By the twentieth century, the Philadelphia andNew York accents shared features not found elsewhere, including: ahigh/ɔ/ vowel, which helps to maintain a contrast betweenwords likecot andcaught; and aphonemic split of the shorta vowel,/æ/, causinggas andgap to have different vowels sounds.[2] Philadelphia's shorta split appears to be a simplified variant of New York City's split.[3]
Unlike New York City English, most speakers of Philadelphia English have always used arhotic accent, meaning that ther sound is never "dropped".
Philadelphia accents from the late nineteenth century to the 1950s shared certain features of the regional accents of theAmerican South andMidland: for example, in fronting/oʊ/, raising/aʊ/, and sometimes weakening/aɪ/.[4] Philadelphians began developing their own entirely unique phonological features, remaining similar-sounding to New York City's English.[5] Some higher-educated Philadelphians born since the last quarter of the twentieth century have been showingdialect levelling and more use of unmarkedNorthern American English (General American English) features. This demographic regularly replaces the traditional Philadelphia/æ/ split with the more General American tensing of/æ/ only beforenasal consonants; this probably began when its members attendedcollege.[6]
As of today, "the most strongly supported generalization is that Philadelphia has moved away from its Southern heritage in favor of a Northern system, avoiding those forms that are most saliently associated with local phonology."[5] In the city of Philadelphia proper, the dialect has evolved further, especially among younger residents,[7] and the "White Philadelphian dialect" is now spoken by a numerical minority of all Philadelphians within the city of Philadelphia itself, though it remains strong throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan region.[8]
The vowels in Philadelphia speech have shown volatility across the last century, as Labov's research has identified changes affecting over half of the vowel phonemes.
THOUGHT vowel: A feature unique to Middle Atlantic speakers (including Philadelphians and New Yorkers) and southernNew Englanders is the raising and diphthongization of/ɔ/, as inTHOUGHT, to[oə] or even higher[ʊə]. The raised variants often appear as diphthongs with a centering glide. As a result, Philadelphia is resistant to thecot–caught merger. Labov's research suggests that this pattern of raising is essentially complete in Philadelphia and seems no longer to be an active change.
LOT–CLOTH split: Similarly, the single word "on" has the vowel of "dawn" and not the same vowel as "don." Labov et al. regard this phenomenon as occurring not only in the Mid-Atlantic region but also in all regions south of a geographic boundary that they identify as the "ON line," which is significant because it distinguishes most varieties ofNorthern American English (in whichon andDon are rhymes) from most varieties ofMidland andSouthern American English (in whichon anddawn are rhymes).[9]
Southeastern vowel fronting: One of the features that Philadelphia shares with dialects of the whole Southeastern United States (but absent from most New York accents) is the fronting of a variety of vowels. This includes/oʊ/ and/u/; the resulting allophones are around[əʊ] and[ʉu], respectively.[10] Generally, greater degrees of fronting are heard when the vowels appear in "free" positions (i.e., without a following consonant) than in "checked" positions (i.e., with a following consonant). Fronting does not occur in the context of followingliquids leading to a significant difference between, e.g.,goat andgoal. The fronting of/oʊ/ and/u/ is well established in Philadelphia, though cross-generational data show that it remains an active change. Fronted nuclei in/aʊ/ are well established in Philadelphia speech as in New York. More recent research has noted a tendency among the middle-aged and younger generation of Philadelphians to raise the vowel, resulting in[ɛɔ]./ʊ/, the vowel infoot, is sometimes fronted though not to the degree seen with/oʊ/ and/u/.
