Did you know one of the world's most unique dialects is right here in the Delaware Valley? It turns out the Philly accent is not only difficult to imitate, but it's also one of the most studied. MORE: 6abc.cm/2TSWpVo
In Inverness Scotland the t in water isn't pronounced as well, sounds very similar to philly way of saying wa'er. Same thing when we say bu'er (butter)
In high school it’s hard to notice that it sounds different. But in later life when you go out and expose yourself to people from other states, it becomes obvious.
East coast populations have always exhibited remnants of British Isles dialects. As people continue to move away from the coastal regions, and others come in, there are still traces to be found of those accents, but they are fading.
I totally agree. When I was a kid in 1970(ish), my Philly relatives had HEAVY accents. Only my surviving aunts and uncles still have it, but my cousins have mostly lost the accent (not entirely though).
@@EGarza-mk2mk - Actually, most Americans have a mix of European accents that eventually became the regional accents we have today. The classic Southern accent is mostly British Isles (circa 1800). Appalachia probably has the closest to a mix of colonial-era Irish, Scottish and English accents, which have changed a LOT in the UK since colonial times.
I noticed that River Wards - Port Richmond, old Fishtown, Bridesburg and Kensington people - say "sausage" like "sahsage", and South Philly people more often say "sauwsage". There's a lot of weird diphthong vowel variation in Philly, Delco and South Jersey. Even Claymont, Delaware has a variation of it.
I live in SC now and I met someone who was from back home, I immediately asked her Rhawnhurst or Mayfair. It was Mayfair. 🤣🤣 there’s a west Philly accent, a CC accent, a NE Philly accent, a N Philly accent, a S Philly accent…all the neighborhoods have variations on the same accent.
Philly has at least a couple of main accents, one of them is very similar to the greater Baltimore accent (South Jersey as well). "We wenta Hammerjacks an saw KIX. Den we headed downy eushin". Lol (down to the ocean)
@@mikewillett5076 There are two Philly accents/dialects. One is used by white people and the other by black people and they're pretty different. The white Philly accent is nothing like the white Baltimore accent. South Jersey is a Philly accent. Maybe over on the bay it's more like Baltimore, IDK, I don't go there.
@@kilroy2517. I've heard several white people from Philly with definite separate accents, but if you live that way then you know better. I've played clips of South Jersey people talking and each person who heard it said they sounded like they're from Baltimore. It is a little different when you really listen, but some pronunciations are almost identical.
When i was working on a leak, I used voice to text to get my wife to “bring me towels, theres water everywhere” and it came up “bring me tails there’s wood or everywhere” and then I realized I have been afflicted by the philly accent epidemic here in Washington township
My wife is from Newark, DE; which is half way between Philly and Baltimore, and also happens to be of Jewish decent and has relatives from NYC and Florida and can slip into any one of these accents at the drop of a hat for purely comedic reasons. I happen to be from a suburb of Pittsburgh, and she can pull off the Yinzer accent better than I can at this point. I really think she should be a voice actor. She actually auditioned to be the new Afflack duck after they canned Gilbert Godfried.
@@paullayfield If she isn't from Philly she doesn't sound like Philly. she likely sounds like she's from outside of Philly or she does a ridiculous south Philly exaggeration.
@@healmyroots the girl in the video worked for channel 6 so she's probably from outside Philly. I doubt any of the news people actually live in the city especially when they announce how many murders there are every single day
Yep. Literally every major university across the world with linguistic faculty provides studies on this US dialect. Proud muricans, you made my day again. Thank you!
i just wanna know how this happens. different languages are understandable, but it’s so interesting seeing a language be twisted and contorted in different areas, despite being 1 language
I imagine anywhere where there are masses of people whose mother tongue is NOT english, all trying to speak english, you get unique accents. Then all these interesting people coalesce and try to adapt to one another, likely the more prominent aspects will stick out.
@@ladell5101 while Philadelphia was the capital from 1780-1790, the first US Capital was actually York, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was the capital while Washington D.C. was being built. i looked it up to make sure you weren’t spreading misinformation. unfortunately you are, please stop.
Thats funny because when i was don south and told people I was from NJ, they would co unter with, yeah, and I'm from new york. Meaning thy have no clue tht half the state has Philly dialect and half has NY dialect.
Well, it's about time!!! I'm a born and bred Philadelphian. This is the first time I've heard someone accurately report that Philly accents change depending on the generation and the neighborhood you're from. That's sooooooo true. There is not just one Philadelphia accent. It's the accents from Northeast Philly and South Philly that are most talked about, famed and mocked.
bruh im from northeast Philadelphia but i speak more like someone from north or west philly. and most people that i know either have a neutral accent or a north philly one. it wasnt even until freshman year of high school that i realized that ugly ass south philly accent existed 💀. at first i thought i was weird, but now i can barely tolerate it when i go down to south philly
I grew up in south jersey 10 min from Delaware memorial bridge & 10 min from Commodore Barry Bridge. When I moved to Philly is when I became aware that I had a certain accent but I can't hear it. Most of us in the Delaware valley don't know we have one lol except for those of us who say "wooder" lol
Wish they’d attended to the audio quality for the critical segment. It was muddy and edited too snappily. I listened 3 times to try and hear what point I was supposed to be picking up.
