PA dialect question
 

Since moving here and not being from here I have noticed the the words "to be" are not in the PA vocabulary. They don't say "It needs to be fixed" They say "It needs fixed" and things like " It needs painted". I've even seen it worded that way in print ads. So why is that? I mean everybody says it that way around here. "Yinz" is grating enough but this makes me crazy.

Here it's "It needed fixin'" and "It needed paintin'"
Jim

I can't even find Valhalla, PA on Google Maps. But you must be near Yinzburg. I went school there and many of my college buddies were from Philly and NJ. We loved making fun of the Yinzers - pahndin' Ahrens dahntahn, shootin' gumbands, watchin' the Stillers, etc. Oh, the dialect is instantly recognizable anywhere in the world.

Here the proper phrase would be " its fixin to git painted"

i see that on occasion too. i think it is more widespread than just pa though.

valhalla PA is not on any map.

I'm thinking it may be because of the german/amish influence here. It's a translation thing.

Oooh. Sounds like a place I need to consider for retirement.

I've seen that a lot here on the board, mostly in the for sale section. I didn't know people actual *spoke* that way, I just assumed they were poor writers.

That is exactly what I did.

People generally write the way they speak.

Not me, I speak much worse!!

It's "colloquial" . I am a native Pennsylvanian, near the "Dutch" and Amish people. Every area of the world has it's own idiocyncracies. Our's are "funner" than some others. PA is a great place to live. You have to leave it for awhile, then come back, to appreciate this. I lived in California for awhile, another friend lived in Colorado. We are both glad to be back. That does not mean we don't want to "winter" in a warmer climate for 3 months. :)

Why don't you "red up yir room" and go to the Jynt Egle. Just stop worrying about how they sound ? I lived in Butler for a while and Greensburg before that.. drove me nuts (the ex wife is from there).
My sympathies my friend

same here!

I'm not "worried" about it. I just thought it was a good question to ask. man you lived all around me. butler is like 30 miles east of me. Now I'm gonna go get a sammich and a pop.

I moved here from Florida, so they look at me real strange when my "southern" comes out. I'm sure "ya'll" sounds just as funny to them.

The one that still gets to me after 13 years in the US: "Where you at?" instead of "Where are you"

Yinz are prolly right.

One of my friends mentioned that one too.

Oh I'm deep in Dutch country. My Jynt eggle has a hitching post on the side of the parking lot. By the way I love it here. The nicest people I have ever met.