Philadelphia English or Delaware Valley English is a variety or
dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
of
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
native to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and extending throughout
the city's metropolitan area, including southeastern Pennsylvania,
South Jersey
South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...
, counties of northern
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
(especially
New Castle and
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
), and the north
Eastern Shore of Maryland
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula that Ma ...
. The dialect is also spoken in such cities as
Camden,
Wilmington,
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
,
Vineland,
Atlantic City, and
Dover
Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
. Philadelphia English is one of the best-studied varieties of English, as Philadelphia's
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
was the home institution of pioneering
sociolinguist William Labov
William David Labov ( ; December4, 1927December17, 2024) was an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has ...
. Philadelphia English shares certain features with
New York City English and
Midland American English. Philadelphia and
Baltimore accents fall under what Labov described as a single Mid-Atlantic dialect, encompassing the
Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
According to linguist
Barbara Johnstone, migration patterns and geography affected the dialect's development, which was influenced by immigrants from
Northern England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. Today, a
marked or "heavier" Philadelphia accent is most commonly found in
Irish-American
Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry.
Irish immigration to the United States
From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...
and
Italian-American
Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...
working-class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
neighborhoods, though the accent is found throughout the Delaware Valley in all socioeconomic levels.
History
By the twentieth century, the Philadelphia and
New York accent
The phonology, sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The accent (sociolinguistics), accent of the New York metropolitan area is one of the most recognizable in the United States, largely due to its p ...
s shared features not found elsewhere, including: a
high vowel, which helps to maintain a contrast between
words like ''cot'' and ''caught''; and a
phonemic split of the short ''a'' vowel, , causing ''gas'' and ''gap'' to have different vowels sounds. Philadelphia's short ''a'' split appears to be a simplified variant of New York City's split.
Unlike New York City English, most speakers of Philadelphia English have always used a
rhotic accent, meaning that the ''r'' sound is never "dropped".
Philadelphia accents from the late nineteenth century to the 1950s shared certain features of the regional accents of the
American South and
Midland: for example, in fronting , raising , and sometimes weakening .
Philadelphians began developing their own entirely unique phonological features, remaining similar-sounding to New York City's English. Some higher-educated Philadelphians born since the last quarter of the twentieth century have been showing
dialect levelling and more use of unmarked
Northern American English (
General American English) features. This demographic regularly replaces the traditional Philadelphia split with the more General American tensing of only before
nasal consonant
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majo ...
s; this probably began when its members attended
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...
.
As of today, "the most strongly supported generalization is that Philadelphia has moved away from its Southern heritage in favor of a Northern system, avoiding those forms that are most saliently associated with local phonology." In the city of Philadelphia proper, the dialect has evolved further, especially among younger residents, and the "White Philadelphian dialect" is now spoken by a numerical minority of all Philadelphians within the city of Philadelphia itself, though it remains strong throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan region.
Linguistic features
Pronunciation
Vowels
The vowels in Philadelphia speech have shown volatility across the last century, as Labov's research has identified changes affecting over half of the vowel phonemes.
* vowel: A feature unique to Middle Atlantic speakers (including Philadelphians and New Yorkers) and southern
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
ers is the raising and diphthongization of , as in , to or even higher . The raised variants often appear as diphthongs with a centering glide. As a result, Philadelphia is resistant to the
cot–caught merger. Labov's research suggests that this pattern of raising is essentially complete in Philadelphia and seems no longer to be an active change.
*
– split: Similarly, the single word "on" has the vowel of "dawn" and not the same vowel as "don." Labov et al. regard this phenomenon as occurring not only in the Mid-Atlantic region but also in all regions south of a geographic boundary that they identify as the "ON line," which is significant because it distinguishes most varieties of
Northern American English (in which ''on'' and ''Don'' are rhymes) from most varieties of
Midland and
Southern American English
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas ...
(in which ''on'' and ''dawn'' are rhymes).
* Southeastern vowel fronting: One of the features that Philadelphia shares with dialects of the whole Southeastern United States (but absent from most New York accents) is the fronting of a variety of vowels. This includes and ; the resulting allophones are around and , respectively.
