[flyingwriter]

Originally Posted by Orwelleaut

I'm always amazed at how MI folks think of Ohio as having a Southern accent. WHen they think of Ohio, they think of the accent one hears around Dayton, CIncy, and Columbus. Around Cleveland, we speak more like folks from Buffalo and Rochester, and a little like Pittsburgh, but definitely not Southern.

Ohio DOES have a Southern accent. Cleveland and Toledo don't; but Cincy, Dayton, Columbus, and Athens certainly do! Try going to Chillicothe and Pomeroy and tell me that they don't have a Southern accent!

[flyingwriter]

Originally Posted by krock1dk

Um.....it doesnt sound like you've been to MI much at all. ALL of my native Michigan friends and relatives from all over the state--who still live there or have moved out--all sound the way I described. I have some cousins who have lived out here in AZ since 1993, and their accent is as thick "Michigander" as you can get. Let me repeat...the Michigan accent strongly resembles that of Wisconsin and Minnesota. And the Upper Peninsula of MI resembles a Canadian accent for sure.

Wisconsin and Minnesota?!?! Come on! ANYONE can tell the difference between an "accent" from Michigan and Fargo-speak. Except for the U.P., no one in Michigan talks like they're from those states. Yah, you betcha!

[krock1dk]

Originally Posted by Bydand

Guess again. Born and raised in Michigan. Have lived from the UP all the way down through the Detroit area. Sault Ste. Marie, Gaylord, Ludington, Rochester, Detroit, Battle Creek; all in adulthood alone. You can add the center of the State around Cadillac as a kid as well.

If thats true, then you have a "wolverine" accent. Period. You may not be able to hear your own, but it would be there if you left the state boundaries. Everyone has an accent. And Michigander DO speak as I described. You just cant hear it.

[lilbear]

Originally Posted by krock1dk

My parents and sister live in MI, but fortunately were not born or raised there. the MI accent resembles a dialect heard in WI or MN. Here are some things U may notice about the MI accent:

1. They pronounce the word bike as BOYK, hike as HOYK and like as LOIK.

2. Short i's as in "milk" is pronounced as a short "e" sound to make it "melk." When I used to work as a FA for a major airline, on a flight to detroit I heard a woman say "melk." I asked here if she was from MI and she said yes and asked me how I knew. I said her accent gave ger away by how she said "melk." She laughed and said she didnt have an accent! I said Oh, yes you do!

2. They pronounce words as they literally look. The town northern MI town of Gaylord is pronounced GAY LORD and the town of Charlotte in southern MI is pronounced CHAR LOTTE (with emphasis on the O), and Macomb County is pronounced MAH COMB, and the town of Binghampton, NY would be pronounced Bing HAM ton.

3. Grammatically, their twang is also funny and very incorrect. Instead of saying the more appropriate "I have some", they would say "I GOT some." They always always substitute the word HAVE for GOT. horrible grammar! And they end sentences with prepositions: Can I come with?, instead of May I come with YOU?

My niece says melk but she spent a lot of her childhood in Florida. Most of that stuff about how Michiganders talk I never do, except for Gaylord but looks how how it's spelled. What is it supposed to be? Guylord or something? lol I don't know. When I say Charlotte, it's more like, 'Shar-lit'.

I say 'can I come with you?'. I was born and raised in MI and now live in SC. I'm sometimes told I have an accent, even my hubby says so and he doesn't have a southern accent, his early learning years were spent in OH, so he's more northern sounding than southern.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by krock1dk

If thats true, then you have a "wolverine" accent. Period. You may not be able to hear your own, but it would be there if you left the state boundaries. Everyone has an accent. And Michigander DO speak as I described. You just cant hear it.

If you would actually READ what I have posted here, you would see that I KNOW I have an accent if I go to another part of the Country. What I am saying is that you have a skewed view of what that accent really is. I question how much time you have spent in the State, and in what areas. I CAN hear the accent, I spent almost 20 years in the Northeast, & down South, and I can hear it well enough to know you are dead wrong on most of your "knowledge."

"If you left the State boundaries" You make it sound like I have never left and have no clue about this. I have been to 47 of the 50 States, lived in several of them and have spent more than a couple of months in over 20 of them, between a month and 2 months in another 15, all the rest is over a week but under a month. I have left the state, I have heard accents, enough to know the difference between "accent" and grammar. Fully half of what you claim to be Michigan accent is poor grammar, and most of those complaints I have heard other places, but never by a native from Michigan.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by Orwelleaut

They "bee-ack", and they "pahrk" their "cahr", with a noticeable twang on the a sound in such words.

All in all, MI has a pretty unique twang, and some pretty interesting pronuncations. I'll always wonder why Keweenaw is pronounced "Kee-wih-naw" when it looks like "Kuh-wee-naw", and why Tahquamenon is not "Tahk-wuh-men-in". Finally, what is up with pronouncing Grand Rapids "Grah-Rapids"??? What the heck is a "Grah", LOL???? I thought it was the Grand River, not the "Grah" River

"Pahrk their cahr" is Boston and coastal Maine, NOT Michigan. Again, I have never heard a single person in Michigan (except my wife who was born and raised in the Boston area, and then only says it when really tired) pronounce it that way. As for "bee-ack", I haven't heard that anyplace I have been, for sure not around this State.

Grand Rapids IS pronounced GranD Rapids. I am there a couple times a month and have never heard anybody pronounce it "Grah" not even my sister and Brother-in-Law who live there. The others are either French or Indian names and as such are pronounced that way, and not Anglicized.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by Orwelleaut

THe worst part is that folks, when gently corrected, actually defend their incorrect pronunciation!!!

Seems like us Michiganders are saying these names correctly if that's they way they are spelled. How about those North Easterners learning to spell words properly?

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by Orwelleaut

THe worst part is that folks, when gently corrected, actually defend their incorrect pronunciation!!!

Lame argument here. If this is the way the residents of the town or region pronounce the name of their own town, then it is the CORRECT pronunciation, no matter what it would be elsewhere in the Country. Kind of like telling someone they are saying their name wrong. Gently correct all you will, if you are doing it in these towns to people who grew up there, you are wrong. If I, from the Midwest or West Coast, walked into Bangor, Maine and pronounce it the way it looks like it should be pronounced I would be wrong. When hearing it pronounced "wrong" by the locals. all the "gentle correction" would do is cement the fact I am wrong and from away and will never learn how to correctly pronounce the name of the city.

I would love to see or hear how "gentle correction" of the name of the town a person has lived in by somebody else would go:
New Arrival - "Excuse me, but I believe the correct pronunciation would be "Salt Saint Marie, and not Soo Sainte Marie"
Native - (Thinking: Jeeze, not another dimwit who is going to correct the way we have said the name of the town for 300+ years) "No I'm right, you have it wrong." Then walking away shaking their head at the audaciousness of the other person.

[MI-Roger]

Tecumsehh, ONT. Both towns are named after the same Indian Chief, no one left alive who knows how the Chief pronounced his name.

And Ypsilanti is NOT pronounced Yipsilanti, except by someone who does not live here

[daddythreepointoh]

This is cracking me up. The fact is that yes, Michiganders, you do have an accent that is easily identifiable to those who are not from your state! It's okay!

I myself have a hodge podge accent that has, at this point, morphed into what would be considered a "general American" accent. I pretty much have no accent...think midwest with more than a smidge of California (born and pretty much raised there) surfer and add a dash of southern phrases from the few years I lived there and from my southern parents.