Northeast Pennsylvania English - Lexical Characteristics

Lexical Characteristics

To the extent that northeastern Pennsylvanian speakers do pronounce pairs like Don and dawn differently, they pronounce the word on to rhyme with Don, not with dawn (i.e., they use the /ɑ/ vowel rather than /ɔ/). In this regard, the accent patterns with the northern accents, not with the rest of Pennsylvania.

With respect to the phenomenon of "positive anymore", Northeast Pennsylvania English patterns with the Midland rather than the North: sentences like "Cars are sure expensive anymore" and "It's hard to find a job anymore" are grammatical here, but not in the North. A similar result is found with sentences like "The car needs washed" or "The floor needs swept": these are grammatical in Northeast Pennsylvania as in the Midland, but not in the North.