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Allemaengel t1_j4gchyp wrote

The spreading of the term "jawn" basically represents linguistic crabgrass.

Rip it out, people. Just don't use it.

10

Steelplate7 t1_j4gd5li wrote

Ok…I live in the sticks of Snyder county… what the fuck is a “Jawn”?

83

spoon7777 t1_j4gdf4t wrote

I live in Bethlehem and thankfully that shit hasn't spread north yet. WTF does it even mean?

3

Lunarend3 t1_j4gdxnl wrote

I thought that word died out like 10 years ago...

27

Odd_Shirt_3556 t1_j4geaxh wrote

Jawns on Fire appears to be a store on Lingelstown Road by the Giant. They sell high end sneakers and other apparel. It also appears that the proprietors are escapees from the Philadelphia Jawn using lexicon area.

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MonsterNog t1_j4gf083 wrote

They wrote it in the damn clouds just set this billboard on fire

3

ImperialIIClass t1_j4gf715 wrote

I mean, I guess they’ve got their demographic precisely targeted.

0

katahdin420 t1_j4ghrmz wrote

It's still alive and well in prison. I can say that from experience. People from Philly say jawn. People from western PA say Joint.

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Grumpicake t1_j4gi6r8 wrote

I see that sign every day to work and REFUSE the monster who made this the satisfaction of learning what it means.

6

artificialavocado t1_j4gj6dj wrote

Philly slang? Pfft please. Come to the coal region that shit is damn near unintelligible.

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theENDtype t1_j4gjc3q wrote

Replying to spoon7777 (#1,367,972)

It's starting to plant it seeds in the Lehigh Valley. I'm also in Bethlehem and in the last few months I've seen a few people who are wearing Jawn hoodies in the Wawa style font. Now will it spread? Time will tell.

3

stajus67 t1_j4glmvn wrote

I have heard jaws being used in Central PA semi regularly since I can remember.

2

icss1995 t1_j4gmq4j wrote

I’m from the region. It’s a advertisement for a sneaker shop.

Shops Website: jawnsonfireDOTcom

1

agelaius9416 t1_j4go5tb wrote

Damn lots more racism than usual in this subreddit…

0

OneHumanPeOple t1_j4goedd wrote

Replying to Steelplate7 (#1,367,955)

Jawn replaces any noun.

It can be used as code so that two people can openly discuss a secret topic. Example: “Pass me that jawn” where the jawn is a marijuana consumption device.

It can also be used when a person is referring to an object but isn’t sure what the object is called. It replaces other nonsense words like thingamajig, or Doohickey.

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BrainWav t1_j4gp0sv wrote

A billboard for an instagram account? What the hell?

3

gj13us t1_j4gp7kg wrote

I’ve lived in Lancaster for over 25 years and never heard of it until about a year ago.

8

Bicycle-Seat t1_j4gpxb9 wrote

Can we donate Philly to NJ? The rest of PA would be better off.

−15

rogueanansi69 t1_j4gtiw2 wrote

I'm originally from Philly and now reside in the western part of the State of PA when I said "jawn" over here people looked at me like I was crazy, that was 12 years ago. Now the younger people at the job say it lol. I did see that sign recently.

2

ShoelessJodi t1_j4gv5d1 wrote

I drive past that sign twice a week and it annoys me far more than the traffic I'm inevitably going to encounter a few miles further.

7

HumperMoe t1_j4gy7ru wrote

I only approve of jawn when the Phillies are playing. That dude who has the sign in the post season saying hit that jawn is peak philly sports. Confuse the other teams with our made up words. Make sure they know their in the concrete jungle. Eat them alive.

10

RayAyun t1_j4gyeo3 wrote

Replying to Steelplate7 (#1,367,955)

A "Jawn" can literally be anything. I have friends who will basically say "Yo, can I have that Jawn?" Asking for a tool to be handed to them but they won't point at which one or make any other description.

6

teefdr t1_j4h0g71 wrote

I think a big factor is the show Abbott Elementary taking place in Philadelphia. If you haven't seen it, the show is great. It just won a golden globe!

9

gggg500 t1_j4h0gev wrote

Replying to artificialavocado (#1,368,337)

Is it common for people to use the word “Pry” instead of “Probably”?

Example(speaking kinda fast): I’m pry gonna go to the store later.

Is this a PA thing? Because I’ve lived here all my life and I know I do it, and I think I’ve heard other people do it. But it’s either so common I’ve forgotten how people say it. or I’m just weird and only I do it.

3

Dythronix t1_j4h5uow wrote

Spreading west? I've been hearing jawn in the Harrisburg area since I was born, in the 90s.

8

artificialavocado t1_j4h73b3 wrote

Replying to gggg500 (#1,369,189)

I never heard pry. Not so much the younger generation but the older folks can make the “th” sound. The number “three” sounds like “tree.” “With that” sounds like “wit dat.” I guess I’m used to it “yous” is about the only local thing that still makes me cringe. I know it’s not nice and isn’t fair but such poor grammar makes them sound stupid.

3

Icyyflame t1_j4h796o wrote

Colonized Jawn. So fuxking cringe

2

Skenry32 t1_j4h9dc5 wrote

And the sneakers hanging over the power lines? Isn't that a drug thing?

1

Allemaengel t1_j4h9tib wrote

Replying to HeyZuesHChrist (#1,369,239)

Because it's getting overused and misapplied to the point it's just tired as a number of people on the Philly sub will attest

That said, there's nothing wrong with it in, and of, itself when it was properly used by Philly residents in normal conversation.

