Monday, March 3, 2014

Kill It With Fire

The Philadelphia Accent Fades Out
And scatter the ashes to the four winds.  My parents moved us to the Pine Barrens in 1979, and fought an unending, moderately successful battle to inoculate their children against local linguistics. No Iggles fans in our house.  
Philly-South Jersey patois is a bit harder: No vowel escapes diphthongery, no hard consonant is safe from a mid-palate dent. Extra syllables pile up so as to avoid inconvenient tongue contact or mouth closure. If you forget to listen closely, the Philadelphia, or Filelfia, accent may sound like mumbled Mandarin without the tonal shifts.

On the other hand the gospel of pork roll, America's finest breakfast meat, should be spread far and wide.

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