Looking to move to Pittsburgh? Then you need to learn the walk ant the talk of a Pittsburgh-er!
Pittsburgh Magazine writes:
It was during my annual Thanksgiving baking frenzy that the correct pronunciation of pecan suddenly became important to me. Did I make PEE-can fudge, PEE-cahn fudge or peh-CAHN fudge? Confused, I did what any person does when they don’t know the answer to a puzzle: I asked my Twitter followers. Huge mistake.
“I can tell you with 100% certainty that the correct pronunciation is PEE-can.”
“Please. Everyone knows it’s peh-CAHN.”
There wasn’t a clear-cut answer. In fact, some people even told me that the actual nut is called a “peh-CAHN,” but after you bake it in a pie, it mysteriously transforms into a “PEE-can.” Those people were unfollowed. I can’t tolerate that kind of ridiculousness in my life.
This is where linguistics professor Bert Vaux of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom comes in. While teaching at Harvard, Dr. Vaux, whose parents were from Pittsburgh, surveyed more than 10,000 people all over the country to get an understanding of regional dialects.
He sent me the data. From there, I took to Excel to pull out the responses from the greater Pittsburgh region. And from there, I really wished I had paid more attention in Excel class. If I knew how to use a pivot table, it would have saved me the pencil, paper and abacus route I took to extract this information … for you. You’re welcome.
“I can tell you with 100% certainty that the correct pronunciation is PEE-can.”
“Please. Everyone knows it’s peh-CAHN.”
There wasn’t a clear-cut answer. In fact, some people even told me that the actual nut is called a “peh-CAHN,” but after you bake it in a pie, it mysteriously transforms into a “PEE-can.” Those people were unfollowed. I can’t tolerate that kind of ridiculousness in my life.
This is where linguistics professor Bert Vaux of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom comes in. While teaching at Harvard, Dr. Vaux, whose parents were from Pittsburgh, surveyed more than 10,000 people all over the country to get an understanding of regional dialects.
He sent me the data. From there, I took to Excel to pull out the responses from the greater Pittsburgh region. And from there, I really wished I had paid more attention in Excel class. If I knew how to use a pivot table, it would have saved me the pencil, paper and abacus route I took to extract this information … for you. You’re welcome.
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