Coal Region Dictionary
"Heyna, youz guys speak fun'ee"
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Join us for a short study of the "Linguistic Geography of Pennsylvania" The term "HeyNAbonics" has often been used to describe it 🤣😂 Our site calls this dialect "NEPA as a 2nd Language" 😂🤣
This site pays homage & respect to our coal region roots. Our site intends to capture this UNIQUE dialect online BEFORE it fades away to history.
Every part of Pennsylvania has such a unique dialect to appreciate.
BUT the MOST intriguing dialect can be found in the Anthracite coal regions of Northeast Pennsylvania.
Coal Region words are literally chopped in half!
German words are smashed with Polish and Salvic words
Dutch words are put into a blender with Russian words.
The dialect changes by counties!
Have you ever heard the Skook dialect? 😂
To outsiders & untrained ears: the dialect may sound like a form of "PA Dutch" or "Amish" but that is sooooo disrespectful and over simplifying the language.
❤️ ❤️ I personally miss the coal region dialect, food, and people dearly. ❤️ ❤️
30 years after moving away from the coal region, I routinely speak coal region dialect and these West Coasters look completely bafoozled and baffled. 😂🤣😂
For many of us living outside the coal region: the only way to enjoy the coal region nostalgic dialect is by watching WNEP news. Concepts of time, food, people, and coal region voices are often more appreciated when you no longer can be close to it.
Let's take a short trip on the coal region linguistic train.
START: look at the image below of PA dialects MAP
Its a Linguistic Phenomenon
Its a Linguistic Phenomenon
BEFORE WE BEGIN.
This 1924 book started my appreciation of the coal region dialect.
This book calls the coal region a "language island" in the USA.
Few people enjoy just how unique and special the coal region is until reading all 234 pages.......
The coal region is literally sandwiched - what can only be described as a beautiful "dialect hoagie" 😂🤣
No WHERE ON PLANET EARTH will you hear this DIALECT!!!
Coal Region dialect literally does NOT exist except in four counties.
This 234 page book is free on internet archive.
All my research notes can be found at the end of this page.
Check out our shortened coal region dictionary too.
Suggest corrections or additions.
its OK for us to be wrong.
Enjoy this journey before its gone forever.
How Did the Anthracite Region Dialect Develop?
Geographical extent: There are 14 counties generally considered part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. However only a small select few counties have large coal deposits and speak the coal region dialect we are discussing here (as seen in the image on the right).
The counties of NEPA include:
Bradford
Carbon
Columbia
Lackawanna
Luzerne
Monroe
Montour
Northumberland
Pike
Schuylkill
Sullivan
Susquehanna
Wayne
Wyoming.
For the purpose of this analysis: we will focus on the unique coal region dialects primarily spoken in Luzerne County, Lackawanna, Carbon, and Schuylkill Counties. You will hear this dialect in parts of other counties too.
Urban centers: Places include Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, & Hazleton.
Coal Region Dialect Explained: Northern coal region dialect is complicated to explain (even by the people who were raised or still live there). 😂🤣
Tracing the dialect is actually pretty complex . It was not a single nationality that dominated how this dialect came to be. Additionally to this day, the coal region dialect keeps evolving and changing.
Professional linguistics will often describe the coal region dialect as being heavily influenced by 17th century upstate New Yorker immigrants who moved into the coal region.
This website perceives this as too narrow a view.
To say one dominant nationality helped evolve the coal region dialect is to small a window of time.
COAL REGION DIALECT SHORT SUMMARY:
Literally every coal region's economic boom cycle saw a different influx of people - bringing with them, their own dialect into the coal region.
Every new group impacted the way coal region people spoke.
If you listen closely to coal region speech patterns today, you can actually hear more changes to coal region dialect since at least the early to mid 2000s!!!!!!
Folks that study linguistics will often describe the coal region dialect as having primary and secondary influences.
The initial, primary influence on coal region dialect occurred when there was a late mix of Eastern Pennsylvania (mostly German) immigrants into the coal region.
The secondary dialect influence started when some of the original immigrants started mixing with the newly arrived immigrants from upstate NY.
BUT WAIT THERES MORE!!! 😂🤣
Then you have a 3rd immigrant wave which were primarily Slavic Immigrants. The large Slavic language superstrata further changed and actually enhanced the coal region dialect - distinctly changing how certain letters are emphasized (as shown below).
