[MaryleeII]

Is "two family flat" a term unique to MI ? I grew up with several on my street. Basically, one dwelling is downstairs and the other is upstairs, as opposed to a duplex.They weren't quite as secure as a separate duplex, because the often shared a staircase.We had one that was shared by a family, one that was owned by a gay couple who owned a hair styling salon down stairs and their living quarters upstairs, ,

[MaryleeII]

warsh-rag instead of wash cloth

[2nd trick op]

I'm not sure about this, maybe a native Michigander can enlighten us; but I heard Detroiters (as a fleet dispatcher, I worked with a facility in Troy "over the wire" on a regular basis) use the terms "submarine races" (parking - the carnal variety) and "clunker" (worn-out used car) a long time before Happy Days popularized the former and the Great Recession popularized the latter.

BTW, in some households here in Pennsylvania a face cloth is a "wash-rag", a couch or sofa is a "davenport" and (??) a sweet, or bell pepper is a "mango" -- go figure!

[westernwilly]

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

warsh-rag instead of wash cloth

I think that is a term that was brought up from Appalachia. A lot of people came up to Detroit and Flint from that area in the 1950's and 60's to find jobs in the auto industry. Outside of the east side, I think that you will be hard pressed to hear anyone call a wash cloth a "warsh rag".

[Nedibes]

Wow, I actually read through every single post in this humongous thread! Very fun. As a native of Mid-Michigan with two non-native parents (Illinois and Idaho), I had never heard of the Detroit-isms, but they're fun to learn.

Two additions I can think of:

More pronunciation than vocabulary, but I find no matter how hard I try I always say "prolly" instead of "probably"

Red pop as a thing: the only place outside of Michigan that I've seen this without explanation was in a children's book...set in Michigan. I know Vernor's is the state drink, but I saw a lot more Faygo growing up. My mom wouldn't ever buy it (or any pop, actually) but red pop was always my favorite at potlucks and picnics. Running across it in my kids' book brought the taste to my tongue and a tear to my eye (very inconvenient when trying to read aloud to a bunch of fourth graders) and immediately clued me in about the book's setting.

And a few observations:

My understanding has always been that "party store" is a holdover from some sort of legal prohibition on using the term "liquor store"--when I was growing up in Lansing, "party store" meant liquor store, not just any corner store or convenience store (those we called Quality Dairy!). I can't find the actual history, but Michigan is one of the states with alcoholic beverage control rules (state monopoly on distilled spirits wholesaling) which loosened up after the sixties, so I imagine at one time "liquor" stores were those operated by the state and selling hard liquor, while "party" stores were private stores selling just beer and wine or something like that.

Adding an 'S'--I have always considered this a logical holdover for Meijer's from when it was actually part of the name (Meijer's Thrifty Acres), but have now realized that I definitely do add it to other stores with names that sound like names, including Kroger's and Penney's (though not J.C. Penney, for some reason, and definitely not K-Mart or Target). It feels like it's shorthand for "old man Penney's place" or something. Now I'm wondering if Jacobson's and Hudson's and Mervyn's were actually Jacobson and Hudson and Mervyn and I just remember them wrong!

I'm surprised that so many people think of "pop" as unique to Michigan. As far as I know, this is the second most common phrase for a carbonated, sweet, non-alcoholic drink in the U.S. (after soda, before generic "Coke"), and very common throughout the Great Lakes region and neighboring states. I live in Iowa now, and everyone here says pop (though I did get strange looks if I said it in California--after working at Coca-Cola for a year, I just said "product" to avoid the whole mess, lol).

Warsh instead of wash: My grandmother from west-central Illinois said this, though she claimed not to (she actually took years of elocution growing up, and other than that quirk sounded vaguely British). I never noticed anyone else in Lansing saying it, so now I'm curious about its distribution nationwide.

[chh]

Is Superman Ice Cream really a Michigan thing? I've seen it mentioned that it's only in Michigan but is that really true?

[jaynarie]

Originally Posted by chh

Is Superman Ice Cream really a Michigan thing? I've seen it mentioned that it's only in Michigan but is that really true?

The name Superman, yes. They have a blue/yellow/red ice cream that they call various names. I believe it is usually just colored vanilla. At least the kind I had was.

Blue moon is a midwestern thing, too.

[jaynarie]

Originally Posted by Nedibes

More pronunciation than vocabulary, but I find no matter how hard I try I always say "prolly" instead of "probably"

This is a pet peeve of mine. Is it regional?

Originally Posted by Nedibes

Red pop

This is more of a brand becoming the 'common noun' type thing. Like Kleenex being universal for tissues, regardless of brand. Red Pop is the actually name of Faygo's strawberry pop.

Originally Posted by Nedibes

Adding an 'S'--I have always considered this a logical holdover for Meijer's from when it was actually part of the name (Meijer's Thrifty Acres), but have now realized that I definitely do add it to other stores with names that sound like names, including Kroger's and Penney's (though not J.C. Penney, for some reason, and definitely not K-Mart or Target). It feels like it's shorthand for "old man Penney's place" or something. Now I'm wondering if Jacobson's and Hudson's and Mervyn's were actually Jacobson and Hudson and Mervyn and I just remember them wrong!

Jacobson's, Mervyns, and Hudson's are the proper names. (No apostrophe in Mervyns.)
This is another pet peeve. The only one I'm guilty of is saying "Penney's", but that is really more of a nickname. Not unlike people referring to Walmart as "Wally World". But I worked at Kroger through high school and college, and most people even wrote Krogers on their checks (I worked there back when people still wrote checks.) And some people do say "K-Marts". "Targets" and "Walmarts" is less common, at least with people I talk to.

Originally Posted by Nedibes

Warsh instead of wash: .

This is actually a British thing. I worked with an English lady, whom I loved dearly, but it drove me nuts. It was pretty much only after a short a. Her assistant's name was Rebecca, so it was always "Rebeccer".

[Republic of Michigan]

A lot of Detroiters pronounce words which end in "ern" into "rin". Northwestern become Northwestrin, Modern become modrin...etc

[detshen]

Originally Posted by jaynarie

This is actually a British thing. I worked with an English lady, whom I loved dearly, but it drove me nuts. It was pretty much only after a short a. Her assistant's name was Rebecca, so it was always "Rebeccer".

My name ends with an a, and that "er" sound drives me nuts when Brits say my name!

I do know someone who used to say warsh, for wash, and she definitely wasn't British.