A Philly Accent In American Sign Language? Gid Eowt!
December 6, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Not only do Philadelphians take deep pride in cheesesteak and the Eagles, but also their accent. So much pride that, over time, the Philly accent has even developed in American Sign Language. Currently, two linguists at Penn are working to document this.
According to one of the linguists Philly ASL has always been a little different. It’s nice to know that everyone – young, old, hearing, and non-hearing – has probably experienced a WTH moment when a Philly native asks for some substance called “wooder”.
We certainly wish these researchers the best of luck because documenting this ASL dialect isn't just cheesesteaks and chill. Part of this project involves interviews, conducted in sign, with 12 members of the Philly deaf community. And here’s the kicker: to annotate one minute of these interviews can take up to two hours. Yikes! May we suggest a cup of “cawfee?”