Videos clear up the often-mangled 'Phulluhphya' accent

LIKE MANY from the region who left to attend college outside of the area, Sean Monahan had the "wooder" teased out of him.

While attending the College of Wooster in Ohio, his newfound friends poked fun at his Philly accent. "I knew that the vocabulary was different. I say 'hoe-gies,' and not a lot of others say 'hoe-gies,' " said Monahan, who grew up in Bensalem and Langhorne and now resides in the Southwark section of Philadelphia.

It's not that Monahan hadn't noticed his accent before. He said it first came to his attention while listening to lyrics. "If one line ended with the word 'had' and the next line ended with 'bad,' it would rhyme for the singer but not for me," he said. But he hadn't realized his accent varied from what he refers to as the "normal American accent."

Now he does, and he's proud of it. To prove his love, Monahan took to YouTube last April and created the first of three videos to promote the glory of the Philadelphia (that's Phulluhphya to you) accent.

Linguistically, Philadelphians speak in a mid-Atlantic dialect, according to the Atlas of North American English, developed by University of Pennsylvania linguists, including William Labov, who has studied the Philadelphia dialect since 1971.

But we have our own way of speaking that differs from someone who grew up in Brooklyn, Baltimore or Boston.

Most people don't really know what the Philadelphia accent sounds like, Monahan noted, and that was one of his inspirations for making the vids. Boston, Chicago and New York are easy to pick out, but our accent is a little more subtle.

As a primer for the criminally uninformed, Monahan's first video, "Phulluhphyin Dolleck," explains the accent in great detail, complete with phonetic subtitles. ("Heaw youse dewin dudday? C'I getcha sum da drink, hun?" Translation: "How are you doing today? Can I get you something to drink, hon?") It's gotten more than 12,000 hits.

One of the reasons the Philadelphia dialect isn't widely known is that it's often portrayed incorrectly in the media, Monahan noted. When a movie or TV show is set locally, actors typically fall back on a New York City accent.

In his second video, "Da Philly Accent inna Media," Monahan chastises bit players in the Philly-set movie "Invincible" for faking their way through it. Rocky Balboa himself didn't even get it right.

Monahan uses clips from "Jackass" Bam Margera and political pundit Chris Matthews to illustrate the correct way to rock the Philly accent.