12 Things Pennsylvanians Say That Make the Rest of the Country Ask Them to Repeat It
Some words feel completely normal until you say them to someone from another state.
Pennsylvanians can get a blank stare, and which words earn it often depends on where in the state you grew up.
These are the local Pennsylvania sayings that leave outsiders puzzled.
1. Jawn
A “jawn” can be a person, place, thing or event.
Context tells you which.
If you look it up, Merriam-Webster labels “jawn” as chiefly Philadelphia slang.
This use began in the speech of Black Philadelphians and then spread to the wider Philadelphia dialect.
In the 2015 movie Creed, a character asks a sandwich maker for onions on a jawn, according to Atlas Obscura.
The word can even stand in for a theory.
2. Yinz
If you hear “yinz” in western Pennsylvania, the speaker usually means two or more of you.
Merriam-Webster dates the word’s first known use to 1810 and traces it to a contraction of “you ones.”
Carnegie Mellon linguist Barbara Johnstone said in 2013 that people started noticing the word around the 1950s.
WESA, Pittsburgh’s public radio station, reported in 2017 that clothing, merchandise and even license plates are branded with some variation of “yinz,” “n’at” or “jagoff.”
3. Kennywood Heads-Up
“Kennywood’s open” sounds like an amusement park update.
It isn’t.
The Pittsburgh public radio station WESA lists the phrase as regional jargon that means your zipper is down.
The Incline describes it as a subtle heads-up that’s less awkward than telling you your fly is down.
Kennywood is the West Mifflin amusement park that opened in 1899.
The site also found several people who remember the phrase back into the 1950s, but it couldn’t pin down where it started.
4. Heyna
Keystone Newsroom’s glossary calls “heyna” a dialogue tag.
It also calls it probably the most well-known regionalism in northeastern Pennsylvania.
You add it to the end of a question to mean “right?” or “correct?”
If you know “here nah,” the glossary compares “heyna” to that Pennsylvania Dutch English term.
5. Doplic
LancasterOnline’s 2021 list of Lancaster County words starts with “doplic,” which you might call yourself after tripping over a curb.
The paper traces “doplic” to the Pennsylvania Dutch adjective “dappich,” which means clumsy.
It also includes a variant, “doppy.”
Watch your step.
What Pennsylvania Dutch Means
The “Dutch” in “Pennsylvania Dutch” comes from the German word “Deutsch,” which means “German.”
You might expect the Netherlands, but Britannica says the Pennsylvania Germans emigrated from southern Germany and Switzerland.
If you picture only the Amish and Mennonites, the research service EBSCO says the name covers more than those groups.
6. Wooder Ice
The frozen treat is spelled “water ice,” but Visit Philadelphia’s guide has you pronounce it “wooder ice.”
You’re getting a dairy-free frozen treat made of only water, sugar and fruit.
Keystone Newsroom’s glossary agrees on the sound, describing “wooder” as “water” with a Philly accent.
Say it aloud.
7. Jeet
“Jeet?” is a whole question.
If you ask it, you’re asking whether the listener has eaten yet, a time-saving shortcut according to Keystone Newsroom’s glossary of Eastern Pennsylvania and Philly slang.
WTAJ, a central Pennsylvania television station, includes a longer spelling, “djeetyet.”
Folks tend to cram all the words in a sentence into one word.
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8. Buggy
In northeastern Pennsylvania, a "buggy" is the shopping cart at your local grocery store, Keystone Newsroom's glossary reports.
People in western Pennsylvania use the term, too.
Buggy or cart?
WTAJ says the name for what you put your groceries in can vary depending on where in Pennsylvania you grew up.
9. Coal Region Barbecue
You might think barbecue always means slow-roasted meat in a distinctive sauce.
Think again.
In northeastern Pennsylvania's anthracite coal region, Keystone Newsroom's glossary explains, it means something more like a sloppy joe, with tangy ground meat on a hamburger bun.
NorthcentralPA.com defines coal region barbecue as a sandwich of chopped meat, usually ground beef, that simmers in a sauce and sits on a burger bun.
What you'd call a sloppy joe in many regions is barbecue to residents of the coal region and Schuylkill County.
10. Jagoff
Handle "jagoff" carefully.
Call someone that in western Pennsylvania, and you've called them a jerk, according to Keystone Newsroom's glossary.
The example is the guy who always parks his car in the traffic lane.
If you check Pittsburgh Magazine's guide, you'll find a jagoff defined as a goof-off, a dope or an idiot.
WESA says that to "jag" is to tease or irritate, which makes a "jagoff" a person who is dumb or annoying.
"Jagoff" is also among the Pittsburgh words with Scots-Irish roots.
11. Redd Up
"Redd up" means tidy up, and Keystone Newsroom's glossary lists it under western Pennsylvania.
The example warns you to redd up your room before your grandparents get here.
Company's coming.
The verb "redd" dates to the 15th century in Merriam-Webster's entry, which defines it as to set in order and traces it to Middle English (Scots).
LancasterOnline's Lancaster County list includes "read up the room," a phrase it traces to a Scottish or Northern English dialect verb.
12. N'at
Pittsburgh Magazine's Pittsburghese guide describes "n'at" as a common term at the end of a sentence.
It means et cetera.
If you want the longer version, Keystone Newsroom's 2022 glossary gives "and all that" or "and whatnot."
Its example sentence has someone hanging out at home watching the Stillers, n'at.
You'll find "Stillers" in that glossary too, as the word for the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.
A Changing Philadelphia Accent
Before you go looking for "wooder" in Philadelphia, you should know what the Associated Press reported in 2015.
University of Pennsylvania researchers studied recordings of speakers born between 1888 and 1992.
They found the vowel in "wooder" moving toward "ah," so more Philadelphians were saying "water."
Younger speakers also used sharper "i" sounds in words like "fight" and "bike."
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