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akennelley t1_j9v0103 wrote

That's it? One question?

What about "Crick" and "creek"?

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xscumfucx t1_j9v1u5b wrote

Which do you say? I say “crick”.

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akennelley t1_j9v3ywu wrote

It depends!

I say Beech Crick, Pine Creek, and "The Crick Road"

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xscumfucx t1_j9v9s6g wrote

I just realized I do say “creek” when referring to one by its full name like “Swamp Creek”. It’s very rare that I need to use the full name though (+ calling it that just sounds weird to me) since anyone that knows me irl knows what I’m referring to when I say “the crick” because they all know where I grew up, aka next to “the crick”.

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DelcoInDaHouse t1_j9vk2hb wrote

I think it is relative to the crick you grew up near. If you would go down the street to the crick you would never call it a creek. You drive across the state and you pull up to a creek, well then it’s a creek.

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Ghstfce t1_j9va8cg wrote

"water" and "wudder"

"crayon" and "crown"

"wash" and "warsh"

"high school" and "huy school"

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wd2mh wrote

I can hear my grandfather saying these words. He's been dead almost 5 years now. Thanks for the memories. <3

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Ghstfce t1_j9wd7hn wrote

Sure thing. Did he also say "Iggles"?

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wf1z5 wrote

I don't know. He was from Southwestern PA so he'd be more likely to say Stillers. ;)

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reinventme321 t1_j9vtba5 wrote

Warsh +1

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wd880 wrote

What's interesting with warsh is that I have a friend, born and raised in Washington DC & suburbs, who says warsh. I'd love to see a map of the USA divided into "how to say wash" regions.

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SnooRevelations9889 t1_j9y7l87 wrote

>"crayon"

My wife, who grew up out of state, taught my kids to say “cray-on” — and then the wait staff at the diner couldn't understood what they were asking for.

She also taught the kids that "donkey" doesn't right with "monkey."

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gj13us t1_j9v3oun wrote

Do you want the zip code where we live now or the zip code where we grew up and learned to talk?

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pretty_hooligan OP t1_j9v9y0o wrote

preferably the area where you grew up and learned your dialect

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szyzk t1_j9vjpz6 wrote

Waitaminute... How else would one pronounce "cot" and "caught"?

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nardlz t1_j9w73vt wrote

cot is still cot, but caught is cawt

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Rcmacc t1_j9z8kjp wrote

It applies to other words / names too

“john” vs “jawn”

“Don” vs “Dawn”

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nardlz t1_j9zuha6 wrote

water and wawter is the one kids at school will fight over!

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szyzk t1_j9wgjgn wrote

I'm assuming this is an eastern PA thing?

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Yankiwi17273 t1_j9wx2k7 wrote

I think I remember learning that the “cot-caught merger” (when they sound the same) is actually the younger pronunciation, and said merger is more popular the further west in the country you go, and the younger the speaker.

That said, I say those two words differently and I am young too.

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szyzk t1_j9wzx9y wrote

I'm going to start grilling my old college friends who are scattered around PA, my Lehigh Valley pals, and my family in the Harrisburg area about this. I can't say that I've heard any of them come close to approaching the New England-ish "aw" sound, and I've certainly never heard it here in western PA.

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Yankiwi17273 t1_j9x1tqh wrote

I mean, I don’t say it like a Bostonian would say “cwawfee”.

But for me, cot rhymes with hot, and the vowel in caught is like “law”. Just like “law” and “hot” have different vowel sounds for me, so do “caught” and “cot”.

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nardlz t1_j9wo8mu wrote

Not sure but I think so. I thought it was a NJ or NY thing

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wdlbv wrote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger the top audio file.

Cot sounds more letter A like, more nasal, while caught sounds more like ought. A lot more O like.

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szyzk t1_j9wf4v6 wrote

I'll have to pay better attention because I don't know that I've heard that here in PA. It sounds just like a New England accent to me, or someone trying to sound like they're doing a NE accent.

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thehoagieboy t1_j9w0g87 wrote

Wait until he finds out that none of merry, Mary, and marry rhyme on the east side of PA.

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universe_point t1_j9w8kor wrote

I have a merry/Mary/marry merger and I’m from SE PA… I understand I am an outlier in that regard though

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wday1 wrote

What do they sound like in the East?

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scrimshandy t1_j9wduwz wrote

I’m from the east, and they all sound different. Mary rhymes with Carrie, Marry rhymes with carry, and merry rhymes with ferry.

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wfame wrote

....Carrie & carry sound alike, and ferry rhymes with all of them. I'm still not sure how they sound different. Can you describe the actual sounds?

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thehoagieboy t1_j9wjanm wrote

I'm not sure if this helps, but:

Mary–merry distinction:[55] Hence merry is [mɛɹɪ], but Mary is [mɛəɹɪ]. Mary also has an opener variant of [ɛ] than merry. Marry is pronounced as /æ/, which is distinct from the vowels of both Mary and merry.[55]

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scrimshandy t1_j9wjc7y wrote

…right, the accent probably transfers to other sounds/words as well. Here’s a c&p from the Wiki Page:

“Mary has the a sound of mare, marry has the "short a" sound of mat, and merry has the "short e" sound of met.”

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Horrendous__Kablooie t1_j9vxhpn wrote

Me and my wife almost fot over this question.

The difference is barely noticeable.

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wdn4s wrote

I fought with my dad over pop vs soda.

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SneedyK t1_j9y120l wrote

I’m in the backseat drinking my soda pop wondering why you both hate me, can’t we all just get along?

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mtbalshurt t1_j9vu3ro wrote

Submitted, good luck on your assignment :)

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wcxl4 wrote

Ah, the cot-caught merger. Good times, good times.

My accent is extra fun because I grew up in South-Central PA but with recent transplants from the Pittsburgh area. So I've got, primarily, a SC PA accent/dialect (soda not pop), missing a few SC PA words/phrases (I never learned "all" for "all gone"), and I've got a few words/phrases of Pittsburgheze in my vocabulary (redd up, sweeper, gum bands, slippy, the need + past participle thing ("the grass needs cut"), and, of course, kibossy) because my parents taught me how to talk. But I can understand Pittsburgheze pretty well (growing up visiting my relatives out there).

Oh, and then I moved further South so I say y'all. So that's even more fun!

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andrewhy t1_j9xhk91 wrote

Fun fact: The soda/pop divide is pretty much right down the center of PA.

I grew up in Clearfield country where it was "pop", then later moved 90 minutes east to Northumberland county where is was "soda".

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aust_b t1_j9x5c9b wrote

You better provide us with a follow up dataset/map overlay after this or I will be extremely upset.

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pretty_hooligan OP t1_j9ygj22 wrote

absolutely! still keeping the survey open for a few days though (or at least until responses die down)

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worstatit t1_j9yfvdh wrote

They are pronounced the same.

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theSG-17 t1_j9z8mvm wrote

You'll share the map here when you are done?

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pretty_hooligan OP t1_j9zcrg0 wrote

yea! i’m still giving it time before i map any results though

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Guerlaingal t1_ja0necs wrote

Does "home town" mean where in PA I was born, or where I have lived for 40 years? Different ends of the state.

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