The above map is historically skewed, in that boundaries follow the
most modern studies when possible, but where current information is not
available the boundaries must often reflect the 1939 LAMSAS data. At
certain points the modern and older studies clearly conflict:
Schuylkill County with its consistent monophthongization would have
been better classified with the
Lehigh Valley and Reading in 1939; today, its acceptance of the low
merger shows that it clearly belongs to the Anthracite region.
Geographical extent: Pike, Monroe, Carbon counties. Might also
include Wayne and northeastern Northampton counties.
Urban centers: local center perhaps at Stroudsburg-East
Stroudsburg; but original center on Hudson River in southeastern New
York State, along New York-Albany axis.
Summary: Hudson Valley/Dutch lexical base.
Part of a larger dialect type that encompasses southeastern New York
State and northern New Jersey, the Pocono Mountain area represents an
extension of Hudson Valley speech into Pennsylvania. The Hudson Valley
is linguistically distinctive because of the variety of Dutch called
"Jersey Dutch" or "Albany Dutch," spoken there into the twentieth
century. Jersey Dutch is a variety of the true Dutch language spoken in
Holland, as opposed to "Pennsylvania Dutch" which is actually a dialect
In modern times the region has lost much of its distinctive lexicon
such as file for dishcloth, and kees/kush as a
call, and in terms of pronunciation it seems to follow the Eastern
Pennsylvania pattern with no apparent idiosyncrasies. The low back
merger of O and AW
which is prevalent in the Anthracite Region of Scranton-Wilkes Barre to
west is not present here. The heavily Pennsylvania German-influenced
of the Lehigh Valley-Reading area forms a border to the south. And to
north there is a significant lexical (and probably phonological) break
the Upstate New York-influenced dialect begins.
Geographical extent: Luzerne and Schuylkill Counties, western
Lackawanna County--region of extensive anthracite coal mining.
Urban centers: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
Summary: Northern dialect, with a complicated linguistic
Upstate New York-type in origin, with later mixture of Eastern
(German) features, and more recently Slavic superstrata due to
Schuylkill county somewhat different situation: originally heavily
dialect of Lehigh Valley-type, now following Scranton-Wilkes Barre
The area's first settlers from Connecticut and Upstate New York brought
with them a "Yankee" dialect, but Pennsylvania Midland dialects began
blending with it soon after, as Pennsylvania Germans began immigrating
in numbers. More recently, there seems also to have been input from
metropolitan Philadelphia. Interestingly, there are some significant
parallels with New York City pronunciation: consistent reduction of
hard and soft TH: dis (this), tink (think);
full pronunciation of the G in final -ng, e.g. coming gup
(coming up), and use of the glottal stop for medial -tt-: bo'l
(bottle). The reduction of TH is common to many other urban dialects of
the north, but in the Scranton area it appears to be practiced much
consistently and is even recognized as a local shibboleth (De Camp
It is possible that such changes are due to Eastern European
immigration at the turn of the century. One particularly recent
characteristic of the Anthracite dialect attributed to Slavic
influence, is the merger of O and AW in cot and caught.
Herold's study (1990) determined that this was not an extension of the
Western Pennsylvania merger, but was rather an independant local
development among coal mining immigrants, which is now establishing
itself in the entire speech community.
Geographical extent: Central counties west of the Susquehanna:
Clinton, Centre, Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Cumberland, Franklin,
Huntingdon, Fulton, Bedford and Blair.
Urban centers: Uncertain.
Summary: Midland dialect of the Western Pennsylvania type.
Slightly higher percentage of Pennsylvania Germanisms than Upper Ohio
Valley, particularly in the southern counties.
In his Word Geography (1949), Kurath uses the term "Central
Pennsylvania" in table II (pp. 28-29) as a sub-region between "Western
Pennsylvania" and the "Great Valley." Judging by the distribution of
the terms he cites for this region, his notion of "Central
Pennsylvania" corresponds precisely
with mine; see especially (arm)load (fig. 73) and quarter till (fig.
