Indiana stereotypes? (amusement park, live in, beach)

[SJU]

Wow, I've lived in Central Indiana my entire life, and I'm not familiar with any of these stereotypes or ways of pronouncing words. I say "wash", my Grandmother is my Grandma, a grocery bag is a bag, and I don't care one iota about basketball or the Indy 500.

I suppose that's why they are called "stereotypes!"

And actually, Indiana has 3 accents. Don't forget about the Chi-KAH-go/Michigan hard "A" that has spilled into The Region! This is such a small state, it seems to be easily influenced by it's neighbors. We have a northern dialect, mid-state Ohio "Broadcast Accent" in the middle, and Kentucky drawls down south. I don't see Indiana having any one identity all it's own. I image that's true for all states, although as I said, I've lived here all my life.

[j33]

I'm familiar with northwest Indiana as I have some family that moved there from Chicago. I used to have the standard 'Indiana is full of hicks' perception until they did. Last time I went to the dunes it seemed like half the people there were either Eastern European with a strong Middle Eastern showing for good measure ... I loved the old guy sitting on the beach smoking a hooka while a old woman in elaborate robes tended to the BBQ under the full tent they set up for their day on the beach with the extended (and much more liberally dressed) family ... Indiana, like most places these days is too complicated to truly embody such stereotypes, but that won't stop people from having them.

Oh, and NWI seems to be Sox and Bears country, I rarely met anyone there who seemed to even be aware that Indiana had their own sports teams (although I did go to a Gary Railcats game once, which was full of people from Northwest Indiana, but that was minor league, so I don't think it counts).

As far as accents go, things seem to take on much more of a southern/midland twang outside areas bordering Chicago and Lake Michigan (yes, I've traveled around much of the state and while the folks in Indianapolis may not realize it, they do have a bit of a twang going to my northern influenced ears ... especially with their insistence on offering me 'sacks' in the stores).

[nay624]

did anyone look up the meaning of " hoosier".....thats a stereotype...

[avantgarde]

[[Hi, I'm from New Jersey born and raised. I however dated a girl for a summer who was visiting NJ family and was from Indiana... ( Didn't realize how much of an accent you guys had! ) Basically I just wondering what some of the funny stereotypes are in your state. For example in NJ most people think that all we have are swampland/urban cities, people are rude, mobsters, everyone acts like Tony Soprano, jersey accents etc. I thought it would be funny to hear what some people who dont know any better assume about your state? ]]

Funny, I relocated from Princeton to Indy five years ago -- and the biggest difference is that NO ONE here sounds like Joisey guys and girls! It's a DIFFERENT WORLD out here: When you think "Indiana," think "south of the circle in Trenton," like Bordentown or even further south, but not as far as Cherry Hill. A good number of Hoosiers have a "Ft. Dix TWANG." Others do have the Kentuckiana thing going, and it's really NOT a good sound. I struggle with it in my own family, since a couple of my sibs married into the goober dialect, so their children have been afflicted from birth. Now there will be more generations for it devolve. Really, most lifelong Hoosiers have NO idea they have an accent. And most Indianapolis folks of the "liberal" political persuasion will fight tooth and nail to try to make you believe that NO ONE is MORE PROGRESSIVE politically than they. Problem there is they are scared ****less to hold a nonviolent vigil against Bush and his war without first obtaining a "permit" from the city police. They don't realize it, but they are just way more POLITE than people back East or even in Chicago or Louisville!
More noticeable even than the Hoosier accent is the WEIGHT difference between Indy folk and East Coasters: All they eat here is BREADED MEAT, POULTRY, FISH: chicken fried steak, breaded pork tenderloin, deep-fried ANYTHING!!!! They even bread and deep-fry their veggies. Then they serve it all with liquified CHEESE-FOOD, not even REAL cheese. And LOTSA biscuits and gravy -- not the good Italian marinara kind, but the stuff made with crumbled sausage and milk, then poured by the bucketful over six big greasy biscuits. And I'll bet a lot of Hoosier women are BURIED in the same blue denim OVERALL SHORTS they've worn most summers since they were twelve years old -- and it's really NOT a good look on any child over 6 years old. Especially not on 50-year-old women. I see them EVERYWHERE in overalls: nice restaurants, race tracks, the State Fair, even CHURCH.
And I'm GUILTY of MOST all the sins I just wrote of: I've gained EIGHT POUNDS a year since moving here!! Another year and I won't be able to get into MY overall shorts in time for the State Fair where I can PIG OUT with everyone else on HOT BUTTERED CORN, GIANT CORNDOGS, nd !! Funny, but I don't recall ever going to a state fair in Jersey. BTW, some of the wealthier counties in central Indiana have JUST learned about traffic circles and at least ONE MAYOR has become so ADDICTED to them, some of his constituents actually believe he needs counseling! Here they call them "round-abouts" and no one driving knows how to enter or exit them. They are just popping up all over Hamilton County, especially Carmel, which is to Indianapolis KIND OF like Princeton is to Trenton -- but without the university, excellent restaurants, intellectuals/pseudo-intellectuals and life after 8:00 PM.
BYW, are you SURE you're from Princeton because a good percentage of the people I know from Jersey (and that includes P'ton) ARE generally rude (ya have to be to keep up with the New Yorkers!!), DO have Joisey accents, ARE mob guys or at least WANNABE wiseguys who DO sound like Tony Soprano OR his Uncle Junior, OR worse yet, they're POLITICIANS who sound and ACT just like the wiseguys. And many Jersey women still wear the SAME BIG HAIR they wore since the '70s ... in fact, there's long been an unmarketed "name" for that CERTAIN SHADE OF RED HAIR: "Chambersburg Red." If you know where Chambersburg is, you'll know what I mean. lol. Princeton women wear it too!!! Well, gotta go eat my midnight side of pork and hope that Steak & Shake is open so I can finish off my cholesterol with a 40 ounce chocolate malt! Lest I forget, Indy is the home of the late great Kurt Vonnegut! Hiho!

