Indiana stereotypes? (Indianapolis, Gary, Carmel: sales, home, to buy)

[elston]

Originally Posted by artemis

What accent ??

I went to school in Indiana and remember "warsh" for wash and a wierd way to get an extra syllable into the word "pleasure" sorta by pronouncing the e and the a as seperate vowels. and the city of Hagerstown was pronounced with a funny mushy sound "Hagershtown" or something like that. The intonation was a bit dry and flat, or so it sounded to my northeastern ears.

I tend to drop the letter "r" from words so that the capitol city of NH sounds like Conc'd; (I know that isnt standard), in Indiana it was most definately Con-coRd.

[MainStreet]

Originally Posted by domergurl

It drove me nuts when we lived in Fishers and now here in Columbus how people call their grandparents Ma-maw and Pa-paw. What's that about? Also when they put the emphasis on the first syllables of "insurance" and "umbrella". I'd also never heard the term "fair to middlin'" before college and had no clue what it meant. Also, I remember hearing some old timers saying "you-uns" and "we-uns".

Exactly, when my ex MIL asked that our daughter call her Nana, I was WHAT?

Growing up we called them grandma and grandpa, while our rich cousins called them grandmother and grandfather (which always reminded me of Shirley Temple in Heidi, lol.

Another Indiana outlander friend of mine told me that she always wondered why Indiana natives say "going down" "when you coming down?" when actually, directionally, it was north or up?

There is the whole pop and soda thing; plus I got a lot of flack for calling interstates "expressway" and not highway...but then that might be a Michigan stereotype, lol.

[domergurl]

Well, here's a region one ... Hobart ... no, not Ho-bart, it's Hobert. Go figure that one out!!!

Of course, there's Chey-leye and Roosiaville, instead of Chili and Russiaville ... and all the French mispronunciations for Versailles, Veyvey and Orleans.

I just refer to expressways by their number (65, 70). In Illinois, the state roads are called routes, but here, they are called state roads.

[artemis]

Ok, I'll admit to Hobart ! I have no idea why I pronounce it that way. :-)

I never got my directions mixed up tho, it was always up to Michigan, or down to Indy.

I do call soft drinks "pop", and I sure get some strange looks here in Tennessee when I do. Everything here is a Coke, even when it's not a Coke.

[WildWestDude]

As mentioned a bit, NW Indiana is a whole different story in itself.
Its proximity to Chicago and its different etnic mix make it fall outside these Indiana stereotypes. Wonder what stereotypes can be given to NW Indiana (the region)?

[jeffm1984]

as for accent, it's very subtle but there is one. Hoosiers tend to speak slowly and run their words together a bit.

Like "commere" instead of "come here". "Pop" is used for soda and "highway" or "interstate" is more common than "freeway" or "expressway." In some more rural areas, people might say "dubya" for "W" and "warsh" instead of "wash." I've also sometimes heard people say "New Yark" instead of "New York"

[WildWestDude]

Originally Posted by Interpol76

Extremely conservative, dumb hicks, full of white trash, very antisocial, un-neighborly, introverted people who tend to marry early in age. I've lived out of state (Cali, Montana and Texas) and have never heard anybody say anything nice about Indiana except: "isnt that where Michael Jackson is from?".

That's a bit exteme don't you think?

[lyndsaynicole]

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and have lived in Indiana for the past few years. I started out in the Lafayette area and now I live in Indy. When I first started talking to my husband and his friends, I noticed their accents. They have a long I...like they say "niiiight" and "alriiiiight"...stuff like that. Also, my husband does the syllable thing-he puts the emphasis on "IN" in insurance and he says "CEEment". I make fun of him for it all the time. Also, something I used to notice a lot is that he would say "It's hard tellin'" instead of "It's hard to tell".

I also noticed the first time I went grocery shopping here, the lady asked me if I wanted a "Sack" for my milk. I said, "You mean a bag?" I had NEVER heard someone refer to a bag as a sack-to me a sack is what potatoes come in. Some people here still hear my Cleveland accent-apparently we have a long A...we say "claaaass" and "haaalf"-I don't get teased about it as much anymore-I think I've started to lose my accent.

[Jay_F]

Originally Posted by lyndsaynicole

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and have lived in Indiana for the past few years. I started out in the Lafayette area and now I live in Indy. When I first started talking to my husband and his friends, I noticed their accents. They have a long I...like they say "niiiight" and "alriiiiight"...stuff like that. Also, my husband does the syllable thing-he puts the emphasis on "IN" in insurance and he says "CEEment". I make fun of him for it all the time. Also, something I used to notice a lot is that he would say "It's hard tellin'" instead of "It's hard to tell".

I also noticed the first time I went grocery shopping here, the lady asked me if I wanted a "Sack" for my milk. I said, "You mean a bag?" I had NEVER heard someone refer to a bag as a sack-to me a sack is what potatoes come in. Some people here still hear my Cleveland accent-apparently we have a long A...we say "claaaass" and "haaalf"-I don't get teased about it as much anymore-I think I've started to lose my accent.

I'm a Pittsburgh area native living in S. Indiana, and fully agree with everything you wrote, but you dig forget buggy for your groceries . Funny how these folks have no idea what a jagger bush, gumband, or that it's ahiah, not Ohio. How do do yinz like Indiana and that?

[domergurl]

It's a stickerbush and a rubberband from my neck of the woods ... you Pittsburgh people have a language all yer own!