But this same area was included within the territory of Eastern
Pennsylvania in KurathÕs LAMSAS map; and the evidence for that
inclusion is weak. Contemporary though less scrupulous research by
Thomas (1958), includes
Central PA within the Western Pennsylvania area; this conclusion is
easily justifiable, since both areas share the merger of O and
Carver (1989) shows that the area of heavy Pennsylvania German lexical
influence extends into Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Cumberland, and
counties, perhaps including portions of Huntingdon and Fulton. Yet is
possible to see the Pennsylvania German lexicon gradually dissipating
it extends westward, without any clear demarcations. One researcher has
a "Bedford" subarea, which would involve Blair, Bedford, western
Fulton, and perhaps also portions of Somerset counties, which lack a
concentration of Pennsylvania Germanisms and also lack many typically
Pennsylvania terms (Ashcom 1953)
Geographical extent: Lycoming, Sullivan, Columbia, Montour,
Union, Snyder and Northumberland.
Urban centers: Williamsport?
Summary: Midland dialect of the Eastern Pennsylvania type, but
with few apparent lexical or phonological idiosyncracies.
The dialect of this area is poorly known. Its boundaries are fairly
well well marked only because we know where the adjacent dialects end,
because the Upper Susquehanna has any definite characteristics that we
of. Either it is a linguistically conservative bastion within Eastern
or it has developed distinctive characteristics that simply have not
appeared in the data available to us.
It can be noted, though, that the counties of Union and Snyder are
something of a special case. They are quite strongly associated with
the rest of the Central Pennsylvania region lexically, yet Herold's
study (1990) found the low back vowels distinct in both of these
counties: a clear link to the
east. No doubt the Susquehanna river to their east forms an effective
to lexical diffusion; but it is unclear why the low back merger has not
Lehigh Valley-Berks County
Geographical extent: all of Lehigh, Berks and Lebanon counties,
the northern tip of Lancaster county, almost certainly also western
Northampton County and perhaps also the southeastern tip of Carbon
County. The 1939
data does not show Easton as belonging to this dialect area, although
present it very well may, considering EastonÕs proximity to the
Allentown-Bethlehem metropolitan area.
Urban Centers: Allentown-Bethlehem, Reading
Summary: Midland dialect of the Eastern Pennsylvania type,
heavily influenced by Pennsylvania German. Some Philadelphia influence,
but to a
lesser degree than the Lower Susquehanna area.
The heavy influence from Pennsylvania German and the distinction
between short o and au suggests a close kinship with the Lower
such as Harrisburg, Lancaster and York. But both the Lehigh Valley and
Reading in 1939 showed consistant monophthongization of the long vowels
o and a,
while the Lower Susquehanna cities followed the Philadelphia pattern of
diphthongal vowels. Characteristic words include rain worm for
Italian sandwich for submarine sandwich Philadelphia influence
to be increasing in this area at present, but historically to a lesser
degree than the Lower Susquehanna, probably because migration from the
Valley was primarily directed westward towards the frontier rather than
If we were only considering the Linguistic Atlas data, Schuylkill
county would certainly be included here, since it clearly shows the
and monophthongization characteristic of this area. But Herold's
showing the presence of the low back merger there takes precedence, and
Schuylkill County has accordingly been grouped in the anthracite
albeit as something of a transitional member. Conversely, the Easton
for the Linguistic Atlas agreed much more consistently with his Pocono
counterparts than those of the Lehigh Valley-Reading. But it is likely
a cultural absorption of Easton into the Allentown-Bethlehem orbit has
place since then.
Geographical extent: Dauphin, Adams and York counties, almost
of Lancaster except for the northernmost tip. Seems to extend slightly
Urban Centers: Harrisburg, Lancaster, York.
Summary: Midland dialect of the Eastern Pennsylvania type.
Heavily influenced by Pennsylvania German, stemming from settlement by
Palatinate Germans beginning in 18th century. Substantial Philadelphia
The urban centers of this region have not received much attention,
since linguistic interest has usually been diverted to the rural
Dutch speakers nearby, although certainly even the largest cities of
Lower Susquehanna have preserved a great many "Dutch" usages. This area
widely considered the heartland of Pennsylvania German culture, and as
has radiated many of its features out past its borders throughout all
Pennsylvania, into Northern Maryland, and even into Ohio and Midwest.
