsh, nebby, jaggerbush and many other Pittsburghese terms naturally.
When I was in the Marines I had many people immediately identify me as being from Pittsburgh. In fact, one officer was able to do so and I only spoke one or two sentences!
I find I can turn off the Pittsburghese word use fairly easily but still have trouble with some of the vowel sounds unless I really concentrate.
My sons however, never picked up the Pittsburghese n’at.
SocialVibe