But people in Pennsyltucky where I live using it? Lol.

5

dogmomdrinkstea t1_j4hii95 wrote

People in my hbg high school would say jawn all the time, this was in the late 00s so not new.

1

ArcOfADream t1_j4hk0m6 wrote

They say the way to get a pothole fixed is to spray-paint a cock-n-balls around it; if ever something needed such a treatment it's this billboard. If you live near this thing, do it, for all our sakes.

3

Von_Moistus t1_j4hmrui wrote

Replying to stajus67 (#1,368,477)

Counterpoint: I have lived in Centre County for 30 years now and haven't heard it once.

Growing up in the southwest corner of the state I heard "ruff" instead of "roof" and "wuff" instead of "wolf." We were a bit too removed from Pittsburgh for "yinz" so we said "you-all" (but never "yawl" for some reason).

3

Galagoth t1_j4hp57j wrote

this is not a philly thing it is from all over the nation and has been that way for over ten years

−2

erdtirdmans t1_j4hqvvb wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,369,341)

Smurf is almost always a verb except when referring to the smurfs themselves. Jawn is almost exclusively a noun (except in select cases of verbing)

To put it simply: You can smurf a jawn, but you can't jawn a smurf

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Colonia_Paco t1_j4hswn2 wrote

It refers to Jawn Morgan, apparently he started the trend of saying “Jawn”

1

tipsykretts t1_j4htu8q wrote

Idk I've only heard ppl call the shitter a jawn lol

1

TOW2Bguy t1_j4hvxxv wrote

Replying to CL-MotoTech (#1,370,551)

In central PA, use of slippy versus slippery is very colloquial. To the point those who spend a lot of time at University Park sometimes adopt it, and it can be an identifier outside the area.

2

InsideFastball t1_j4hw8uu wrote

As a fan of sharks and Jaws, I’m quite disappointed.

1

sirfuzzitoes t1_j4i0ytn wrote

Replying to Steelplate7 (#1,367,955)

Anything, generally. Person, place, or thing. Not a very or relative.

It's contextual and generally, people know exactly what you're talking about. Think "the thing" when you can't recall the name for a spanner wrench or something like that.

A jawn is not "a thing". It is anything.

3

erdtirdmans t1_j4i4fpg wrote

Replying to sirfuzzitoes (#1,370,931)

It's a totally understandable mistake

A pronoun is a grammatical part of speech, so the closest definition of its terms is going to accidentally be overly broad when you try to test every word by it. If you went strictly by the layman's definition of a pronoun, it doesn't seem to exclude "jawn." However, you'll notice that almost every grammatical article you find about pronouns will at some point list all the pronouns. It's just hard to define the form, function, and intuited rules of a part of speech using the very same speech

But it's very clear that - functionally - "jawn" and "thingamajig" are not pronouns...

> The dog walked down the street > > It walked down the street > > Jawn walked down the street

Jawn doesn't work there

> He helped himself to some food > > Jawn helped jawnself to some food

Or here. It doesn't work because it's not a pronoun. Misusing it this way is one of those things that natives would instantly point to as proof that you're trying to sidle into Philly slang with no clue what you're doing.

Pronouns can behave in sentences completely replacing the totality of the noun phrase. Jawn cannot. Jawn needs an article (the/a), number, or adjective to precede it. Because it's a noun.

> Two dogs walked down the street > > Two jawns walked down the street

This applies everywhere it turns up

> Be careful with this hot pan > > Be careful with this hot thing > > Be careful with this hot jawn

Jawn is a normal everyday noun like pan and thing. The only thing that's remarkable about it is that it can work for every case of a noun.

> I met your wife yesterday > > I met your jawn yesterday > > Yeah, I've been to that bar > > Yeah, I've been to that jawn > > Pick me up a hoagie > > Pick me up one of them jawns

Normally things like the suits, popo, John Doe, people, thing, thingamajig, widget, anytown, the boonies, cooee, etc. are more specific in their non-specificity, because to be completely non-specific would theoretically ruin the whole point of communicating

Jawn is so fundamentally built on being completely non-specific that phrases like "one of them jawns" will be tossed in to make things even more confused... and yet, it still functions in communicative speech! HOW? I dunno. I don't make the jawns, I just use them

4

CraWLee t1_j4ijb7n wrote

That's been there for over a year now I feel. Being from Philly, it sure made me smile.

1

Sourmouse419 t1_j4iy60n wrote

No body in Philly actually says that anymore..

1

Toadinnahole t1_j4iydng wrote

Effing Linglestown, haven't gotten off at that exit since the Sonic closed.

1

kaspirtk1 t1_j4j1745 wrote

Oh is that why I hate it so much? Makes a lot of sense now

0

jeep1960 t1_j4j2ugr wrote

One of the most stupid words

1

sirfuzzitoes t1_j4jmv3w wrote

Replying to erdtirdmans (#1,371,041)

Thanks for the detailed response! (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

Great use of sidle too! What you said all makes sense. I'm well removed from getting learnt on grammar and sentence structure so I'm gonna defer to you.

You are absolutely right that adopters can be spotted by their (mis)use of the word. On another note, I love when people tell me they hate the word but still know exactly what I'm talking about when I use it. It is so culturally pervasive even objectors acknowledge it.

3

amitydtd666 t1_j4kzh2x wrote

Didnt realize jawn was a philly thing, it def has been picked up in schools since I was in school. Said jawn starting in middle school and that was over 10 years ago

Edit: also, I'm in the harrisburg area so maybe my experience was different

1