Generally, greater degrees of fronting are heard when the vowels appear in "free" positions (i.e., without a following consonant) than in "checked" positions (i.e., with a following consonant). Fronting does not occur in the context of following
liquids
Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
leading to a significant difference between, e.g., ''goat'' and ''goal''. The fronting of and is well established in Philadelphia, though cross-generational data show that it remains an active change. Fronted nuclei in are well established in Philadelphia speech as in New York. More recent research has noted a tendency among the middle-aged and younger generation of Philadelphians to raise the vowel, resulting in . , the vowel in ''foot'', is sometimes fronted though not to the degree seen with and .
*
Short-''a'' split: As in
New York and
Baltimore accents, historical "short ''a''" has split into two phonemes: lax (as in ''bat'') and tense (as in ''bath''). Their distribution in Philadelphia along with Baltimore, however, is different from that of New York City. Generally, in the Philadelphia–Baltimore system, the vowel is
tensed (towards ) before the consonants , , , , and in a
closed syllable
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
(so, for example, ''bats'' and ''baths'' do not have the same vowel sound, being pronounced and , respectively), and in any words directly inflectionally derived from root words with this split. Therefore, ''pass'' and ''passing'' use the tense , but ''passage'' and ''passive'' use the lax . The lax and the tense reflexes of are separate phonemes in these dialects, though largely predictable using the aforementioned rules. There are exceptions, however; the three words ''bad'', ''mad'', and ''glad'' become tense, and irregular verbs ending in "-an" or "-am" remain lax.
�can also be found in closed syllables in words where a vowel was recently elided closing the syllable such as ''camera, family'', and ''catholic''. The words ''mad'' (tense) and ''sad'' (lax) do not rhyme in Philadelphia or Baltimore, but do for New York City and all other English dialects. (In the
Trenton area, an intermediate system is used, falling between the typical Mid-Atlantic and the New York City system.) Not all Philadelphians today have this feature and some are beginning to favor the more
General American
General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm), is the umbrella accent of American English used by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent. ...
tensing of short ''a'' only before
nasals (especially under the influence of youth trends and higher education); in fact, as a general rule, native Philadelphians consistently have that split system only if their own parents are native Philadelphians.
* ''Mary–marry–merry'' three-way distinction: As in New York accents and most native English accents outside North America, there is a three-way distinction between
''Mary'' ~, ''marry'' , and ''merry'' ~. However, in Philadelphia some older speakers have a merger (or close approximation) of and before (the
''furry''–''ferry'' merger), so that ''merry'' is merged instead with ''Murray'' (with both pronounced something like ). Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 54) report that about one third of Philadelphia speakers have this merger, one third have a near-merger, and one third keep the two distinct. Relatedly, as in New York, many words like ''orange'', ''Florida'', and ''horrible'' have before rather than the used in many other American dialects .
*
Canadian raising occurs for (as in ''price'') but not for (as in ''mouth''). Consequently, the diphthong in ''like'' may begin with a nucleus of mid or even higher position , which distinguishes it from the diphthong in ''line'' . Canadian raising in Philadelphia occurs before
voiceless consonants, and it is extended to occur before some
voiced consonants as well, including intervocalic voiced stops as in ''tiger'' and ''spider''. Fruehwald argues
that has actually undergone a
phonemic split in Philadelphia as a result of Canadian raising. The raising of is unusual as the innovators of this change are primarily male speakers while the other changes in progress are led primarily by females. The sociolinguistic evidence suggests this raising is a fairly recent addition to Philadelphia speech.
* , , and vowels: Traditional Philadelphia speech shows lowered and/or laxed variants of were common: . The recent sociolinguistic evidence indicates a reversal of this trend such that the vowel is now commonly raised and fronted. This raising is heard primarily before consonants (e.g., ''eat''). The Linguistic Atlas researchers recorded lax variants of near . As with , recent research suggests this trend is being reversed by raising and fronting of the vowel often to a position well beyond . This raising occurs before consonants (e.g., ''paid''); in word-final position (''pay''), remains lowered and lax. Both of these can lead to nonstandard phonemic incidence (see "
Phonemic incidence" section).
* Labov's research has indicated a tendency toward lowering of the lax vowels and . This pattern is not yet well established and is labeled by Labov as an "incipient" change.