[regionrat1]

well i've lived in Indiana all my life and was in the navy and have heard many accents and stereotypes from different people about thier states. When you said you were from Indiana they always knew one stereotype hoosier. Another region stereotype is if someone asked you were you lived and they were from out of state you said you lived east of Chicago or just said i live by Chicago. fact is that we don't have an accent at all but we have a plain accent and people think we have an accent because its very plain and doesn't have a twang. I also have noticed that people say we don't like others coming from out of state. Well if you look at it every state is that way in some areas. I know for a fact that we don't like people from out of state because we like life the way it is and we don't much like change. Even Ill people because they think thier better then us and they make our prices on everything go up. For example Cigarettes prices have gone up do to the fact Illinois people have come over to Indiana to buy cigarettes because it is cheaper and they can buy a surplus. So stores and the state have increased the tax on Cigarette sales because of more poeple buy it from Indiana instead of thier own state.

[Jakehorror]

Stereotype #1: We are all Cornfed. This may be true though. I love corn!
Stereotype #2: We're all rednecks. I'm no redneck and most of the rednecks here are actually just wannabe rednecks. Don't ask
Stereotype #3: Bobby Knight is our hero. False. However, Larry Bird and Axl Rose still impress me
Stereotype #4: We're all jocks. Not! I have never even remotely liked sports. While I may be in that .0001%, that would not make us ALL jocks!
Stereotype #5: We all smoke. Not true. I don't. My Mom and brothers don't. My wife does. Does seem like we have alot of smokers though, but nobody can really say for sure how many I guess. I do see it alot in traffic.
There's more but I'll be nice.

[traveler73]

Geographical stereotypes fascinate me. During the past few years I've been all over the US and experienced many of them.

But way back in the day, I grew up in upstate NY, which is FULL of stereotypes. I had the typical upstate accent, influenced by the City, but not as harsh. I used to say "tawk" instead of "talk" and "caaa" instead of "car", you know, the typical stuff. Pop was called Soda, and we "bagged" our groceries.

In 1996 I moved to S Dakota and everything changed, I stood out like a sore NY thumb! Shortly after I moved there I became involved in radio broadcasting, a career that I am still in. That NY accent had to go! Now I thankfully have a broadcast accent, but a slight touch of NY comes only when I get upset or "tawk" too fast. But to this day I refuse to call soda "pop" and I don't "sack" my groceries, some old habits die hard!

A family friend from Brooklyn relocated to Ft Wayne for a job with North American Van Lines back in the late 1980s. To this day he still has that heavy Brooklyn accent! His reasons for moving were simple, he was tired of the typical NY stereotypes and wanted a change of pace. How ironic.

[rugrat]

All Hoosier here.... I always laugh at the ending a sentence with a preposition .... like "where you at?" That seems to be a Hoosier thing.... I am as guilty as anyone... and always getting corrected by a friend. we have a good laugh which brings up another Hoosier thing .... I have notice that we are laid back enough to laugh at ourselves. which is a good thing... HA! But what do I know , just a rugrat from a cornfield here....

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by rugrat

All Hoosier here.... I always laugh at the ending a sentence with a preposition .... like "where you at?" That seems to be a Hoosier thing.... I am as guilty as anyone... and always getting corrected by a friend. we have a good laugh which brings up another Hoosier thing .... I have notice that we are laid back enough to laugh at ourselves. which is a good thing... HA! But what do I know , just a rugrat from a cornfield here....

Seems to be a general midwestern thing; you hear it a lot in Nebraska. Come to think of it, I didn't hear it often in Illinois, where I lived for 7 yrs.

[paptofour]

Here's an accent test, kinda fun to see if you are a yankee or a rebel. Born and raised in southern IN. The test says I'm 74% dixie.
Are You a Yankee or a Rebel? - alphaDictionary * Southern Accent Test