Then you start to mix in Lehigh Valley, Berk's County, & PA Dutch immigrants AS WELL AS the Pocono Mountains with the additional heavy Dutch influence (ie. Hudson Valley Dialect) and YOU HAVE THE WILDEST DIALECT IN NORTH AMERICA!!!
AMAZINGLY (& proudly) The coal region dialect carries on today - in fact it is changing once again.
Today the coal region dialect is evolving yet again at a relatively fast pace (in this writer's opinion).
Many New Yorkers, Jersey, and Philly people are moving out of the city and into the PA Coal Region.
Some folks who study speech patterns (myself included) have noticed the changing coal region dialect from a distance.
It is a fascinating linguistics case study for fans of language and speech - especially when you grew up in the 70s and 80s in the coal regions, knowing how words and sayings were delivered as compared to modern times.
🤣😂"Heyna, what bout da skook dialect?"🤣😂
Schuylkill County has a whole different dialect situation going on.
It's often described as the "skook dialect"
This dialect originally was more, heavily influenced by the Germanized dialect of immigrants from the Lehigh Valley.
This Lehigh Valley dialect is covered in better detail below with some pronounciation examples.
The Skook Dialect dialect was further influenced by the Scranton-Wilkes Barre dialect patterns.
"Be Proud of Your Dialect"
LET'S DIVE DEEPER:
The coal region is literally sandwiched - what can only be described as a beautiful "dialect hoagie" 😂🤣
No WHERE ON PLANET EARTH will you hear this DIALECT!!!
Coal Region dialect literally does NOT exist. ANYWHERE ELSE
To the south is Lehigh Valley, with the German and Philly influences on our coal region dialect.
To the north is Upstate NY, and those Hudson Valley and Dutch Influences on our coal region dialect.
Historically, the earliest influence on Northeast Pennsylvania coal region language was those fun loving Dutch and Swedish settlers in the mid-17th century.
THEN... from the late-17th to the mid-18th century, some of those original fun loving settlers were pushed westward by spicy Quakers and other religious minorities who settled into NEPA when William Penn's proprietary colony of Pennsylvania started giving away free land.
Before the immigration port was Ellis Island (New York), it was in Philadelphia. Therefore large groups of people entered through the Philly port - many found zero land open unless they migrated to the coal region.
PERSONAL FACT: My coal region ancestors actually arrived into Philly in the mid 1680s.
My ancestors slowly migrated into the coal region during one of those early coal region economic boom cycles.
Originally my family immigrated into the colonies from just outside Basel, Switzerland - near a town named after my last name.
It was a SUPER spicy journey for ancestor "Galen"
It took him 3+ months to travel initially by horse and eventually by ship back into Philly.
He captured some of this journey in his journal.
My ancestors then settled originally in the Lehigh Valley before coming into the coal region.
Our family still has our original Land Charter when Gov. William Penn granted and authorized land grants in the Lehigh Valley for any settler willing to help contain indigenous attacks on the "PA frontier".
Many coal region families have a similar story.
Today, my kids are 14th generation American.
When coal was discovered in Northeast Pennsylvania in the mid 17th century - the arrival of many immigrants took the region by storm.
When coal was discovered everything seem to change overnight for coal region dialects and NEPA language.
GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: Pennsylvania Germans (including many early Swiss, Swedes, etc) helped start the initial coal region dialect we appreciate to this day.
Further dialect development and evolution begins when...... Eventually, as coal became the dominant economic driver, you start seeing a large mix of European and Dutch arrivals coming from upstate Connecticut and upstate New York.
These folks brought with them some "Yankee" dialect that helped develop the speech patterns that still exist to this day.
Eventually more immigrants from Southern Pennsylvania (no longer just Germans but Slavics, Polish, etc) began their migrant journey into Northeast Pennsylvania.
This is also where you start to hear some of those PA Dutch and Quaker influences with the blending of that wicked fun Pennsylvania Midland dialect.
More recently in the current century: there appears to be more linguistic input from the current metropolitan Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey folks moving into the coal region.
PRONOUNCIATION GUIDE: Interestingly, there are some significant parallels with New York City pronunciations: 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).
PRONOUNCIATION GUIDE: 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 more consistently and is even recognized as a local shibboleth (De Camp 1940).
WRAPPING THIS UP: It is possible that a majority of the coal region dialect we hear today is due to Eastern European immigration at the turn of the century. But you also have these heavy Slavic dialect influences too.
PRONOUNCIATION GUIDE: Try to Listen closely as you hear the mergers of O and AW in cot and caught when coal region people speak.