* Many Philadelphians use a rather high, back, and perhaps even rounded vowel for as in ; something near . The so-called
horse–hoarse merger takes place, and the merged vowel is typically mid to high back; it can be as high as . As noted in
New York, these tendencies toward backing and raising of and may constitute a
chain shift
In historical linguistics, a chain shift is a set of sound changes in which the change in pronunciation of one speech sound (typically, a phoneme) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds. The sounds invo ...
. The evidence suggests the movement of began this shift, and this vowel is relatively stable today, while generational differences are heard in the shifting of .
* , as in may be more raised than in other dialects; sometimes it is as high as .
* , as in , may show raised and back variants. In some cases, the vowel is in the high, back corner of the vowel space near . This is reportedly a recent development and is one more common among male speakers.
Consonants
* Philadelphia forms the core of the one fully
rhotic major region of the traditional
American East Coast.
This area runs from Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey down to Delaware and northern Maryland, and remains fully ''r''-pronouncing today.
**Non-rhoticity (''R''-dropping) can be found in some areas of Philadelphia, however (presumably as a recent innovation after the nineteenth century) such as among working-class male speakers specifically from
South Philadelphia, especially those born in the first half of the twentieth century and of Italian, Jewish, or Irish Catholic descent.
On the other side of the socioeconomic spectrum, non-rhoticity in speakers from the
Philadelphia Main Line may be a result of wealthy families sending their children to expensive boarding schools in the United Kingdom up until the 1960s and thus acquiring a "
Transatlantic accent."
Non-rhoticity is most prevalent among black Philadelphians, who largely do not demonstrate the regional speech features of Philadelphia English;
instead, many black Philadelphians speak
African-American Vernacular English
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, voc ...
.
*Consonant changes, especially reductions and
lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...
s, are very common in informal conversational speech, so that:
**The sibilant is
palatalized to (as in ''she'') before . Thus, the word ''streets'' might be pronounced "shtreets" .
**
''L''-vocalization is quite pervasive in Philadelphia speech. Phonetically it may be realized as something like or a
velar or
labio-velar glide, or , or the consonant may be deleted altogether. Among Philadelphians, as in other dialects, vocalization occurs quite frequently in word-final and pre-consonantal contexts (e.g., ''mill'', ''milk''). In a more unusual development, vocalization may also occur inter-vocalically in Philadelphia. This tendency is more common when appears following low vowels bearing primary word stress (e.g., ''hollow''). This variable also shows some lexical conditioning, appearing, for example, with exceptionally high frequency in the pronunciation of the name of the city (Ash 1997). This, in part, leads to the stereotype of ''Philadelphia'' being pronounced as "Fluffya" or "Filelfia."
** As in other areas, the interdental fricatives and are often realized as stops, and or affricates and in Philadelphia speech. This variation appears to be a stable class-stratified feature with the non-fricative forms appearing more commonly in working-class speech.
** The
yew–hew merger can be found, as in New York City, in which words like ''human'' and ''huge'', which begin with an cluster, the is commonly deleted giving and .
**
Consonant cluster reductions, such as removing the "t" sound from consonant clusters, so that "mustard" sounds more like "mussard," or "soft" like "sawff."
Phonemic incidence
* ''On'' is traditionally pronounced , phonemically matching the South and Midland varieties of
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
(and unlike most New York accents), thus rhyming with ''dawn'' rather than ''don''. However, the Northern has also been reported.
* The word ''water'' is commonly pronounced (with the first syllable rhyming with the word ''put'', so that it sounds like "wooter" or "wooder"), rather than the more standard English . This is considered by many to be a
shibboleth of the Philadelphia dialect, even among young Philadelphians, though Labov has argued that it is an exaggerated stereotype and the more common pronunciation uses a raised rather than .
* Both long-''e'' and long-''a'' sounds may be shortened before . ''Eagle'' rhymes with ''giggle'' (as in "the
Iggles"); ''league'' rhymes with ''big''; ''vague'' and ''plague'' rhyme with ''peg'' (pronounced and , respectively). For some Philadelphians, ''colleague'' and ''fatigue'' also have (pronounced and , respectively). However, these are words learned later, so many speakers use the more standard American and .
