Pittsburghese?
This post is for the 54th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: The Family Language
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Some people call it Pittsburghese, but I think it’s more of a generalized Pennsylvania thing (or maybe just Western PA), but in any case, many of the older people in my family speak a bit different than the rest and/or use phrases that the typical person might not understand.
I thought some of the things that came out of of my grandparent’s mouths to be a bit silly. In many cases I just thought they weren’t enunciating (which is true to an extent), but others I thought were normal, at least until later on in life, when I would have to explain what a certain word or phrase meant.
Here is a sampling of a few sayings that you might hear from one of my grandparents (In some cases, I’ve added the meanings in parentheses where the context might not be enough.):
“How are you’inz?” (version of “ya’ll”; “all of you”)
“Be careful out there. It’s slippy on that ice.”
“I can’t get it straight. It’s so cattywompus.”
“I’m asceerd o’ heights.”
“Everything’s hunky-dory.” (okay)
“My hair is all greazy today.”
“You got ‘urself a nebby nose.” (you’re in everyone’s business; nosy)
And… one of my favorite foods as a kid: Dippy eggs. (eggs over-easy)
We heard cattywompous a lot too! I use catty-corner instead! Thanks for sharing!
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Amanda reply on October 24, 2008:
Actually, we use catty-corner too, but it’s to designate something that is on the diagonal. Cattywompus means all messed/mixed up or scrambled.
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