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Old 06-16-2014, 06:59 PM
 
Location: Troy, Michigan
402 posts, read 421,584 times
Reputation: 262

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Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but Ive just moved here from Southern Cal and am curious about the local accent. From what Ive heard around Troy, this area seems to be in a border zone, Ive heard everything from an extreme Chicago-like Wisconsinish accent to more neutral GenAm. Im curious if the more neutral accent is Canadian (Ontario) cross-over or something else. Ive also heard a Pittsburghian influence in some people's speech like the local tv weatherman Rich Luterman, whose bio says he's from Pittsburgh, but Ive heard this accent around as well, I will call it the beginnings of Brooklynese, but I know thats not technically accurate, just trying to say that my ears regard this kind of accent as "Bostonish". Is this something peculiar to Metro Detroit or throughout the Upper Midwest.

Being from Southern Cal, my ears are not unaccustomed to the Chicago type of speech as there are many transplants there. In fact, my mothers older sister talked in a broad Midwestern accent even though she only married into a Midwestern family and remained in Cal, it was weird. It is unusual to hear this "inland north" dialect by (almost) everyone. One of the things Ive noticed is the word "pop" rules here for sodas. Im a "coke" man myself as my maternal grandmothers people were from Texas, but general Cal usage seems to be soda. Its always annoying to me whenever I tell a server I want a "coke" and they ask if pepsi is ok, lol. Its not about brand loyalty lmao. But yeah thats one of the markers that Im truly in the Midwest now, when people call it pop, hehe. My paternal grandmother, from Nebraska who spent her early married years in Chicago called it "pop" that I remember. She also said "waRsh", not sure what Michiganders say on that one, well thats all for now.
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Old 06-16-2014, 08:15 PM
 
Location: West Michigan
181 posts, read 295,814 times
Reputation: 110
Hey there! Interesting post to me...I moved to Michigan from SoCal in 2006! Lived in the Detroit Metro until 2010 and now live in a small town in West Michigan, northeast of Grand Rapids.

I definitely hear the accent here, but what's funny is that many Michiganders don't think they have an accent at all! But yes you'll hear everything from a rather flat midwestern accent to that Chicago sounding accent too. What I notice is their A's and R's are "hard"...a harsh sounding A and a pirate sounding R...LOL. And the UP has that Wisconsin/Minnesota-ish sound going on for sure...

The pop thing I had to get used to, in Cali it was soda or Coke (for everything), but then again my mom was from the south...she says "warsh"! haha

I used to work in Troy and had a co-worker who commuted from Windsor everyday...her accent was a tiny bit different from Michiganders but I noticed it was very similar, excluding the famous "aboot" and other little differences.
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Old 06-16-2014, 09:04 PM
 
Location: North of Canada, but not the Arctic
20,849 posts, read 19,322,755 times
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http://www.city-data.com/forum/michi...an-accent.html
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Old 06-16-2014, 09:16 PM
 
Location: Windsor Ontario/Colchester Ontario
1,784 posts, read 2,194,469 times
Reputation: 2284
Quote:
Originally Posted by thepastorsson View Post
Hey there! Interesting post to me...I moved to Michigan from SoCal in 2006! Lived in the Detroit Metro until 2010 and now live in a small town in West Michigan, northeast of Grand Rapids.

I definitely hear the accent here, but what's funny is that many Michiganders don't think they have an accent at all! But yes you'll hear everything from a rather flat midwestern accent to that Chicago sounding accent too. What I notice is their A's and R's are "hard"...a harsh sounding A and a pirate sounding R...LOL. And the UP has that Wisconsin/Minnesota-ish sound going on for sure...

