Saying Pee Ay for Pennsylvania

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Eric Zugner, calling from San Diego.

Hi, Eric. Welcome to the show.

Hello, Eric. What’s up?

So my question is about Pennsylvania vernacular.

I’ve lived in a few different cities across the country, including Corpus Christi TX, Syracuse NY, Albany NY, Pittsburgh PA, and San Diego CA.

Why do people from Pennsylvania insist on adding the abbreviation of their state at the end of each time they reference a city?

In all of these other places I’ve lived, no one has ever done that.

But in Pennsylvania, people feel required to say that to each other, and they all do, even if they’re speaking to other natives.

I’ve looked up explanations online, and none have been satisfactory.

So I’m curious what your opinion on that is.

Oh, what explanations have you seen?

I have heard people abbreviate it because the name of the state is so long.

But there are other states that are equally long in syllable count, and those states don’t do it.

The other thing that I’ve heard is that there are so many cities that are close to the border, you want to clarify that you’re actually talking about Pennsylvania.

And I don’t buy that answer either because there’s other states that have cities near the border.

And they don’t say that.

Boy, that’s really interesting.

Yeah, there are 13 states.

There are 12 other states besides Pennsylvania that have four syllables.

So that doesn’t really seem to fit.

And it does seem like this thing that if you’re from Pennsylvania, you know this, just like you know how to pronounce yingling beer or you know what a terrible towel is or a nittany lion, right?

That’s right.

Yeah, it’s almost like this little secret handshake.

You know, I’ve heard it in songs.

I’m thinking there’s a Huey Lewis song with Pittsburgh PA in it and James Brown.

Didn’t James Brown sing Pittsburgh PA in Living in America as well?

Yeah, that’s right.

So it’s been around for a while, but I don’t think we have a good explanation of why people say that.

It’s the same reason people do anything more than once and pass it on to person to person, right?

Yeah, maybe a point of pride.

Yeah, it becomes the thing the locals do to show that they’re locals, right?

Yeah.

This has been done, by the way, for at least 100 years.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, it’s pretty old.

They were finding newspapers back in the early 1900s.

Okay, so it’s still an unknown characteristic of speech in Pennsylvania other than the I’m also from Pennsylvania lingo handshake.

But it’s one of those things like if you’re from Nevada and you know how to pronounce the state, you can go wink, wink.

I know that you’re an insider because you know how to pronounce the state, you know what we call a liquor store around here, you know which counties are dry.

It’s all that insider’s knowledge, that insider’s behavior that shows that you’re a local, right?

Okay.

Yeah, it’s that kind of stuff.

And I’m betting there are listeners all over the country right now who are not from Pennsylvania who are thinking, oh, my gosh.

The next time they hear somebody say they’re from Pennsylvania, they’re going to listen for that PA.

All my PA friends do that.

That’s correct.

Okay, so the final answer is that it’s just a method to indicate you’re part of the PA clan.

Is that right?

I think it is.

And why not?

Yeah, and a habit, as Grant said.

And why not?

Yeah, that’s fair.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, Eric, we appreciate your calling.

Thanks, Eric.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Take care.

All righty.

Bye-bye.

Okay, bye.

Call us if you’re living in a state where they do something similar, or if you have any other observation about language, we’re here to chat with you.

877-929-9673 or send your questions about language to words@waywordradio.org.