I read one time that the accent is from a mix of Scottish and English accents getting mashed together. My maternal grandmother had such a thick Scottish accent that I could barley understand her my whole life. My whole family on my mothers side ( Scottish/ Irish) is from south West Philly and until I got older never really noticed it. Me and my three siblings, out of thirty eight cousins , are the only four that grew up outside of the city and none of us has the "Philly Twang".
PS: I didn't mean to denigrate anyone by this I think that the Philly twang is actually pretty neat. I also can immediately tell when I meet someone that that i never met before that they are from Philly and wheni ask them what part of Philly they grew up in they are usually surprised that I could tell what city they grew up in.
Generation's right. I grew up in the burbs outside Philly and my Pop-Pop grew up in the city and he'd say days of the week with "dee" at the end and I always found that funny.
Yes and the reason it is the most studied is because he recorded people every year for several decades. So even people who don't care about the delaware valley specifically can use it to study patterns of language change over time. It's a world resource that one person decided to create. Long term data gathering projects like this are rare, largely due to the requirement of academics to be constantly publishing things. It takes commitment, foresight and the support of a university to allow it to develop.
street = shtreet construction = conshtruction down = deeown on = ooahn Certain Action News reporters pronounce "str" as "shtr" and it's like nails on a chalkboard. Walter Perez, Jeff Chirico, Bob Brooks are some who do this.
Dude wtf I started the tiger woods hit da ball up inna air downair inta da wooder. Lol that literally came from my brain one day I say it all the time to describe the accent. Somebody must’ve overheard me saying it at a bar...
I’m mad confused on that. I lived in SW philly all my life but I never heard anyone speak like this except from the whites that go to my school in upper Darby.
The first time I went down south i was in a diner and asked for some " wooder" she later asked if i was from PA I was like , wow is she psychic? how did she know that? I was born in Philly lived in Delco all family Philly transplants had NO idea we spoke different
Less get sum wourder ice at Rituh's next Tyoosdee. When I was little I thought that people developed a Philly accent from smoking too much, cause everyone in Philly smokes.
My dad moved to Connecticut and ordered a glass of woodur. The bartender said we don't serve that thinking it was a local beer or something and my dad is like what you mean you don't serve woodur!? Lol almost got into a fight over water
Wooder is not a philly we say it wader (wa-der) it’s kind of difficult explain but it’s much different in Philadelphia when you hear from north Philly than south.
If your born and raised in philly then you will say wooder for water. It doesn’t matter what part of Philadelphia you are raised in either. We Philadelphians say wooder and it’s our accent only known to us Philadelphians . Just like towel is tale hahahah and water ice is wooder ice and lighting bugs are lite-nin bug. The best is when we say chocolate we say chock lit lol. I’m born and raised and unfortunately speak Philadelphian with accuracy lol.
@@poisonivy208 Fox Chase, Philly born & raised. I say wooder. I refuse to ssy iggles. It's EAGLES. ACME not acame. But I do say jeeateyet. nojue. Skukill. Hoagie, not a sub. donashore. all classic. proud to be from philly....
I have this accent, born in Port Richmond and raised in NJ: I've been mistaken as Australian a few times thanks to the weird "o" vowel and mary/marry/merry split, two features Philadelphia and Australian English share.
I’m from northeast and jawn and bad jawn are two different things? Jawn means object and bad jawn means attractive female? Don’t forget this because it will be very awkward saying the wrong thing
can’t believe “youse” wasn’t included for when you’re speaking to a group of ppl. we also pronounce “o” like “a”. i didn’t notice it until i hung out with ppl who weren’t from this area. 😂 examples: orange ➡️ ar-ange horror ➡️ har-rar
Is this really a thing? I grew up across the Delaware from Philly and I don't recall anybody ever saying "wudder" (though that was a long time ago and I wasn't really paying attention to these things back then).
the way she said beautifl lmao what part of philly she from???? gotta be northest roxbough, fishtown maybe? cause I'm from the hood we dont say it like that lol
So So odd, because my Alberta Dad always said "Fry-dee" and Ive just been watching a program ostensibly set in Philly, and the "donchas" and all just remind me of Alberta/Idaho
@@greggsmith8936 Southeastern Pa! I miss hearing the Sask accent! I was in Stoon for a week, and hearing the farm reports on the radio was a real hoot! LOL
I feel so weird about this, lol. I grew up in and around Philly for my entire life, but my accent doesn't resemble it at all. I talk more like I'm from New York, I don't even say wooder. Idk why, it freaks me out man.
I was born and raised in Philly and I just moved to the suburbs and everyone at school makes fun of me for my accent lol they say I say my A’s weird and they also never heard anyone say wooder 😂
What suburbs> harrisburg> because I am from the suburbs in jersey and we say wooder, although some of the teachers here have the nerve to try and tell our children it is pronounced a different way. Just goes to show you how deep the left wing indoctrination has gone. If your white you need to be ashamed of yourself, and so on.
At age 19 I moved from outside Philly to NYC to attend F.I.T.. I'll never forget my surprise when a heavily accented Classmate, a New Yorker from Long Island, asked me with an incredulous tone, "WHERE are YOUSE from?". I immediately responded with the same question. Needless to say I ran out & got an Elocution Coach right away and slowly neutralized ANY accent. When I go back to Philadelphia to visit Family, I can't believe I ever sounded like that!
I lost much of my accent when I moved out west Funny thing when i wrnt for a ratio announcers job , thry liked it. I sounded very NPR. After six months people thought I was from San Francisco. Most of my accent was gone.