Short-a split: As inNew York andBaltimore accents, historical "shorta" has split into two phonemes: lax/æ/ (as inbat) and tense/eə/ (as inbath). Their distribution in Philadelphia along with Baltimore, however, is different from that of New York City. Generally, in the Philadelphia–Baltimore system, the vowel/æ/ istensed (towards[eə]) before the consonants/m/,/n/,/f/,/s/, and/θ/ in aclosed syllable (so, for example,bats andbaths do not have the same vowel sound, being pronounced[bæts] and[beəθs], respectively), and in any words directly inflectionally derived from root words with this split. Therefore,pass andpassing use the tense[eə], butpassage andpassive use the lax[æ].[11] The lax and the tense reflexes of/æ/ are separate phonemes in these dialects, though largely predictable using the aforementioned rules. There are exceptions, however; the three wordsbad,mad, andglad become tense, and irregular verbs ending in "-an" or "-am" remain lax.[12] [æ] can also be found in closed syllables in words where a vowel was recently elided closing the syllable such ascamera, family, andcatholic. The wordsmad (tense) andsad (lax) do not rhyme in Philadelphia or Baltimore, but do for New York City and all other English dialects. (In theTrenton area, an intermediate system is used, falling between the typical Mid-Atlantic and the New York City system.)[13] Not all Philadelphians today have this feature and some are beginning to favor the moreGeneral Americantensing of shorta only beforenasals (especially under the influence of youth trends and higher education); in fact, as a general rule, native Philadelphians consistently have that split system only if their own parents are native Philadelphians.[14]
^abcdIn New York City and Philadelphia, most function words (am, can, had, etc.) and some learned or less common words (alas, carafe, lad, etc.) have[æ].[20]
^In Philadelphia, the irregular verbsbegan, ran, andswam have[æ].[21]
^In Philadelphia,bad, mad, andglad alone in this context have[ɛə].[20]
^abThe untensed/æ/ may be lowered and retracted as much as[ä] in varieties affected by theLow-Back-Merger Shift, mainly predominant in Canada and the American West.[28]
^In New York City, certain lexical exceptions exist (likeavenue being tense) and variability is common before/dʒ/ and/z/ as inimagine,magic, andjazz.[30] In New Orleans,[ɛə] additionally occurs before/v/ and/z/.[31]
Mary–marry–merry three-way distinction: As in New York accents and most native English accents outside North America, there is a three-way distinction betweenMary[ˈmeɹi]~[ˈmeəɹi],marry[ˈmæɹi], andmerry[ˈmɛɹi]~[ˈmɜɹi]. However, in Philadelphia some older speakers have a merger (or close approximation) of/ɛ/ and/ʌ/ before/r/ (thefurry–ferry merger), so thatmerry is merged instead withMurray (with both pronounced something like[ˈmʌɹi]). Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 54) report that about one third of Philadelphia speakers have this merger, one third have a near-merger, and one third keep the two distinct. Relatedly, as in New York, many words likeorange,Florida, andhorrible have/ɑ/ before/r/ rather than the/ɔr/ used in many other American dialects(seeHistoric "short o" before intervocalic r).[32]
Canadian raising occurs for/aɪ/ (as inprice) but not for/aʊ/ (as inmouth).[33] Consequently, the diphthong inlike may begin with a nucleus of mid or even higher position[ɫʌik], which distinguishes it from the diphthong inline[ɫaɪn]. Canadian raising in Philadelphia occurs beforevoiceless consonants, and it is extended to occur before somevoiced consonants as well, including intervocalic voiced stops as intiger andspider. Fruehwald argues[34] that/aɪ/ has actually undergone aphonemic split in Philadelphia as a result of Canadian raising. The raising of/aɪ/ is unusual as the innovators of this change are primarily male speakers while the other changes in progress are led primarily by females. The sociolinguistic evidence suggests this raising is a fairly recent addition to Philadelphia speech.
FLEECE,FACE, andDRESS vowels: Traditional Philadelphia speech shows lowered and/or laxed variants of/i/ were common:[ɪi]. The recent[when?] sociolinguistic evidence indicates a reversal of this trend such that the vowel is now commonly raised and fronted. This raising is heard primarily before consonants (e.g.,eat).[citation needed] The Linguistic Atlas researchers recorded lax variants of/eɪ/ near[ɛɪ]. As with/i/, recent research suggests this trend is being reversed by raising and fronting of the vowel often to a position well beyond[e]. This raising occurs before consonants (e.g.,paid); in word-final position (pay),/eɪ/ remains lowered and lax. Both of these can lead to nonstandard phonemic incidence (see "Phonemic incidence" section).
Labov's research has indicated a tendency toward lowering of the lax vowels/ɪ/ and/ɛ/. This pattern is not yet well established and is labeled by Labov as an "incipient" change.
Many Philadelphians use a rather high, back, and perhaps even rounded vowel for/ɑr/ as inSTART; something near[ɔ]. The so-calledhorse–hoarse merger takes place, and the merged vowel is typically mid to high back; it can be as high as[ʊɚ]. As noted inNew York, these tendencies toward backing and raising of/ɑr/ and/ɔr/ may constitute achain shift. The evidence suggests the movement of/ɑr/ began this shift, and this vowel is relatively stable today, while generational differences are heard in the shifting of/ɔr/.
