Tell me about Chicago regional dialect!

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by Lud Kissel

In the 50's you went to the soda fountain at the 5 and dime, when and how did it become pop, maybe from the term "soda pop"??

Perhaps. The distribution of pop vs soda is interesting. Chicago says pop while most of Illinois says soda. Indiana people say soda or pop depending on where you are.

I don't even know if areas that say pop are connected to each other.

[MayaLucy]

Originally Posted by NoVA2016

I am from Springfield, IL. I basically have "no accent". At least I thought I didn't. We moved to northern VA a few years ago and people say I have a Chicago accent. What? There is no way anyone from Illinois, Chicago especially, would ever think I have a Chicago accent. Honestly, you probably think I sound like I am from the south or at least Southen Illinois. I am still bewildered by that. My father was born in Chicago and raised there until middle school when he moved to Bloomington-Normal (by the way, that seems to be the invisible dividing line between "pop and soda"; everyone south of that town says soda and north says pop. Anyway, my dad does not have an accent by any means but perhaps I picked up a few things and not aware. Who knows. Just funny how different regions assume different things.

People can't really hear their own accent, unless perhaps you've moved around a lot. This is why the people on this page who are saying "I have lived in Chicago for 40 years and there is no accent!" honestly can't hear it. The more time you spend in a place, the more "subtle" you think the accent is.

From age 5 I grew up in rural MN, and couldn't hear the accent until after I moved from there for several years (except for the weird way they say "bag" and "flag" etc).

Now I'm back here in the upper midwest and fighting the accent from coming back!

[EddieOlSkool]

I have watched Minnesota accent videos and it turns out the way they say "aunt" is just like the Boston and Black way which is "änt" which would be spelled "ont" or "ahnt/aant" phonetically to the average American. It is an open mouth pronunciation whereas most Americans rhyme aunt with ant.

And they say Minnesotan types don't sound Canadian. This is a very Canadian way of saying "aunt".

Originally Posted by MayaLucy

People can't really hear their own accent, unless perhaps you've moved around a lot. This is why the people on this page who are saying "I have lived in Chicago for 40 years and there is no accent!" honestly can't hear it. The more time you spend in a place, the more "subtle" you think the accent is.

From age 5 I grew up in rural MN, and couldn't hear the accent until after I moved from there for several years (except for the weird way they say "bag" and "flag" etc).

Now I'm back here in the upper midwest and fighting the accent from coming back!

Also the Chicago accent being a variant of Great Lakes varieties of English is seemingly more spread out than isolated dialects like New York. Or in the case of spread out accents like the Southern, ours isn't stigmatized because we think we speak General American. I guess most people in the North think they speak General American and it is fair to say that because General American is based in the North even though it covers only a small part (most of Ohio, most of Indiana, half of Illinois, most of Missouri, most of Iowa, and practically all of Kansas and Nebraska). They also say Western New England speech is quite non-distinct and from the people I have met I would say it is distinctly Northern but not distinctly regional. So the Midwest really is the area where the most non distinct American English survives.

However Chicago and the Upper Midwest cities do have distinct dialects and odd pronunciation rules that deviate from Standard American to a degree that even New York, Boston, or Southern dialects do not so even if they are Midwestern, they sure aren't General American. Also, most everyone gets our accent wrong! People either peg me as from the East Coast or Minnesota. Only someone from Chicago can truly imitate a Chicago accent or someone trained in linguistics. It is not as easy to imitate as a Southern or New York as it has phonetic rules unique to itself even within the Great Lakes (Milwaukee people don't talk like us and they are only 70 miles away).

Also to clear it up, "no accent" means devoid of American regional characteristics. Midwest English is seemingly that way. It doesn't have non-rhoticity, it doesn't have a short-a split system of the Mid Atlantic, it doesn't have glide deletion or a drawl, it doesn't have Canadian Raising or a Canadian Vowel Shift, it doesn't have Northern Cities Vowel Shift, it doesn't have a backed nor fronted long O and U sound. It literally has no distinct features that can be traced to a region. Not even the Midwest. It's not like the Midwest standard accent has features that are unique to the Midwest. Rather it has features of ALL American accents but of no region if that makes sense.

