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Centre Daily Times January 19 2005
Language lends a bit of spice to county life
"Is there a difference between a hillside and a sidehill? What is a skift of snow? A glib of ice? Why is a shy child called "strange"?
Do we still hear people talking about going "upta college" or adding "so it is" to declarative statements?
According to the PBS special "Do You Speak American?" that ran on WPSX TV two weeks ago, some local dialects are dying out as outsiders move in.
Regional dialects -- those spoken by larger language communities such as New England and the deep South -- on the other hand, are alive and well in spite of the influence of radio and television.
On his travels across the country journalist Robert MacNeil stopped in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but he might have made some interesting discoveries if he had stopped here.
We may think we don't have a dialect, but outsiders who come in are quick to say that we "talk funny" around here.
Take pronunciation. I say BelleFONTE, with the accent on the second syllable, putting me in a certain demographic. I also say LEEmont and PEEru, which at one time were the preferred pronunciations.
A linguist would be able to detect differences in the speech of Nittany Valley natives and those of Bald Eagle Valley, as well as in isolated pockets and hollows in between.
But this is not a scientific survey. My examples are based on my own observations over the years.
A man traveling from Nittany Valley to Brush Valley goes "the valley over." To get there he may have to go through the Narse (Narrows). In one valley, they pick "churries," and in another they pick cherries. Uncombed hair is "strubbly." The living room in some families is the front room.
Some two-syllable words, such as syrup and orange, might be pronounced as one syllable. And a one-syllable word such as film becomes "fil-um."
Words with an internal "h," such as backhoe, vehicle or forehead, retain or drop the "h" sound depending on local custom. Some people leave the "r" out of further. Near and wrong might add an a sound as in "a-near" and "a-wrong." Nouns function as verbs in "I doctor with him" and "I neighbor with her."
Do you go to a sale at the mall or to a sell? Do you pay the electric or the electric bill? Cross the crick or the creek?
How we talk to each other defines who we are and where we are from.
Losing these variations is like leaving the spice out of the stew. So it is.
Helen Bechdel can be reached at belle76@ pennswoods.net"
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