/ɔɪ/, as inCHOICE may be more raised than in other dialects; sometimes it is as high as[ʊɪ].[35]
/ʌ/, as inSTRUT, may show raised and back variants. In some cases, the vowel is in the high, back corner of the vowel space near/u/. This is reportedly a recent[when?] development and is one more common among male speakers.[citation needed]
Philadelphia forms the core of the one fullyrhotic major region of the traditionalAmerican East Coast.[36] This area runs from Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey down to Delaware and northern Maryland, and remains fullyr-pronouncing today.
Non-rhoticity (R-dropping) can be found in some areas of Philadelphia, however (presumably as a recent innovation after the nineteenth century) such as among working-class male speakers specifically fromSouth Philadelphia, especially those born in the first half of the twentieth century and of Italian, Jewish, or Irish Catholic descent.[37][38] On the other side of the socioeconomic spectrum, non-rhoticity in speakers from thePhiladelphia Main Line may be a result of wealthy families sending their children to expensive boarding schools in the United Kingdom up until the 1960s and thus acquiring a "Transatlantic accent."[39] Non-rhoticity is most prevalent among black Philadelphians, who largely do not demonstrate the regional speech features of Philadelphia English;[14] instead, many black Philadelphians speakAfrican-American Vernacular English.
Consonant changes, especially reductions andlenitions, are very common in informal conversational speech, so that:
The sibilant/s/ ispalatalized to[ʃ] (as inshe) before/tr/. Thus, the wordstreets might be pronounced "shtreets"[ʃtɹits].[40]
L-vocalization is quite pervasive in Philadelphia speech. Phonetically it may be realized as something like[o] or avelar orlabio-velarglide,[ɰ] or[w], or the consonant may be deleted altogether. Among Philadelphians, as in other dialects, vocalization occurs quite frequently in word-final and pre-consonantal contexts (e.g.,mill,milk). In a more unusual development, vocalization may also occur inter-vocalically in Philadelphia. This tendency is more common when/l/ appears following low vowels bearing primary word stress (e.g.,hollow). This variable also shows some lexical conditioning, appearing, for example, with exceptionally high frequency in the pronunciation of the name of the city (Ash 1997). This, in part, leads to the stereotype ofPhiladelphia being pronounced as "Fluffya" or "Filelfia."[41]
As in other areas, the interdental fricatives/θ/ and/ð/ are often realized as stops,[t] and[d] or affricates[tθ] and[dð] in Philadelphia speech. This variation appears to be a stable class-stratified feature with the non-fricative forms appearing more commonly in working-class speech.
Theyew–hew merger can be found, as in New York City, in which words likehuman andhuge, which begin with an/hj/ cluster, the/h/ is commonly deleted giving/ˈjumən/ and/judʒ/.
Consonant clusterreductions, such as removing the "t" sound from consonant clusters, so that "mustard" sounds more like "mussard," or "soft" like "sawff."[41]
On is traditionally pronounced/ɔn/, phonemically matching the South and Midland varieties ofAmerican English (and unlike most New York accents), thus rhyming withdawn rather thandon. However, the Northern/ɑn/ has also been reported.[42]
The wordwater is commonly pronounced/ˈwʊtər/ (with the first syllable rhyming with the wordput, so that it sounds like "wooter" or "wooder"), rather than the more standard English/ˈwɔtər/. This is considered by many to be ashibboleth of the Philadelphia dialect, even among young Philadelphians,[43][44] though Labov has argued that it is an exaggerated stereotype and the more common pronunciation uses a raised/ɔ/ rather than/ʊ/.[45]
Both long-e and long-a sounds may be shortened before/ɡ/.Eagle rhymes withgiggle/ˈɪɡəl/ (as in "theIggles");league/lɪɡ/ rhymes withbig;vague andplague rhyme withpeg (pronounced/vɛɡ/ and/plɛɡ/, respectively).[46] For some Philadelphians,colleague andfatigue also have/ɪ/ (pronounced/ˈkɑlɪɡ/ and/fəˈtɪɡ/, respectively). However, these are words learned later, so many speakers use the more standard American/ˈkɑliɡ/ and/fəˈtiɡ/.[36]
In words likegratitude,beautiful,attitude,Baltimore, andprostitute, thei may be pronounced with theee sound/i/, as inbee.[36]
"Be done + noun phrase": The grammatical construction "be done something" means roughly "have/has finished something." For example, "I am done my homework" and "The dog is done dinner" are genuine sentences in this dialect and mean respectively "I have finished my homework" and "The dog has finished dinner." Another example, "Let's start after you're done all the coffee," means "Let's start after you've finished all the coffee." This is not exactly the same as the standard construction "to be done with something" since "She is done the computer" can mean "She is done with the computer" only in one sense: "She has finished (building) the computer."[47][48]
