It’s all
I got a lot of responses on my “awhile” post, with enough other Yorkisms suggested to keep me posting for a long time. Thanks to everyone who wrote and posted comments!
One that drew a few comments was It’s all. Most people said this is also a Lancaster County thing; I’d have to guess that we share a lot of common phrases, with the Pennsyvania Dutch background and all.
So, it’s all. Ex. “The milk’s all.” or “When that money’s all, you’re not getting anything else.” (That last one was my mom, talking to my daughter at the World’s Greatest Yard Sale.)
Literal translation: It’s gone, or it’s “all gone.”
This backs up my contention that we’re as frugal with words as we are with time and money in York County. Why say it’s “all gone” if it can just be all? I guess it could just be “gone,” but “all” is shorter!
Whatfer does the same thing – gets rid of a few words out of your sentence. And later this week, I want to post about things that “need done” – I get razzed here at work for that one pretty well.
Back to “it’s all,” though. Some of the comments on this one from readers:
What about when you say something is all. When we said this at work a co-worker of mine would say “all what?” He was from the Pittsburgh area and this would drive him crazy.
Penny Bowers
“All-ee-all!” is the baby-talk version of “It’s all.” It’s said in the same sing-song voice that people from other places say “All gone!” to a baby.
Marilyn
All-ee-all is funny, because my best friend’s son, who had trouble learning to talk, learned sign language first, and they even had a separate sign for “all-ee-all.” It’s the “All done” sign, which is holding your hands up, palms out, and twisting them back and forth at the wrist. But for all-ee-all, instead of doing both hands at once and then stopping, he learned to do that, then make two fists (similar to the sign for the letter E) then do the “all done” again. All, e, all!
Any other Yorkism suggestions? Leave comments!
