Lexical incidence

According to the traditional dialect geography of Kurath (1949), Philadelphia is located squarely in the Midland area, and in many ways it fits well into this neighborhood. For example, /u/ is commonly the vowel of root. It does, however, show exceptions to the usual Midland forms in a number of cases. For example, the Linguistic Atlas records suggest /a/ is the usual vowel in frog, hog, and fog with  in dog – a pattern resembling that of the North. Also, Philadelphia has been noted as exceptional in featuring, at least among some speakers, the Northern /a/ in on as opposed to the  that is heard in the Midland and the South (Kurath and McDavid 1961). The use of /Λ/ as the stressed vowel in donkey, a pronunciation noted for New Yorkers, is also found in Philadelphia. Finally, regarding the well known pattern of consonant variation between /s/ and /z/ in grease and greasy, Philadelphia was identified as a transitional area between the generally Southern /z/ and the generally Northern /s/.