Many Philadelphians are known to use the expression "youse" both as second person plural and (rarely) second person singular pronoun, much like the mostly Southern / Western expression "y'all" or thePittsburgh term "yinz." "Youse" or "youse guys" is common in manyworking-classNortheastern U.S. areas though it is often associated especially with Philadelphia. However, unlike in other Northeastern U.S. areas, the Philadelphian pronunciation of "youse" more often than not reflectsvowel reduction and frequently yields/jəz/ and/jɪz/ ("yiz"), rather than the stereotypical/juz/ ("youse"). (ex: "Yiz want anything at the store?" "Yiz guys alright over there?").[52][53][54][55] Second person singular forms commonly are heard as/jə/ and/jɪ/.
Anymore is used as apositive polarity item, e.g. "Joey's hoagies taste different anymore."[56] This sense ofanymore is not specific to the region but is well represented there.
Asandwich consisting of a long bread filled with lunch meat, cheese, and lettuce, onion and tomato, variously called a "sub" or "submarine sandwich" in other parts of the United States, is called ahoagie. Olive oil, rather than mayonnaise, is used as a topping, and "hot" or "sweet" peppers are used for spice. The term 'hoagie' originated in Philadelphia.[57][58]
A similar sandwich toasted in an oven or broiler is called agrinder.[59][60]
Small chocolate or multi-colored confections sprinkled on ice cream and cake icing, elsewhere calledsprinkles, are known asjimmies in the Philadelphia area, as well as in the Boston and Pittsburgh areas. (For Bostonians some older Philadelphians, onlychocolate sprinkles are calledjimmies.)
Another distinctively Philadelphian word isjawn. According to Dan Nosowitz,jawn "is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people."[61]
Kellyanne Conway – of whom it was once observed that "she's such a hoagiemouth that it's impossible to even say her name without sounding like you, too, speak hoagiemouth"[69]
These speakers retain slight traces or elements of a rhotic Philadelphia accent:
Gloria Allred – "slightly nasal, Philadelphia-accented voice that can drip with sarcasm"[108]
Kevin Bacon andBruce Willis – "two native [Philadelphia] sons, Bruce Willis (Salem County, N.J.) and Kevin Bacon (Center City Philadelphia), who, at least in interviews early in their career, before accent reduction training kicked in, let their diphthong freak flags fly."[41]
Jill Biden – "She exaggerates her Philadelphia suburbs accent, which is already pretty strong."[109]
Gia Carangi – "professional voice instructors ... [were] trying to neutralize her unsophisticated Philadelphia accent so she might get into acting"[110]
Tina Fey – "Pennsylvania-native Tina Fey showcased the accent"[113]
Carli Lloyd – "And listen closely when she says 'pass' or 'me' — theSouth Jersey accent is charmingly unmistakable."[114]
Rob McElhenney – "I ... worked my way out of the accent for acting. ... My brother and sister have much stronger accents ... I still have a little bit of the accent"[115][116]
Philadelphia English spoken by native speakers is seldom heard in films and fictional television shows. Films and television shows set in the Philadelphia region generally make the mistake of giving the characters a working-classNew York City dialect (specifically heard in Philadelphia-set films such as theRocky series,Invincible, andA History of Violence). Contrary examples exist, such as the character Lynn Sear (played byToni Collette) inThe Sixth Sense, who speaks with an accurate Philadelphia dialect. InSleepers, the character Sean Nokes (played by Philadelphia nativeKevin Bacon) speaks in an exaggerated Philadelphia accent. The use of geographically inaccurate dialects is also true in films and television programs set inAtlantic City or any other region ofSouth Jersey; the characters often use a supposed "Joisey" dialect, when in reality that New York-influenced dialect for New Jersey natives is almost always exclusive to thenorthern region of the state nearest to New York City, while most South Jersey residents actually speak with a Philadelphia accent.[41]
The Philadelphia dialect is prominently featured in the 2021 television miniseriesMare of Easttown, set inDelaware County, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Philadelphia to the west and south.[123] Reviews of the portrayal of the dialect by British lead actressKate Winslet and others have been mostly positive.[124][125]
Philadelphia natives who work in media and entertainment often assimilate to the General American broadcast standard. Speakers with a noticeable local accent includeJim Cramer, the host ofCNBC'sMad Money,[126] singerJoe Bonsall,[66] political commentatorChris Matthews,[127]Bam Margera,[126] and several others in the MTVJackass crew.[citation needed]Venezuelan-American actressSonya Smith, who was born in Philadelphia, speaks with a Philadelphia accent in both English andVenezuelan Spanish.[citation needed] Local television, political, and sports personalities in South Jersey and part of Central Jersey tend to be much more culturally associated with Philadelphia than New York City.
