If you aren't a native of Pittsburgh, you may think you've reached a foreign land listening to conversations. Yinz goin' to 'da Stiller game? is a phrase that is often heard throughout the hills and valleys of the western region of Pennsylvania.
             No one is sure where Pittsburghese came from. Much of it is the ethnic mix of Pittsburgh, which is really a quintessential melting pot of the gateway to the west. The city has Germans, Poles, Italians, Slovaks and a dozen other nationalities that all settled where the three rivers come together.
             The deepest-rooted traditions of Pittsburghese can be heard in the steel towns on the outlying edge of the city, near the Monongahela River in what is commonly referred to as the Mon Valley.
             These local idioms are pervasive in all sections of Pittsburgh culture, however, not just in the mill towns.
             Children have always been told to redd up their room. To an outsider that means nothing. To a Pittsburgher, it means the child will have to clean his or her bedroom. When the floor 'needs swept' mom pulls out the sweeper. To those who are not familiar with the native tongue that means mom uses the vacuum to "sweep" the floor.
             As stated previously, in the olden day, Pittsburgh was the region where folks from all over the world settled. While the rest of the country has its own regions of dialect, Pittsburgh is unique for its mix of ethnicities. From Polish Hill to Squirrel Hill, and from Aliquippa to Connellsville, the language spoken is a tradition rooted in the hearts, and mouths, of all Pittsburghers. When Pittsburgh was a bustling metropolis of iron works and steel mills, cultures blended and with that grew a simply amazing and rather unique heritage and language.
             Go outside of the Pittsburgh region and someone may think you're crazy if you for a gumband. It's true that while some of the words have made their way to other parts of the country, m...