The Enduring Mystery Of 'Jawn', Philadelphia's All-Purpose Noun

Citizens Bank Park could also be called a jawn. (Photo: Jessica Rossi/CC BY-SA 2.0) Taylor Jones, a Ph.D student at the University of Pennsylvania, was unfamiliar with the bizarre stew of linguistic quirks in Philadelphia when he first started school there a few years ago. An army brat, it seems like Jones grew up everywhere but eastern Pennsylvania.