[kemcnyc]

This is so funny. I grew up in Michigan and never thought I had an accent. After college, I moved to NYC and people would comment on my accent and ask where I was from. I thought they were crazy, just like your friends' reactions. Now that I've lived in New York for the past 13 years, I do notice the accent from Michigan (on other people) and I can usually pinpoint it. My husband said I get an accent when I'm on the phone with people from Michigan!

[Lyzzacious]

This is really interesting to me. As a child I went from living in Akron, OH for 4 years (from birth), then I lived in the middle of the mountains in PA for 5 years, and then moved to MI. When I first moved there people were constantly picking out my accent, saying I sounded funny, but after about 6 years of living there I'd very become much more 'native' in my accent, though people still pick me out saying I sound different. I had a very excellent choir director tell us that in MI, we tend to make our words and our vowels 'wider' than most people. This is where we get aaaehksent (that's how I would spell it if I were going by phonetics) and 'weee,' etc. You don't really find accents that have taller pronunciations, just narrower... The wider the pronunciation, the more nasal it sounds. I've been in Iowa for 2 weeks (for school), and I tell ya, I can tell who's not from Iowa! They don't sound WAY different but they definitely have a much narrower way of speaking.

for example, I say speeeeeeking, ow my gawsh, POHnee (pony), hoarse (horse), dawg, caaht, awnt/aant, grammah, grampah, mawm, daad, etc. VERY wide.

I like how I talk, though, so I don't care.

[J'aimeDesVilles]

Nobody ever seems to think that they have an accent. Mostly we all do. I would say the Michigan accent is slight compared to most southern and north-eastern accents.

It is funny. I was born and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio area and never noticed the accent too much. Twenty years ago I moved to the Detroit area and noticed a bit of an accent. It has a blend of Ontarian and Wisconsin accents.
Now when I go back to Ohio I really notice the Ohio accent and Cleveland accent (there is a difference between the two). Ohioans have a funny way of stressing the vowels. I would say the Ohio accent is like a cross between a Pittsburg accent, a WVa/Kentucky accent and a Mid-western accent.

I think all the American accents sound a bit uncultured or uneducated compared to most foreign especially European accents. But perhaps it is just the novelty versus common factor.

[michigan83]

I think all the American accents sound a bit uncultured or uneducated compared to most foreign especially European accents. But perhaps it is just the novelty versus common factor.

I'm pretty sure that's an idea that's been drilled into our heads by hollywood, TV, etc. I don't think an accent carries that much weight.

[misweetdream]

I'm Chicago born and raised. While living in CA an Asian woman overheard me speaking and asked if I was from Sweden.

You're right. Accents don't make any difference.

[jackhitts]

Just to add my two cents: I moved to Michigan right at the start of high school and immediately noticed the accent. My school-mates scoffed and said they didn't.

I didn't think about it for a while but when I went to college (in Michigan, mind you), I noticed that I had developed it myself. I consider myself a Michigander now and I doubt I'll be losing the accent. Plus, now that I've graduated and have started my life elsewhere (Missouri currently-still Midwest, but TOTALLY different accent) I see it as a point of pride. I play it up just to make it clear: I am from the Northern Midwest and I scoff at your pseudo-hillbilly, sorta Midwestern accents. Ha!

[jeanniepep]

I was just thinking about this thread a few weeks ago! Did any of you guys watch Top Chef in the first few weeks? There was a female chef (contestant) from the Ann Arbor area named Eve - she also owns a restaurant in A2 called "Eve" - and she had the flattest vowels EVER!!! To me she didn't even sound like anyone I know in Michigan, she actually sounded like people I have met who are from Pittsburgh. BUT she had a very pronounced accent and it made me wonder: Do I sound like that? Cuz it was not very melodious!

BTW she's off the show now, got eliminated in week 2. So, if you want to hear her you'll have to find it online (now don't everybody rush to the computer at once).

[Antha]

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 substitiute the word HAVE for GOT. horrible grammar! And they end sentances with prepositions: Can I come with?, instead of May I come with YOU?