Otherwise the dialect is solidly Midland, and aside from Germanisms
bears a close affinity with the Philadelphia area, such as in its use
of diphthongal long O and long A. This affinity reflects the
historically important migration route from Philadelphia towards
Pittsburgh and the Midwest--in this context it is useful to note the
concentration of Philadelphia usages even further westward into the
Bedford area. (Ashcom 1953).
Geographical extent: Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware
and Chester counties, i.e. the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Outside
Pennsylvania extends into New Castle County in Delaware (Wilmington
area) and Southern half of New Jersey (including Trenton).
Urban Centers: Philadelphia
Summary: Midland dialect of the Eastern Pennsylvania type:
area for entire Midland. English Quaker settlement area, only slight
Pennsylvania German influence. Status as major port city has made it
receptive to trade words.
The Delaware Valley was the first part of Pennsylvania to be settled by
Europeans: first by Swedes, then Dutch, then finally English. Maritime
contact with English and American cities has been important
historically, but as
Philadelphia's population has grown and the port declined in
its "keystone" position on the Eastern seaboard has become the major
factor in dialect development. In particular, Labov (1991) has found
while Philadelphia's back vowels are following the Southern Shift, the
vowels are following the northern pattern.
Philadelphia and Baltimore are the only port cities on the Atlantic to
have preserved R in all positions. Even so, there is some
historic indication of sporadic R-dropping in Philadelphia, but it was
probably an upper-class phenomenon, never quite catching on among
Upper Ohio Valley/Western Pennsylvania
Geographical extent: Clearfield, Cambria and Somerset counties
westward to the state border. The northern border runs above Mercer and
Venango counties, and apparently continues through the middle of
Forest, Elk, and Cameron.
Outside Pennsylvania the dialect (with minor variations) extends into
Ohio; also Wheeling, the northern panhandle, and the Monongahela Valley
Urban Centers: Pittsburgh
Summary: Midland dialect of the Western Pennsylvania type.
Scotch-Irish substratum; as "Gateway to the West" shows affinities with
Midwestern, and Appalachian dialects.
Since the early part of this century, the Western Pennsylvania dialect
has been demarcated by its merger of short O and AU into an
so that cot and caught sound alike. Although recently this merger has
spreading into the northern and southern tiers of Pennsylvania.
The dialect's lexicon owes a great deal to the Scotch-Irish
frontiersmen who settled Western Pennsylvania and subsequently migrated
southward down the Appalachian chain, mixing with Southern settlers
from the Piedmont.
The common Scotch-Irish base explains why the Midland dialect of the
Pittsburgh area shares many similarities with the Southern dialects of
the Appalachians such as the distinctive second person plural pronoun y'uns.
Pennsylvania Germanisms have made their way into the dialect. Local to
is the flattening of the OW diphthong: aht (out).
Ashcom, B. B. 1953. Notes on the Language of the Bedford, Pennsylvania
Subarea. American Speech 28:241-255.
Carver, Craig M. 1989. American Regional Dialects: A Word Geography.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
De Camp, L. Sprague. 1940. Scranton Pronunciation. American Speech
Herold, Ruth. 1990. Mechanisms of merger: the implementation and
distribution of the low back merger in Eastern Pennsylvania. University
of Pennsylvania dissertation.
Kurath, Hans. 1949. A Word Geography of the Eastern United States. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kurath, Hans and Raven I. McDavid. 1961. The Pronunciation of English
in the Atlantic States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Labov, William. 1991. The Three Dialects of English. In Penny Eckert,
ed. New Ways of Analyzing Sound Change. New York:Academic Press, pp.
Labov, William, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg. 1997. A National Map
of the Regional Dialects of American English. Available on the homepage
of the Phonological Atlas of America.
Salvucci, Claudio R. 1997. A Dictionary of Pennsylvanianisms.
Southampton, PA:Evolution Publishing.
Thomas, Charles K. 1958. The Phonetics of American English. New York.