[Lud Kissel]

I agree that the Chicago accent is very hard to imitate, having grown up here it is VERY distinct from south to north to west Chicagoland. The superfans of Saturday night live did us no favors as far as our accent is concerned. I'll put it this way, I have friends who are Chicago fireman who grew up literally 5 miles from where I did, they in the city, me in Oak Lawn who have a Chicago accent that is so distinct it makes me sound like an outsider. These guys have no clue when they talk how "Chicago" they sound. I wish I could record them for the ages however they would not appreciate that one bit. I have been in other cities and been picked out by locals as being from Chicago and it always seems wierd to me when they pick up on that.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by Lud Kissel

I agree that the Chicago accent is very hard to imitate, having grown up here it is VERY distinct from south to north to west Chicagoland. The superfans of Saturday night live did us no favors as far as our accent is concerned. I'll put it this way, I have friends who are Chicago fireman who grew up literally 5 miles from where I did, they in the city, me in Oak Lawn who have a Chicago accent that is so distinct it makes me sound like an outsider. These guys have no clue when they talk how "Chicago" they sound. I wish I could record them for the ages however they would not appreciate that one bit. I have been in other cities and been picked out by locals as being from Chicago and it always seems wierd to me when they pick up on that.

Why the Chicago accent is hard to imitate:

It is Midwestern so people either want to make it General American or Minnesota

It has a lot-cloth split

It has Northern Cities Vowel Shift which is near impossible to replicate unless you spend enough time around it. By enough I mean years.

It is spread out in pockets of the city. Transplants from the Heartland have diluted the sound.

It is mostly heard in European descended people (it is a European descended accent)

It follows phonology sometimes unique to only the Great Lakes BUT not all Great Lakes accents are the Chicago variant

It uses vowel sounds that don't exist in the rest of the country

Like Philly it is rhotic and has a fast talking New York speech quality (probably from all the immigrants) BUT it does not follow New York phonology or Boston phonology or even Milwaukee phonology. It is simply. . .its own thing. People using a NY, Boston, Wisconsin, or any other non-Chicago point of reference for imitating us won't get it. And no, using the Superfans would get you laughed at like "who the hell are you imitating?"

It doesn't have national recognition. Like Philly, most people outside the city aren't even aware an accent exists. People think Philly talks New York (in fact most non-Northern people can't tell any Bos- Wash accent apart) and then think Chicago talks Minnesota or Iowa.

It is an accent associated with the working class however academia also can have it because most Chicagoans are oblivious it even exists.

[EddieOlSkool]

Youse guys,

I think I found Chicago's British accent equivalent (



At 1:01 he says "she'll know something's up" with an eerily Chicago quality. The vowels were practically indistinguishable.

Hear how they say their Long O and short U vowels. Exactly like we do and the Great Lakes.

What they don't share with us is the Long I sound. This is what differentiates East England front North England. They raise the I sound but Northern England deletes the glide. So I becomes ah. But in East England, the long I keeps the glide and sounds like "oi" which is the Northern US pronunciation. This is the Canadian I vowel not the Australia one (where line rhymes with loin).

Truthfully the Manchester accent I believe influenced the Caribbean more than anything. That and Charleston. A Black Charleston accent is eerily similar to Manchester with a bit of Irish intonation.

Listen to this here



... and see more Chicago similarities. The way they say words like above and love are like how Chicago says it. But again it is probably a cousin accent because I truly think Manchester sounds West Indian.

[PILMAN]

So do I have this "regional" accent?



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tee41DY24zs

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by PILMAN

So do I have this "regional" accent?



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tee41DY24zs

It has been diluted and Southernized a bit (tiny tiny bit) from you being in a Southern area. You definitely don't have the super tensed short A pronunciation on words like "that", "past", or "accent". You say "ah" for "I" sometimes. Overall with all these changes I would classify your accent as non-distinct.