Holiday Language Lesson Teaches'Bawlmerese'

BALTIMORE, MD — Those born and raised in Baltimore have a special way of communicating that isn't always clear to the rest of the world.

Phillip Schwarzmann, a Baltimore (or Bawmer) native who now lives in San Francisco, decided to explain.

"People from Baltimore speak a dialect known as 'Baltimorese.' What is it?" he asked in a Facebook post. "Let my family, at Christmas dinner, explain."

The post includes a video in which he quizzes his relatives about how those in Charm City say words and phrases like "Tuesday" (TWOS-dee) and "Did you eat?" (JEET?).

Nearly 1.4 million people have viewed the video since he posted it on Christmas.

Schwarzmann, a 38-year-old public relations professional who moved out of Maryland 17 years ago, told The Baltimore Sun that he made the video at his aunt's house in Perry Hall and shared it publicly on his Facebook page because people in California tell him he has an "accent," and he wanted to explain "why I talk so funny."

The Baltimore accent and other peculiarities have inspired everything from songs to a hashtag to a dictionary explaining the Bawlmerese lexicon. Earlier this year, Kathy Bates and Conan O'Brien sang the national anthem in Bawlmerese during his show on TBS. She said it was how she practiced getting her language right for her part in American Horror Story. She told Buzzfeed that she listened to Senator Barbara Mikulski to work on the accent too and referenced the Bawlmerese lexicon.

In addition to offering up his lesson in dialect, Schwarzmann provided a primer in table manners when it comes to eating crabs in Maryland (aka Merlin).

Photo of crab Christmas lights on 34th Street in Baltimore by Elizabeth Janney. Embedded video by Phillip Schwarzmann via Facebook.