Jeff Goldammer is fluent in the dialect of what linguists call "North Midland U.S. English" -- better known locally, and affectionately, as Pittsburghese.

	Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Jeff Goldammer with his bumper sticker that combines computer lingo with Pittsburghese. Click photo for larger image. Related article Bumper sticker/Pittsburghese info

A carpenter who also dabbles in design, Mr. Goldammer, 46, was working on the design and layout of his local neighborhood newspaper -- the Hazelwood Home Page -- in 2002, incorporating bits of Pittsburghese onto the front page.

"Suddenly, out of the blue, I had this idea for a T-shirt slogan," Mr. Goldammer. "It just popped into my head."

In other words, N@.

N@? Didn't get it on the first try? Say the word "N" out loud. Then, say the word that "@" stands for.

If you still don't get it, what's your problem? Yinz from aht of tahn, n'at?

Local entrepreneurs have not been shy in the past about using Pittsburghese to sell T-shirts and coffee mugs. But Mr. Goldammer is unusual because he has taken one well-worn expression dating to the 18th century, when Scotch-Irish settlers came to Western Pennsylvania, and, with a certain elegance and economy, translated it into another language altogether -- the language of the Internet.

Granted, it's a language that still doesn't come easily to many people.

"I guess there's a feeling of satisfaction when you finally figure out what the sticker says, a Eureka moment," he said.

While linguistic connoisseurs have always regarded Pittsburghese as something special, it got some national attention recently when the New York Times, in a story about regional speech, singled out Pittsburgh as "the Galapagos Islands of American dialect," with a vocabulary and accent all its own, marveling at the fact that, in the neighborhoods of "Bloom-filled" and the "SahSide," "ow" is "ah" (Town vs. Tahn) and "radial" sometimes comes out as "radio."

Still, N@'s road to success has been bumpy.

After making some T-shirts for his friends, Mr. Goldammer decided to make some "N@" oval bumper stickers too, and copyrighted them.

Initially, there were no takers. He first took them to Hometown Sports, a sports and novelty store at Station Square.

"They told me to leave them there to see if they would sell. But when I went back a few weeks later, they told me no one had bought them," he said.

So he tried a gift shop in Squirrel Hill, A Pleasant Present, on Murray Avenue.

"I dropped them off with an assistant sales person, and I have to admit I kind of forgot about them. Then six months later, I stopped by, and there was Michael Ferraro, the owner, who seemed really glad to see me. He said he had been wondering who did the stickers and that they were great."

Indeed, the N@ bumper stickers -- at $1.25 a pop -- have been selling steadily and have been sighted on cars in the area, says Mr. Ferraro.

"We've sold a lot of them. People go over to the Pittsburgh section of our store, and it's always the same drill. It takes a minute, and then they always say, 'Aw, now I get it!' "

As sales pick up, could N@ become the new symbol for Pittsburgh, much like the popular oval stickers touting -- in insider shorthand -- East Coast shore destinations such as the Outer Banks (OBX) or Cape May (CM)?

"I think it's possible," said Mr. Ferraro. "I'm telling you, I'm seeing more and more of them pop up. I've probably sold close to 500."

Lest anyone accuse Mr. Goldammer of making fun of Pittsburghese, he notes that he's often singled out sometimes for his own distinctive accent -- even by his wife.

"I was sitting around my apartment one day and sort of said to myself, 'I gotta redd this place up,' " he said, "and my wife, who is from Baton Rouge, looked at me like I was nuts."

"It never occurred to me, frankly, that 'redd up' wasn't used across the country.

"I've always grown up saying n'at. My mum says n'at. Frankly I'm proud of living here."

He hopes to expand N@ to T-shirts and coffee mugs, and is also working on another bumper sticker featuring another Pittsburghese expression.

But don't be nebby and ask what it is.

"It's taking a long time to fly, to tell you the truth. The design still needs redd up," he said with a laugh.