New England, in my very unbiased opinion, is the absolute best place to grow up. You have four amazing seasons: winter in Vermont, spring is the quaint towns of Connecticut, summer on the coast of Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, and fall in New Hampshire with all the other leaf peepers. I loved growing up in my small town and attending schools with my cousins, something I wouldn’t trade for the world. However, when college came around I was ready to explore some place different, somewhere farther away from home than good ole Bean Town, aka Boston for you non-New Englanders. I excitedly chose my college, Saint Vincent, in little Latrobe, PA about an hour from Pittsburgh. Though small, Latrobe has so much to offer! This town was the home of Arnold Palmer, held the creators of Rolling Rock, and was centered around Saint Vincent: the school that proudly hosts the Steelers summer training camp. Never in my wildest imagination did I realize that it would also have its own language!
As summer 2016 passed, my time to join several new freshmen came. I was soon busy moving into my dorm room, meeting my roommate, and getting to know campus. Lucky for me, I got to move into my dorm room and meet my roommate a little early, since we were on the same sports team. As my roommate, Sarah, and I ventured to our first college practice we began the awkward small talk, “Where are you from?”, “What’s your major?” etc.
As the timid freshman from NH, I was a little apprehensive since I didn’t know anyone. During this first practice I was dying of thirst so quietly asked my roommate and another freshman if they knew where the closest bubbler was located. Little did I know that the bubbler was not a universal term for water fountain. They literally died laughing at my New England vocabulary, and I had to explain what a blinkah was and why we say wicked good. But soon my introduction to the Pittsburgh “language,” for lack of a better word, began.
Image Credit: David DiCello
If you aren’t from Pittsburgh and might be going for a visit, let me give you a heads up…they have a unique language of their own.
Here are some of my favorite Pittsburghee terms, that have definitely had me raising an eyebrow and questioning if I heard them correctly:
1. Pop
No, this doesn’t mean a lollipop or a noise you hear…it means soda!
“You want water or Pop?”
2. Gobs
Not going to lie when I first heard someone say this I totally thought they were talking about the Gob Stopper in Willy Wonka. You would have the same reaction I did to learn it was actually just a Whoopie Pie.
“Omg, the café has gobs on the dessert table!”
3. Yinz
When I was younger I went through a phase of saying “you guyses’, and this is basically what Yinz means. It’s the Pittsburgh version of “y’all”, but in my opinion way more unique and fun!
“What are yinz doing tonight?”
4. Slippy
Now this really just means Slippery, but I will never understand why Pittsburgh took out the r. However, I can’t lie, I have caught myself saying this. It’s a word that just makes you smile. Try it out sometime!
“Be careful walking there, it’s wet and slippy”
5. Sweep
Sweeping, to me, is using a broom and cleaning a floor. Pittsburgh people have a fancy form of sweeping; news flash its actually vacuuming!
“Move all the stuff off the floor I need to plug in the vacuum and sweep”
6. PA
Whenever someone from Pittsburgh is asked where they’re from they say, “Oh _____, PA.” Nobody ever says the word Pennsylvania — it’s like the full name is a state secret. Can anyone answer why this is? New Hampshire is two words and the same amount of letters as Pennsylvania but we all say New Hampshire, not NH.
“What state are you from?” “PA”
7. Pierogis, Halushki, Halupki, Primanti Brothers, Ranch, Heinz and more!
I will forever be confused by the food you eat, I am NOT hating on it, I’m really into it but more than half the time I get the name wrong. French Fries on sandwiches and salads, unhealthy but genius. Ranch on anything and everything, even more genius!
“What do you want for dinner? We have Pierogis, Halushki, Halupki or Sandwiches from Primanti Brothers”
8. Buggy
See, where I come from the word buggy is like a horse and buggy or a little kid yelling about a lady bug on them. When walking through a PA super market you’ll hear them asking for a buggy to push their food around. PA friends, it’s called a carriage or maybe a shopping cart…not a buggy…geez!
“Honey, we’re going to have a lot of groceries so we will need a buggy.”
9. Stove
No, not something you cook in. This is the term they use for stub…yes, like when you stub your toe.
“OUCH! I just stoved my toe”
10. Your lack of the verb “to be”
This one took me almost my whole freshman year to figure out, but I just knew there was something odd about their sentences. Then one day it hit me! You all leave out the words ‘to be’. Okay, I know this sounds strange at first but honest to goodness they say things like: “You need let in?” or “Your laundry needs washed?” instead of “You need to be let in?” or “Your laundry needs to be washed”.
Image Credit: Philadelphia Magazine
I can see it now. When I finally graduate and move back to New Hampshire from PA, I will call my friends to see what Yinz are doing. I’ll invite them over and go to the grocery store and fill my buggy with pop, gobs and pierogis. I’ll be sure to sweep and mop the floors to make sure it’s not slippy and no one stoves their toes. When my friends arrive, I’ll ask if they need let in. Though I’m sure my New England friends will laugh at my new PA phrases, I know we will have a wicked good time because friends are friends no matter what language they speak or if they laugh at you for calling a water fountain a bubbler.
HCXO,
Hannah