* In words like ''gratitude'', ''beautiful'', ''attitude'', ''Baltimore'', and ''prostitute'', the ''i'' may be pronounced with the ''ee'' sound , as in ''bee''.
Grammar
"''Be done'' + noun phrase": The grammatical construction "''be done'' something" means roughly "''have/has finished'' something." For example, "I am done my homework" and "The dog is done dinner" are genuine sentences in this dialect and mean respectively "I have finished my homework" and "The dog has finished dinner." Another example, "Let's start after you're done all the coffee," means "Let's start after you've finished all the coffee." This is not exactly the same as the standard construction "''to be done with'' something" since "She is done the computer" can mean "She is done with the computer" only in one sense: "She has finished (building) the computer."
Lexicon
The
interjection
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curses (''da ...
''
yo'' originated in the Philadelphia dialect among
Italian-American
Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...
and
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
youths. The word is commonly used as a greeting or a way to get someone's attention.
Many Philadelphians are known to use the expression "youse" both as second person plural and (rarely) second person singular pronoun, much like the mostly Southern / Western expression "
y'all
''Y'all'' (pronounced ) is a contraction of '' you'' and ''all'', sometimes combined as ''you-all''. ''Y'all'' is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also ...
" or the
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
term "
yinz." "Youse" or "youse guys" is common in many
working-class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
Northeastern U.S. areas though it is often associated especially with Philadelphia. However, unlike in other Northeastern U.S. areas, the Philadelphian pronunciation of "youse" more often than not reflects
vowel reduction
In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Muscogee language), and which ar ...
and frequently yields and ("yiz"), rather than the stereotypical ("youse"). (ex: "Yiz want anything at the store?" "Yiz guys alright over there?").
Second person singular forms commonly are heard as and .
''Anymore'' is used as a
positive polarity item
In grammar and linguistics, a polarity item is a lexical item that is associated with affirmation or negation. An affirmation is a positive polarity item, abbreviated PPI or AFF. A negation is a negative polarity item, abbreviated NPI or NEG.
T ...
, e.g. "Joey's hoagies taste different anymore." This sense of ''anymore'' is not specific to the region but is well represented there.
A
sandwich
A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...
consisting of a long bread filled with lunch meat, cheese, and lettuce, onion and tomato, variously called a "sub" or "
submarine sandwich
A submarine sandwich, commonly known as a sub, is a type of American cold or hot sandwich made from a submarine roll (an elongated bread roll) that is split lengthwise and filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments.
Although "subma ...
" in other parts of the United States, is called a ''
hoagie
A submarine sandwich, commonly known as a sub, is a type of American cold or hot sandwich made from a submarine roll (an elongated bread roll) that is split lengthwise and filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments.
Although "subma ...
''. Olive oil, rather than mayonnaise, is used as a topping, and "hot" or "sweet" peppers are used for spice. The term 'hoagie' originated in Philadelphia.
A similar sandwich toasted in an oven or broiler is called a ''grinder''.
Small chocolate or multi-colored confections sprinkled on ice cream and cake icing, elsewhere called ''sprinkles,'' are known as ''
jimmies'' in the Philadelphia area, as well as in the Boston and Pittsburgh areas. (For Bostonians some older Philadelphians, only ''chocolate'' sprinkles are called ''jimmies.'')
Another distinctively Philadelphian word is ''
jawn''. According to Dan Nosowitz, ''jawn'' "is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people."
Notable native speakers
Lifelong speakers
The following well-known Philadelphians represent a sampling of those who have exhibited a Philadelphia accent:
*
Bill Adolph – "whose Philly accent was sharp enough to cut glass"
*
Eddie Alvarez – "His accent is about as Philly as it gets."
*
Chuck Barris
Charles Hirsch Barris (June 3, 1929 – March 21, 2017) was an American game show creator, producer, and host, author, and songwriter. A key crew member of several hugely successful game shows, he was the creator of ''The Dating Game'' (1965– ...
– "Barris' Philly accent"
*
Joe Bonsall – "The fast-talking Philly native who never lost his accent"
*
Bob Brady – "a thick Philly accent."
*
Sean Brady – "
Northeast Philly guy. Great accent."