INTERESTINGLY: Herold's study in 1990 determined that the coal region dialect was developed independent of western PA influences.
Have you ever noticed how people from Pittsburgh pronounce words completely different than NEPA? We give some examples of this in our coal region dictionary.
In other words, the coal region dialect was primarily developed by the people choosing to live, stay, and intermix their families in the coal region, keeping the dialect alive and independent from western pennsylvania to the Lehigh Valley...
FINAL THOUGHTS
Language, dialects, and words are constantly evolving.
As new folks move into NEPA, the dialect may change more.
As dialects evolve, in 50-100+ years, the coal region dialect may change again.
How Did the Poconos Dialect Develop? Hudson River Dialect
Geographical extent: You may hear this dialect spoken in parts of Pike, Monroe, and Carbon counties. You may also hear Poconos dialect spoken in Wayne and northeastern Northampton counties.
Urban centers: local center include areas like Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg. This dialect is also heard along the Hudson River in Southeastern New York State, along upstate New York including the Albany areas.
Where did this dialect develop: Poconos dialect is heavily influenced by the Dutch. That is why the dialect's birth can be originated from the Hudson Valley Dutch lexical base, with further dvelopment of the dialect when dutch settlers immigrated to the Poconos of Pennsylvania.
More Poconos Dialect Analysis: This dialect is 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 of German.
PERSONAL FACT: My son has never been to Pennsylvania but ODDLY speaks a form of Jersey Dutch. Part of the reason this website exists is to help me understand why my child can speak this dialect WITHOUT EVER HEARING IT. It is SURREAL to hear my son ask for "wah-ter" and "hoagies" using jersey dutch. He routinely stresses the letter "A" and "H" in conversations especially when "paaahking the cahr"
REQUEST: If any linguistic professors are reading this, please reach out to me to study this dialect phenomenen in my son.
In Modern Times: The Poconos have lost much of its distinctive lexicon such as file for dishcloth, and kees/kush as a cow 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 the west is not present here. The heavily Pennsylvania German-influenced dialect of the Lehigh Valley-Reading area forms a border to the south. And to the north there is a significant lexical (and probably phonological) break where the Upstate New York-influenced dialect begins.
How Did the Lehigh Valley - Berks County Dialect Develop?
Geographical extent: This dialect can include parts of Lehigh, Berks and Lebanon counties, as well as 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 at present it very well may, considering EastonÕs proximity to the Allentown-Bethlehem metropolitan area.
Urban Centers: Allentown-Bethlehem, Reading
The Lehigh Valley and Berks County Dialect: Linguists describe this as a midland dialect of the Eastern Pennsylvania type. It is heavily influenced by Pennsylvania German. There is some Philadelphia influence, but to a lesser degree than the Lower Susquehanna area.
German Influences: You can really hear the heavy influence from Pennsylvania German. Listen to the distinct short "o". I routinely catch myself saying, "Dooon't cha knoooow?" in conversations even with my coal region dialect.
The "au" suggests a close kinship with the Lower Susquehanna areas like 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 Lehigh Valley words: They include rain worm for earthworm, and Italian sandwich for submarine sandwich. soda or pop. hoagie or sub.
Listen to the Philadelphia influences: Many linguistics professionals seem to agree that this appears to increasing influencing the Lehigh Valley Dialect at present. Historically the dialect impact from Philadelphians moving to the Lehigh Valley is having a lesser impact on residents of the Lower Susquehanna areas. This may be attributed to migration from the Delaware Valley is primarily directed westward towards outer areas outside Lehigh Valley, rather than northward towards Allentown.
If we were only considering the Linguistic Atlas data: Schuylkill county "Skook Dialect" would certainly be included here. This dialect clearly shows the Germanisms and monophthongization characteristics of this area. But Herold's research (1990) shows the presence of the low back merger taking precedence.
In Summary: On this website, Schuylkill County is grouped in the anthracite region. Many lingusitic professionals and my former classmates would agree with this too. However it should be noted, many professional linguistic people would claim that the "skook dialect" is something of a transitional member. We call BULLSHIT on them.
Finally: It is likely that a cultural absorption of Easton and Philly residents into the Allentown-Bethlehem orbit has taken place and this lehigh Valley dialect will die off within 100 years (my opinion).
Bibliography
Primary Source:
Linguistics Evolution Publishing, Merchantville NJ.
Secondary Sources:
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 15:368-372.
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. 1-44.
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.
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