Boberg, Charles (2008). "Regional phonetic differentiation in Standard Canadian English".Journal of English Linguistics.36 (2):129–154.doi:10.1177/0075424208316648.S2CID146478485.
Hindle, Donald (1980).The social and structural conditioning of phonetic variation (Doctoral dissertation). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
Kroch, Anthony (1996). "Dialect and style in the speech of upper class Philadelphia". In G. R. Guy; C. Feagin; D. Schiffrin; J. Baugh (eds.).Towards a social science of language: Papers in honor of William Labov. Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 23–45.
Labov, William (1980). "The social origins of sound change".Locating language in time and space. Qualitative analyses of linguistic structure. New York: Academic. pp. 251–266.
Labov, William (1989). "Exact description of the speech community: Shorta in Philadelphia". In R. W. Fasold; D. Schiffrin (eds.).Language change and variation. Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science, Current issues in linguistic theory. Vol. 52. Amsterdam: John Bengamins. pp. 1–57.
Labov, William (1994).Principles of linguistic change: Internal factors. Language in society. Vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell.
Labov, William; Karen, Mark; Miller, Corey (1991). "Near-mergers and the suspension of phonemic contrast".Language Variation and Change.3:33–74.doi:10.1017/S0954394500000442.
Labov, William; Ash, Sharon (1997). "Understanding Birmingham". In C. Bernstein; T. Nunnally; R. Sabino (eds.).Language variety in the South revisited. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 508–573.
Payne, Arvilla (1980). "Factors controlling the acquisition of the Philadelphia dialect by out-of-state children". In W. Labov (ed.).Locating language in time and space. Orlando: Academic. pp. 143–178.
Roberts, Julie (1997). "Hitting a moving target: Acquisition of sound change in progress by Philadelphia children".Language Variation and Change.9 (2):249–266.doi:10.1017/S0954394500001897.
^Labov, Rosenfelder & Fruehwald 2013, p. 173, In NYC and the Mid-Atlantic region, short-a is split into a tense and lax class. There is reason to believe that the tense class /æh/ descends from the British /ah/ or 'broad-a' class..
^Gordon, Matthew (2004). "New York, Philadelphia and other Northern Cities". In Edgar Werner Schneider; Bernd Kortmann (eds.).A Handbook of Varieties of English: Morphology and Syntax. Vol. 1. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Company KG. p. 290.ISBN3-11-017532-0.
^abcQuinn, Jim (1997)."Phillyspeak".Philadelphia City Paper. Archived fromthe original on January 1, 2012. RetrievedJanuary 16, 2012.
^Evans Wagner, Suzanne (2012). "Real-time evidence for age grad(ing) in late adolescence".Language Variation and Change.24 (2):179–202.doi:10.1017/S0954394512000099.
^Kenneth Finkel, ed. (1995).Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen's Manual. Philadelphia: The Library Company of Philadelphia. p. 86.
^"Philly Via Italy".34th street magazine. April 17, 2007. p. 9.
^Eames, Edwin; Robboy, Howard (December 1967). Edwin Eames; Howard Robboy (eds.). "The Submarine Sandwich: Lexical Variations in a Cultural Context".American Speech.42 (4):279–288.doi:10.2307/452990.JSTOR452990.