*
Kellyanne Conway – of whom it was once observed that "she's such a hoagiemouth that it's impossible to even say her name without sounding like you, too, speak hoagiemouth"
*
Jim Cramer – "his pronounced Philly accent"
*
The Dead Milkmen – "meandering punk rock, and heavy Philly accents"
*
Tim Donaghy – "whose Philly accent remains ... thick"
*
Johnny Dougherty – "thick Philadelphia accent"
*
Joe Flacco – "where his thick Philly/
South Jersey
South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...
accent won't stick out like a sore thumb"
*
Tom Gola – "he did it all in Philadelphia, a hometown his nasal accent betrayed"
*
Big Daddy Graham – "Nasal, raspy, with an accent somewhere out of
Southwest Philly."
*
Theresa Grentz – "Talking with an accent thicker than the cheese on a Philly steak"
*
Joan Jett – "her distinct Philadelphia accent & swagger"
*
Joe Kerrigan – "with his curt Philadelphia accent"
*
Jim Lynam – "speaks in a fast, choppy tone with a distinct Philadelphia accent."
*
Herb Magee – "
Philadelphia University coach, whose accent, Irish mug, and hoops pedigree epitomize the hometown he's never left"
*
Bam Margera – "Not sure if you've heard the Philly patois? ... star Bam Margera, who is from nearby
West Chester, has it."
*
Chris Matthews – "I don't think I ever realized I had a Philadelphia accent"
*
Mike Mayock – "With his thick Philly accent"
*
Katie McGinty – "McGinty intones in a Philadelphia accent."
*
Patrick Joseph Murphy – "Murphy hasn't lost his thick Philly accent"
*
Josh Ostrander – "speaks with a Philly accent"
*
Jimmy Pop of
Bloodhound Gang – noted for singing in a "Philly accent."
*
Stephen Sweeney – "an accent that screams South Jersey"
*
Kurt Vile – "an angelic and –at this point infamous–
DelCo accent"
Lifelong non-rhotic South Philadelphia speakers
These speakers, primarily of Irish, Italian, or Jewish ethnicity, show the
non-rhotic
The distinction between rhoticity and non-rhoticity is one of the most prominent ways in which varieties of the English language are classified. In rhotic accents, the sound of the historical English rhotic consonant, , is preserved in all p ...
version of the Philadelphia accent local to
South Philadelphia:
*
Joey Bishop
Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007), known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a Talk ...
– "an accent as thick as a porterhouse steak"
*
David Brenner – "I have a mixture of the South and
West Philly ccents so people think I'm from New York."
*
Larry Fine
Louis Feinberg (October 4, 1902 – January 24, 1975), better known by his stage name Larry Fine, was an American actor, comedian and musician. He is best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges and was often called "The Middle St ...
– "mimic Fine's Philadelphia accent"
*
William Guarnere and
Edward "Babe" Heffron – "the old South Philly accent"
*
Dom Irrera – "Irrera's voice, a blue-collar, South Philly, old-neighborhood kind of yak"
*
Tony Luke Jr. – "a rasping South Philly accent that played well on television"
*
Joey Merlino – "his Philadelphia accent unmistakable"
*
Joey Vento – "his charming South Philly accent"
*
Tony Verna – "his South Philadelphia accent"
Marginal speakers
These speakers retain slight traces or elements of a rhotic Philadelphia accent:
*
Gloria Allred – "slightly nasal, Philadelphia-accented voice that can drip with sarcasm"
*
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. Known for various roles, including leading man characters, Bacon has received numerous accolades such as a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Bacon made his featu ...
and
Bruce Willis – "two native
hiladelphiasons, Bruce Willis (
Salem County, N.J.) and Kevin Bacon (
Center City Philadelphia), who, at least in interviews early in their career, before accent reduction training kicked in, let their diphthong freak flags fly."
*
Jill Biden – "She exaggerates her Philadelphia suburbs accent, which is already pretty strong."
*
Gia Carangi – "professional voice instructors ...
eretrying to neutralize her unsophisticated Philadelphia accent so she might get into acting"
*
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...
– "I speak with the accent from a certain area in
northeastern Philadelphia where I grew up."
