MIL or MKE?

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by Iburytheliving

Hmmm, lived in Milwaukee over 6 years and have never heard that.

What? I have also heard most people pronounce it M'waukee. I have even had a person from Cambridge, WI ask me why do people from Milwaukee pronounce it M'waukee. I don't know why but I like.

[43north87west]

MKE is the international airport code for Milwaukee, so why not use something that already exists?

MIL sounds dumb, but that's just my opinion. Besides, MIL doesn't correspond to an airport in the vicinity, so there is no reason to capitalize it as is the convention for airports. It's just as stupid as those pseudo-European country tags that states back east adopted for places like the Outer Banks ("OBX") and suddenly they popped up on every other car on I-95. Every suburb and little burg on the East Coast had one. No thanks.

[Solas]

MIL "exists" just as much as MKE. It's been the main abbreviation for Milwaukee in the sports world for quite some time.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by Solas

MIL "exists" just as much as MKE. It's been the main abbreviation for Milwaukee in the sports world for quite some time.

Aha. That's true. All the more reason not to use "MIL", in my opinion. However, they both beat most of the butchery of the word Milwaukee, usually heard south of Clybourn Street.

In reality, abbreviations are strictly useful in type, not in speech. It's useless to speak the acronyms M-K-E or M-I-L, when one can simply say the name of the city.

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by 43north87west

Aha. That's true. All the more reason not to use "MIL", in my opinion. However, they both beat most of the butchery of the word Milwaukee, usually heard south of Clybourn Street

Zinger! nice jab at the south side

I would like to claim M'waukee as a south side saying but it's all over M'waukee.

[43north87west]

That's true, Mwaukee is something that's spoken by a lot of people. Although I don't mean to rip on the South Side (or take the thread off track), the version of English spoken in that area of the city, is somewhat unique.

Read the May issue of the Bay View Compass. The interviews for "On The Street" (2nd page) are an example. When I first read the individual comments from people on the street, I thought I might be reading The Onion.

[Solas]

From my observation "M'waukee" is pretty universal throughout the city. But you're right that a lot of what get called "Milwaukee" colloquaisms is really just old southsider talk with no relevance in other parts of the city. Basically, if you see something on a t-shirt at that horrible Brew City kiosk at Grand Avenue, you can bet that the only "Milwaukeeans" who use it are Polish baby boomers who've lived in Cudahy for the past 20 years.

As far as the Bay View Compass... I think that's more a matter of their reporters not knowing how to properly edit quotes than anything else... still hilarious though!