tomato, tomahto

When I was in third grade, my parents made me take speech classes because I couldn't pronounce my "R's" correctly.  My classmates used to make fun of me because of that.  And then I killed them. To this day, I hate any word with the letter "R" in it.  Especially the small words like "are" and "for."

Pittsburgh has somehow developed its own jargon called "Pittsburgh-ese."  We say things like "dahntahn" (downtown) and "Stillers" (Steelers).  And we say phrases like: "Yinz goin' dahntahn to see dem Stillers 'n at?"  which translates to: "Are you guys going downtown to watch the Steelers game?"

I was fortunate enough not to grow up with a Pittsburgh accent.  Although I occasionally catch myself saying "yinz" (translates to "you guys").  And I definitely say "pop" instead of "soda."  Philly people mock me endlessly for that one.  And if you're lucky enough, you'll hear me say things like "jagoff," "gumband" and "hoagie."  I guess "hoagie" isn't that unusual, but true Philadelphian's say "subs" and I've been called out for saying "hoagie" a couple times in the past.

Recently, I've started becoming more conscious of what I say.  Or rather, how I say it.

Example.

I say:  "elemen-TARY"

You say: "elementree"

Use it in a sentence.  "I barely remember anything from elemen-tary school."

Yes, that's how I pronounce it.  I never thought it was weird until recently when all of my friends point out the fact that it's the wrong pronunciation.  It's spelled E-L-E-M-E-N-T-A-R-Y.  Right?  RIGHT.

How do you say: W-H-E-N?

"When" right?  As in: "When did you send me the email?"

I say: "win."  As in, "Win are you going to the bar?"

Don't judge me. 

So the holiday that's coming up is Thanksgiving.  Or shall I say, THANKSgiving.  So I took a poll to see how many people say "Thanksgiving."  The results came back and most people emphasize it as: "ThanksGIVing."

I asked my brother the other night how he says it and he says it the same way I do.  So I'm starting to think it's a Pittsburgh thing.  I guess I do have an accent.  At least it's not a big one.

(that's what she said).