*
Garrett "G. Love" Dutton – "a watered-down Philadelphian accent"
*
Tina Fey
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. Known for her comedic roles in sketch comedy, television and film, Fey has received List of awards and nominations received by Tina Fe ...
– "Pennsylvania-native Tina Fey showcased the accent"
*
Carli Lloyd – "And listen closely when she says 'pass' or 'me' — the
South Jersey
South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...
accent is charmingly unmistakable."
*
Rob McElhenney
Robert McElhenney III ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actor, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his role as Mac on the FX/ FXX comedy series '' It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–present), a show he created and co ...
– "I ... worked my way out of the accent for acting. ... My brother and sister have much stronger accents ... I still have a little bit of the accent"
*
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...
– "his Philly-flecked American English a vestige of his childhood years in suburban
Cheltenham
Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...
."
*
Bo Ryan – "still had a hint of a Philly accent ... even after years in
Midwest">heMidwest."
*
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...
– "still harbors a slight (and endearing) South Jersey accent"
*
Peter Vermes – "has deep roots in South Jersey, even if his many years in the
dwest have turned his accent into a lilt."
In media
Philadelphia English spoken by native speakers is seldom heard in films and fictional television shows. Films and television shows set in the Philadelphia region generally make the mistake of giving the characters a working-class
New York City dialect (specifically heard in Philadelphia-set films such as the ''
Rocky
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent film, independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky (film series), ''Rocky'' franchise and also star ...
'' series, ''
Invincible'', and ''
A History of Violence
''A History of Violence'' is a 2005 action thriller film directed by David Cronenberg and written by Josh Olson. It is an adaptation of the 1997 DC Comics, DC A History of Violence (comics), graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke. The fi ...
''). Contrary examples exist, such as the character Lynn Sear (played by
Toni Collette) in ''
The Sixth Sense'', who speaks with an accurate Philadelphia dialect. In ''
Sleepers'', the character Sean Nokes (played by Philadelphia native
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. Known for various roles, including leading man characters, Bacon has received numerous accolades such as a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Bacon made his featu ...
) speaks in an exaggerated Philadelphia accent. The use of geographically inaccurate dialects is also true in films and television programs set in
Atlantic City or any other region of
South Jersey
South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...
; the characters often use a supposed "
Joisey" dialect, when in reality that New York-influenced dialect for New Jersey natives is almost always exclusive to the
northern region of the state nearest to New York City, while most South Jersey residents actually speak with a Philadelphia accent.
The Philadelphia dialect is prominently featured in the 2021 television miniseries ''
Mare of Easttown'', set in
Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Delaware County, colloquially referred to as Delco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a population of 576,830 as of the 2020 census, it is the List of counties in Pennsylv ...
, adjacent to Philadelphia to the west and south. Reviews of the portrayal of the dialect by British lead actress
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Primarily known for her roles as headstrong and complicated women in independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including an Ac ...
and others have been mostly positive.
News media and reality TV
Philadelphia natives who work in media and entertainment often assimilate to the General American broadcast standard. Speakers with a noticeable local accent include
Jim Cramer, the host of
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
's ''
Mad Money'',
singer
Joe Bonsall,
political commentator
Chris Matthews,
Bam Margera,
and several others in the MTV ''
Jackass'' crew.
Venezuelan-American actress
Sonya Smith, who was born in Philadelphia, speaks with a Philadelphia accent in both English and
Venezuelan Spanish
Venezuelan Spanish ( or ) refers to the Spanish spoken in Venezuela.
Spanish was introduced in Venezuela by colonists. Most of them were from Galicia, Basque Country, Andalusia, or the Canary Islands. The last has been the most fundamental in ...
. Local television, political, and sports personalities in South Jersey and part of Central Jersey tend to be much more culturally associated with Philadelphia than New York City.
See also
*
List of Philadelphia placename etymologies
*
Western Pennsylvania English
*
Pennsylvania Dutch English
*
Midland American English
*
American English regional vocabulary
*
Jawn
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
* cf
Chapter 17
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
{{Philadelphia
American English
Culture of Philadelphia
Languages of Pennsylvania
Languages of New Jersey
Delaware culture
American slang
City colloquials
Delaware Valley
Working-class culture in Pennsylvania