When “Awhile” Means “In the Meantime”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, A Way with Words.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Sean.

Greta.

From Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.

Well, welcome to the show.

What can we do for you?

Thank you very much.

So I’ll present the case from my side, and perhaps a cross-examination is necessary.

Oh, boy.

I didn’t know this was a Law & Order episode.

This is going to be done.

So I’m from Northeast Pennsylvania, and we’ve got enough proclivities in our dialect, I’m sure.

But when I first started dating my now wife of 17 years, I drove down to her house in Allentown in the Lehigh Valley.

And I parked my car apparently where I shouldn’t have parked it behind her dad’s car.

And I came into the house and I greeted her and everything.

She looked at where I was parked and she said, oh, hey, let’s go move your car a while.

And I started to walk out and I stopped and I’m like, oh, wow, we do what?

And she goes, no, no, no.

We’re just going to go move your car a while.

So my question is the a while.

I don’t get it.

Now, I’m going to just verify with her.

Yes.

Okay.

So a while to us means, to us, meaning my family or wherever I grew up, I guess, that I adopted this statement.

It’s just like while you’re waiting to do something else or in the meantime.

So why don’t you go get changed a while?

Or why don’t you have a snack a while?

Or why don’t you go move your car a while, Sean?

So he says it doesn’t make sense, but I say it’s like a perfect catch-all term for kind of an interim period when you’re waiting to do something else.

And so this is in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania?

Yeah, Lehigh Valley is where I’m from, so I think that’s probably where I got it.

All right.

We can help you with this.

Actually, it’s funny.

Martha and I were just commenting recently about how often we get questions from Pennsylvania about the German influence on the language there.

And this is another one of those cases.

It really is remarkable, isn’t it, Martha?

Yes, it sure is.

The immigration patterns over the last centuries from all the different parts of the world have left their imprint on American English in lots of different ways.

And they still show up.

You might think, oh, you know, America, it’s this monolith of language and culture.

We’re not.

And even centuries from now, these imprints will still be felt in small ways and large.

And this is just one of them.

So that a while is a direct borrowing from German, Pennsylvania German to be specific.

There’s a German word A-L-L-E-W-E-I-L, all of a while, which means just now.

And it’s used almost exactly that way in Pennsylvania English in Southeast Pennsylvania.

It’s something you want to say, do at this moment or now or after a little bit.

But it usually means right away almost.

Yes.

And so it can definitely throw outsiders, just as it did you, Sean.

Yes, it did.

Wait, Greta’s having a moment here.

She is having a moment.

So listeners, I’ve been a podcaster for years, so I feel the need to provide visuals.

She just elbowed me in the stomach as you began that explanation and gave me the C look.

So it’s going to be a long night, guys.

Thanks.

Thanks a lot.

I suspect you’ll be making dinner for a while, cleaning the house.

What is owed?

That’s right.

That’s right.

Well, thank you for helping solve our longstanding problem.

Yeah, Pennsylvania is so interesting.

If you look at a dialect map of Pennsylvania, it is broken up into three major regions and probably 10 or so minor dialect regions representing German influence and Scots-Irish and English influence.

It’s a really interesting state linguistically because of centuries of these overlays of migrants coming in and leaving their mark.

And the German influence is just one of those little footprints.

And you’ve got it in your language, Greta, which is amazing.

Hey, thanks, gang.

Sure. Take care now. You be well.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

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