Speaking Pittsburghese

“No dialect in the United States is quite like Pittsburghese-in linguistic distinctiveness, public awareness, and sociolinguistic commodification. And no linguist is better suited to describe the creation, construction, and circulation of this unique sociolinguistic situation than Barbara Johnstone. This book offers a powerful, perceptive analysis presented in engaging style–a sociolinguistic masterpiece.” –Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University”Barbara Johnstone has the gift of presenting intellectually complex material in a clear and comprehensible way. Here, she elucidates the ideological framework of indexicality and enregisterment, taking the holistic approach of community of practice studies but applying this to the city as community and letting the people of Pittsburgh speak for themselves. Her commitment to this city and its people shines through.” –Joan Beal, Sheffield University

Barbara Johnstone is Professor of Rhetoric and Linguistics at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the author of Repetition in Arabic Discourse (Benjamins, 1990), Stories, Community, and Place: Narratives from Middle America (Indiana UP, 1990), The Linguistic Individual (Oxford, 1996), and two textbooks. Her research has explored how people evoke and shape places in talk and what can be learned by taking the perspective of the individual on language and discourse.