I live in a suburb of Detroit. I'll admit, we probably have a noticeable accent to people outside of Michigan, but we talk NOTHING like you are suggesting. I've lived my entire life in the same area of Michigan. All of the shows I watch (Desperate Housewives, say, for example or House)...they all sound like the way I speak. Your last thing (I don't want to say 3rd because it should be fourth) about the grammar is completely insulting and untrue. Aside from the slang in Detroit (I cringe; the "I aint got no time to get to tha sto"...argh), most Southeastern Michiganians grammar is proper and formal.

1. I do not say BOYK, I say BYE-KE, and HIGH-KE, along with everyone I know.

2. I don't know anyone, with the exception of my mother, who says things like "melk", "pellow", "pen" for "pin". The reason she says these things is because her mother was CANADIAN and her father was from KENTUCKY. Her children (my siblings and I) say MILL-K (it doesn't sound long, I spelled it out that way to indicate pronunciation) and PILL-OH.

"2." 3. This is somewhat true, depending on the REGION OF MICHIGAN. In my area, we say "Gay Lerd" or "Gay Lord". Charlotte is usually CHAR-LIT and Macomb is MUH-COMB.

3. Again, willing to admit an accent, but proper use of the English language is NOT a characteristic of Michigan (aside from Detroit slang). The phrases you mentioned do not sound like anything I've ever heard and I've lived here my whole life.

Alright, having addressed those issues...

I have never been out of Michigan, so no one has ever commented that I have an accent. Everyone on tv shows I watch speak just like we do here, whether it be a newscaster on CNN or a show like LOST. To me, everyone on television sounds like a Michiganian (I hate the term Michigander; its not the correct term, technically speaking; I know many like it but I do not).

I do think its funny when people online guess I'm around the "Great Lakes Area" when I say pop (it does not sound like PaaaaHP; it sounds like PAHP - quick and short -in my region). Certain words are particular to this state, but I think several posters mentioned a "Fargo" and "Yooper" accent and associated that with all of Michigan. People from Wisconsin have a VERY noticeable accent to me and sound nothing like my region. Yoopers also do not sound like Southeast Michigan. People may have heard a Michiganian speak Fargo-esque. I'm not doubting that. I'm saying that that is NOT how people in Southeast Michigan speak and not how EVERYONE in Michigan speaks.

To me, we (me and the people in my region of Michigan) sound like Tim Allen. I hear no accent with Tim Allen, so I must sound like him.

I know this post is late in the game, but I wanted to clear up some things that were mentioned in this thread. Some posters were thinking the Michiganians disagreed about us having an accent. NO. What they were disagreeing with was the KIND OF ACCENT.

The "aaaaaaaahccent" (we actually say ACK-cent) that you suggest is a Upper Peninsula, Upper Michigan, Western Michigan or Wisconsin accent. That is a generalization. I've never heard anyone speak like those in Fargo or U.P...unless it was IN THE U.P.

Where I am from, we say "caRR", not "CAHr". Hard R's. People who pronounce car as "cah" are more Boston-sounding. We definitely have hard R's in SE Michigan.

The way we speak in my region is considered "Midland" speech or dialect. They did a PBS special on it a few years ago, noting that most television shows, newscasters, movies, all model their speech on "Midland speech" because it is considered the purest form of English, after British English. I do think that New England sounds closer to older English. However, the way I speak is the way people on tv speak. I am not referring to local newscasters, either. Movies, tv, national news...they all speak like I do.

I think when some of these posters are referring to a "Michigan accent", they are referring to a much heavier, Yooper-type accent that is farther north, not the one you hear in movies.

Rant over.

One of my favorite bumper stickers: "Say Yah to Da U.P., eh?" THAT'S the accent some were referring to.

[northstar22]

I don't get when people mention "Western Michigan" as having a different accent as the rest of the state. I'm from western Michigan, graduated from Western Michigan University, and live on the west side of the state, and I've heard that I sound like I'm from West MI a couple of times. I honestly can't tell what part of Michigan someone is from (other than the U.P.) by their accent. What is the difference?

[danielj72]

Originally Posted by Antha

I live in a suburb of Detroit. I'll admit, we probably have a noticeable accent to people outside of Michigan, but we talk NOTHING like you are suggesting. I've lived my entire life in the same area of Michigan. All of the shows I watch (Desperate Housewives, say, for example or House)...they all sound like the way I speak. Your last thing (I don't want to say 3rd because it should be fourth) about the grammar is completely insulting and untrue. Aside from the slang in Detroit (I cringe; the "I aint got no time to get to tha sto"...argh), most Southeastern Michiganians grammar is proper and formal.

