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My story, One Thousand Apologies, is set in the hills of western Pa (that's pronounced Pee-ay) near Pittsbugh.
I got an anonymous comment this morning (hey, I reply to everyone who leaves a real address!) asking about the word 'yunz.'
Most of my characters speak Pittsburghese to one extent or another. As a writer, I don't go full yinzer on all a'yunz, as that would be too hard to read. Hell, when folks try to phoneticize the way we say stuff it hardly looks like anything I know. Instead I stick to a few key words and phrases to remind the readers.
Personally, I use several words and phrases in every conversation but avoid bad grammar. My wife uses a more standard vocabulary but all the yinzer grammar "Me and her went to the store" and double (and triple) negatives. The mixtures allow me to give some different voices to characters, and I'll frequently tie to to education level.
Yunz is the plural form of you. They call folks from Pittsburgh yinzers, but most of them say 'yunz.' There's not accepted spelling as the pronunciation can vary slightly depending on where you're at, and really, it's never written down except as dialogue. We'd see 'you' on a page and still say 'yunz' if it's plural.
Another word is n'at The dictionary says 'and that' but it could also mean something like 'and what not.' It's thrown in at the end of a prhase or sentence to indicate an indefinite ending. "I'm going down to Sheetz to grab some beer n'at." means the purpose of the trip is to get some beer, but while he's there he may very well get other things. Using n'at leaves open that possibility.
Here's a short explanation of the dialect and I use this page to help me remember words and phrases, but as I mentioned, I don't go overboard, sticking with the more iconic ones.
With working for a living n'at, took 21 days but the story has been updated, as school has started for Joe and Hannah.
I am very grateful for the kind emails. I will do my utmost to finish in a reasonable amount of time. The story has been outlined to the end, and is about halfway done.
When I went back to rewrite my original version, I left the preface as is. Well, tonight I had a visualization, and it was out with the telling and in with the showing.
If you've already read the story, give the preface another look.
If you haven't, please dive in and enjoy.
Thanks everyone for the kind emails. I'm trying to keep the story as real as possible, and it's great to know that a girl can get off on something I do!
I have other non-writing projects, but I will do everything possible to finish this story as soon as I can. There is a story - it's outlined completely to the end. My original draft was up to nine chapters and into mid-October in the story line when I decided to go back to the beginning for a massive rewrite.
When I began reposting the chapters here, the first three were ready to go and chapter 4 only needed the last scene to be edited. Yesterday I rewrote the opening scene for chapter 5 and have five scenes remaining, follow then, of course, by editing. (I think I read ch4 out loud three times last Sunday!)
And for those waiting and wondering, yes, things will get hot in chapter 5!
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