The pop thing I had to get used to, in Cali it was soda or Coke (for everything), but then again my mom was from the south...she says "warsh"! haha

I used to work in Troy and had a co-worker who commuted from Windsor everyday...her accent was a tiny bit different from Michiganders but I noticed it was very similar, excluding the famous "aboot" and other little differences.
Yes, as much as us Windsorites try to deny it, we are influenced by our Michigan neighbours accent. We don't hear it, but when we travel to other parts of Canada, we often hear that we sound "American", lol. We still sound mostly Ontarian, but the influences from being part of the Greater Detroit Area is very evident!
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Old 06-17-2014, 09:52 AM
 
447 posts, read 1,239,967 times
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As I have said in several similar discussions here, the Southwest Michigan/Chicago area is somewhat famous for turning out many of the top disc jockeys in the nations over the past 50 years due to the decided "lack" of an accent -- or more likely, the chameleon-like ability of professional speakers here to fit in where ever they go. Many West Michigan/Chicago announcers, newscasters and deejays worked all across the nation because they had no distinct regional accents. Once a person overcomes the regional word differences (pop/soda, etc.) they usually fit in quite well whether in Boston or Atlanta!
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Old 06-18-2014, 03:21 AM
 
3,199 posts, read 7,789,628 times
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I lived in MI for 30 years but when I moved to CA people said I had a slight accent. They mentioned how the A is pronounced in words. I remember when I lived in NJ I would say pop and they would say you are not from here. So now I always say soda.
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Old 06-18-2014, 08:14 AM
 
Location: West Michigan
3,119 posts, read 6,561,116 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by allbusiness View Post
As I have said in several similar discussions here, the Southwest Michigan/Chicago area is somewhat famous for turning out many of the top disc jockeys in the nations over the past 50 years due to the decided "lack" of an accent -- or more likely, the chameleon-like ability of professional speakers here to fit in where ever they go. Many West Michigan/Chicago announcers, newscasters and deejays worked all across the nation because they had no distinct regional accents. Once a person overcomes the regional word differences (pop/soda, etc.) they usually fit in quite well whether in Boston or Atlanta!
A lot of people like to say that we have the most "neutral" accent here in good old Michigan, but it's not really true (aside from the fact that there is no such thing as a neutral accent). Lots of places all across the Midwest like to claim that their residents have the "perfect newscaster accent." I've actually heard Nebraska and Iowa mentioned for this a lot more often than Michigan. When you get out and do some traveling, it makes it easier to notice that Michiganders actually have a very strong regional accent, especially in the rural areas. It really helps if you travel to other places in the North, because then you can compare our accent to other "normal" accents. If you travel to the South... of course our accent seems "normal" in that case, because it certainly is closer to General American than the southern accent is.
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Old 06-18-2014, 09:17 AM
 
Location: Lansing, MI
26 posts, read 63,831 times
Reputation: 52
In Michigan you'll hear pellow (pillow), melk (milk) ....many vowel sounds are more nasal

When I moved to Michigan (from Hawaii) people thought I had a strong accent. Now when I travel home everyone comments on my Michigan accent.

We also tend to put an s to show possession where there is none....So "Meijer" became "Meijers", "Kroger" became "Krogers", and inexplicably, "K-Mart" became... "K-Marts"

I clipped this from the web....A's are somewhere in between a short ă for the rest of the country, and a short ĕ. It's not "ahh" like what the doctor asks you to say... more like "aeh", with an emphasis on the "eh". Hold your nose shut if you need assistance.
G's in verbs are usually silent. Notable exception: "tornado warning".
R's are always hard, and sound like a growl to a lot of people. Just think of a pirate. ARRRrrrr.
T's, when in the middle of a word and not supported by another consonant, are generally pronounced like a D (this is common in the US, but especially so in Michigan). "Little" becomes "liddle", "catatonic" becomes "cadatonic". When coupled with an "N", they get dropped like the useless energy-wasting consonants that they are: "cantaloupe" becomes "canalope", and "consonant" becomes "cahnsineh" (DON'T SAY THAT T!).
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Old 06-18-2014, 09:24 AM
 
Location: Lansing, MI
26 posts, read 63,831 times
Reputation: 52
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Old 06-23-2014, 06:20 PM
 
4,000 posts, read 4,065,440 times
Reputation: 6994
Michiganders don't have accents. Everyone else does.

BAHA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA
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