1. I do not say BOYK, I say BYE-KE, and HIGH-KE, along with everyone I know.

2. I don't know anyone, with the exception of my mother, who says things like "melk", "pellow", "pen" for "pin". The reason she says these things is because her mother was CANADIAN and her father was from KENTUCKY. Her children (my siblings and I) say MILL-K (it doesn't sound long, I spelled it out that way to indicate pronunciation) and PILL-OH.

"2." 3. This is somewhat true, depending on the REGION OF MICHIGAN. In my area, we say "Gay Lerd" or "Gay Lord". Charlotte is usually CHAR-LIT and Macomb is MUH-COMB.

3. Again, willing to admit an accent, but proper use of the English language is NOT a characteristic of Michigan (aside from Detroit slang). The phrases you mentioned do not sound like anything I've ever heard and I've lived here my whole life.

Alright, having addressed those issues...

I have never been out of Michigan, so no one has ever commented that I have an accent. Everyone on tv shows I watch speak just like we do here, whether it be a newscaster on CNN or a show like LOST. To me, everyone on television sounds like a Michiganian (I hate the term Michigander; its not the correct term, technically speaking; I know many like it but I do not).

I do think its funny when people online guess I'm around the "Great Lakes Area" when I say pop (it does not sound like PaaaaHP; it sounds like PAHP - quick and short -in my region). Certain words are particular to this state, but I think several posters mentioned a "Fargo" and "Yooper" accent and associated that with all of Michigan. People from Wisconsin have a VERY noticeable accent to me and sound nothing like my region. Yoopers also do not sound like Southeast Michigan. People may have heard a Michiganian speak Fargo-esque. I'm not doubting that. I'm saying that that is NOT how people in Southeast Michigan speak and not how EVERYONE in Michigan speaks.

To me, we (me and the people in my region of Michigan) sound like Tim Allen. I hear no accent with Tim Allen, so I must sound like him.

I know this post is late in the game, but I wanted to clear up some things that were mentioned in this thread. Some posters were thinking the Michiganians disagreed about us having an accent. NO. What they were disagreeing with was the KIND OF ACCENT.

The "aaaaaaaahccent" (we actually say ACK-cent) that you suggest is a Upper Peninsula, Upper Michigan, Western Michigan or Wisconsin accent. That is a generalization. I've never heard anyone speak like those in Fargo or U.P...unless it was IN THE U.P.

Where I am from, we say "caRR", not "CAHr". Hard R's. People who pronounce car as "cah" are more Boston-sounding. We definitely have hard R's in SE Michigan.

The way we speak in my region is considered "Midland" speech or dialect. They did a PBS special on it a few years ago, noting that most television shows, newscasters, movies, all model their speech on "Midland speech" because it is considered the purest form of English, after British English. I do think that New England sounds closer to older English. However, the way I speak is the way people on tv speak. I am not referring to local newscasters, either. Movies, tv, national news...they all speak like I do.

I think when some of these posters are referring to a "Michigan accent", they are referring to a much heavier, Yooper-type accent that is farther north, not the one you hear in movies.

Rant over.

One of my favorite bumper stickers: "Say Yah to Da U.P., eh?" THAT'S the accent some were referring to.

I think southeast Michigan is somewhat different than the rest of the state. I have lived in several parts of Michigan including the eastern UP and have noticed Michigan accents are about the same everywhere exept southeast Mi. ( although parts of the western UP have strong Michigan accents) Wisconsin accents are almost identical to ours. Southeast Michigan is an exeption. Currently I live in central lower Michgan, but have been told while visiting the Detroit area that I have an accent. I am only 100 miles northwest of Detroit but I do think people down there do talk a little different. Southeast Michigan speech sounds more like Ohio than Michigan as far as accent goes. It makes sense that speech is different down there, as southeast Mi is so different in general from the rest of the state. Southeast Mi is about money, career, suvs, malls, and big city life. The rest of Michigan is about small town life, farming, hunting and fishing, and trying to make a living on less. The two regions are almost like seperate states. As you travel southeast, you notice how the people seem to change when you get south and east of Flint. They just seem to be harder and a few speeds faster. Not suprising that speech is different there as well.