Hello PNWG (and followers!) - Burning PDX question. I moved here recently and in many of the shops/restaurants the staff say “Welcome In!” when you enter.
To me this is weird phrasing (not just “welcome” or “hello” for example) and I’ve NEVER heard this phrase so frequently before in my life. Is this PDX specific? Is it new to the region in the last ten-ish years? Am I just hearing it all the time now that I’m paying attention? Also I should say I’m not mad about it. It’s delightful.
Hey, welcome in to the PNW! 😁
I hope our winter is treating you well.
Disclaimer: I have nothing other than anecdotal evidence to back this up.
I have mostly heard people reporting on the novelty of “welcome in” when they move to either the Midwest or the PNW. I have also seen people associate it with Starbucks which is, ofc, a Seattle chain whose employee handbook might have reflected those roots.
The Midwest and PNW are two regions with a lot of Scandinavian settlement:
And how does one say “welcome” in Scandinavian languages?
So my tin-hat theory is that formal/polite speech in these regions maybe has a Scandinavian influence. (German settlement is a possible wildcard factor.)
Formal/polite language tends to not change much over time. If Scandinavian words snuck into common usage because they looked like English, I imagine they could get fossilised as normal “polite” speech because 1.) no one expects formal speech to sound normal and, thus, 2.) no one tends to ask why or where formal language comes from.
Like, we all know “ma’am” having an apostrophe there means that something was shortened… but how many people on the street would immediately say, without hesitation, what the full form of that word is?
But that’s my crackpot theory. I’m excited to hear everyone else’s!