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Crick (creek) and bob wire (barbed wire) In rural areas of northwestern PA (Erie County) where some of my father's relatives lived.

My paternal grandfather's family moved in each generation, from rural southern Missouri to rural southern Ohio near the Ohio/Kentucky border, and then to rural northwestern PA. He switched sometimes between standard English and a dialect of some kind.

In the dialect, he said "ain't" but with an "h" in front -- "hain't." It was definitely a negative verb and not the "haint" that some dialects use for the word "ghost." For some irregular verbs, he just added a "d" or "ed" to the present tense to make the past tense. "I seed" instead of "I saw." Or, "I heared" instead of "I heard." Or, I knowed" instead of "I knew." Instead of saying "man" or "guy" he said "fella." For women, it was "gal." The word "such" was "sech."

So, he might say, "I hain't never heared a sech thing." Or, "I seed that fella yestaday what married that gal from the city."

He could and did speak standard English, too. He read a lot, mostly on history, and was well informed. I don't know where he got the dialect from. Maybe his parents or grandparents.

I grew up in the city, Erie. We always said "pop" for carbonated soft drinks. We said "formal" for a woman's ankle length dress worn on formal occasions. In my senior year of high school, we visited my brother in Philadelphia. I shopped for my prom dress while we were there. The clerk did not know what I meant when I asked about a formal until I said, "It's for my senior prom." Then she said, "Oh, you mean a GOWN."

Also in Philly, I ordered French fries and asked what kind of pop the diner had. More confusion until the waitress said, "You mean soda?"