[Briolat21]

I want it to be clear that there is a difference btw SE Michigan (Detroit metro) and other big cities in Western MI and rural MI and the UP.

Most SE Michigan sound no different than Toledo or Chicago (without the exagerated "ditka" speak). Cleveland has a slightly different speech pattern (closer to Pittsburgh).

Yes, most people born and raised in SE Michigan sound like the newscasters and think the newscasters sound just like them.

I moved to Chicago - for 3 years - no one thought I had an accent. I moved to Southern NM for 2 years - no one thought I had an accent (S. NM is a lot of transplants from all over, much like Florida). Friend in Cali and Colorado do not think I have an accent. Went to Florida and never got "you must be from MI".

Now I live in Cinci. None of my coworkers have mentioned my accent (for god's sake I do not sound like the people in Fargo - which yes, I can hear that accent). However I have noticed theirs.. some of them have a slight drawl and a slight vowel shift.

I am sure that I have an accent, but equally sure it is not a Minnesotan accent, nor a western MI accent, nor a rural MI accent, nor a Yooper accent, no - not even a canadian accent.

And - there was a movie with Meg Ryan where she played a boxing producer - she perfected the "supposed MI accent" - the whole movie as she spoke I could hear the accent and kept thinking - if my friends and I talked like this I would HEAR it - because I notice it right away in this movie. In fact it was SO ANNOYING, I really didn't like the movie. She definitely made the MI accent sound like a Minnesotan accent.

and when I say "Oh my Gosh" it is Long "O" - one syllable, long "I" one syllable, short "O", one syllable. I do not say "gawsh" or "OOOOOOOH" - unless of course I am speaking iN "valley speak" from the '80s.

I'm sure I sound testy, but I know the accent you're talking about, and I know that the hundreds of thousands of local SE Michiganders I dealt with in 20+ years, did not sound like that. So, I am a little testy. There are at least 5 different speech patterns in MI and you're categorizing one as referring to the whole state (and it is a BIG state).

[jeanniepep]

That was a good point about the Detroit area . . . I grew up in Troy (Oakland County, SE Mich) and my mom was an English teacher, so proper grammar was very strongly emphasized. Now that I live in North Branch the grammar is totally insane. Here's an example:

(speaking to one person) "We ain't never seen you down there no more."
(speaking to more than one person) "We ain't never seen youse down there no more."

Using "youse" as the plural of "you" seems to be a Lapeer County phenomenon. The rest, I don't know.

I lived in Florida for a summer, working at Disney with kids from all over the country/world, and one thing I learned is that Michigan is one of the only places where we call our carbonated beverages "pop" (lol, "paahp"). Most places say "soda" though one of my friends from Tennessee just called it "Coke" regardless of whether it was root beer or Sprite or whatever.

[DDevil]

This might help

michigan accent: idiosyncrasies and patterns

michigan accent: pronunciations unique to us

[Bydand]

Agree that there are several different accents in Michigan as well. I grew up in West Michigan and the whole way through school grammar and pronunciation was a BIG thing. I cringe when I hear "Dem, Dat, or Dare" instead of "Them, That or There (their)". Been to Fargo, and have family in Minnesota and nobody around here sounds like those places at all, unless they grew up over there or close to the border in the UP. The state is too large to lump together in speech pattern or accent. Kind of like everybody equating the accent of Maine with the one heard in a very narrow strip right along the coast. Michigan has a wide assortment of "local flavor" when it comes to speech. (Agree with you on Lapeer County by the way jeanniepep.)

As for the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, yes that is a truism, but mainly regarding the larger cities and not the smaller places as much. It also is about the same across the Great Lakes region in general in the larger cities and ends up with Detroit sounding like Chicago sounding like Cincinnati sounding like Cleveland for the most part. Not so much Detroit sounding like Traverse City sounding like the Soo sounding like Marquette etc....

[dragon_fly_12]

Originally Posted by GoGators1

I guess my ultimate question here was do you all notice your accent? The answer appears to be no.

Yes, I can hear my own accent in the Cleveland area - I can tell I speak differently. And my Cleveland friends hear a very distinct accent, apparently.

[khfar]

Originally Posted by RJ17015

OMG -- I can't believe you posted this! I am one of those Michiganders who doesn't get the MI accent??? We moved to SC, and most people can pinpoint me to the Midwest, but a woman this weekend said "you're from MI" I was shocked. She said yes you have a MI accent.

Yes I am baffled - sorry - I don't hear it. Sad thing is no one can tell me how I speak different. I don't have a y'all, or a southern drawl. Yet I'm not the New England -- "cot" and "caught", nor the New Yorker/NJ.

So can you explain the "accent?" So far no one has been able to explain how we sound different than the rest of the US.

Oh, I can explain the aaaaaaaccent! LOL! Even my friends here, that are FROM here, admit that they have an accent. Michiganders use a hard "A", and it's long. "Aaaaaccent", "aaaaaple". Sometimes, there's almost a "Y" in there, too: "aaaayple". Also, my neighbor described it as "nasally", and I think that's pretty accurate, too.

I definitely notice the accents up here in the Midwest, but I also realize that I have more of a southern accent. I think it's weird that people don't realize they have accents, when they are from certain parts of the country. Almost ever region has their own specific accent.

[stanman13]

I grew up in Lapeer and never noticed the "youse" thing. I don't say it. Maybe I was just so used to hearing it that I just tuned it out.

DDevil- interesting link. I see some of that in my own speech, but like others were saying, ya can't think one aaksent wud fit fer da hole state, eh?

[maja]

I grew up in Michigan (Detroit Metro Area) and moved to Los Angeles 12+ years ago. People frequently and still tell me they hear an accent and guess I'm from Chicago or Ohio if not Michigan. They tell me its in the vowels and that I sound more nasally. Nyep..nthey ndoooo!

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by mostie

I've been here for a little over 2 years, originally from CA- and people here DO have an accent! To me, they definitely sound Canadian- I spent a few months in Canada, and that's what people here sound like, to me.

I've been told that I have an accent as well, HA- I tell everyone, "no, people from California don't have accents...everyone else does!" heh heh

I've lived in several sections of the USA. To my ear, most of the Californians I've head speak close to dictionary English, sans accent or regional inflection.

Originally Posted by GoGators1

I'm trying to think of how to explain the accent, but it's hard because when I write out my examples I think you'd just read it the way you say it, and vice versa if you explained my accent to me, haha.

The thing that stands out the most is how you say your vowels. Especially A's and O's sound like some whole new vowels that Michigan (and the mid-west) invented A good example would be if you said "I'm walking around the block" it sounds to me like "I'm whacking around the blaaack"...like you're holding your nose or something.

Because I mostly hang out with 21 year old silly college girls when I'm there (our friends) another phrase that immediately comes to mind is when they say "Oh my God". It comes out "OOOOhhh(similar to how the owl says "Whoo") my GAAAAd". The AAA in God there is like the AAA in Apple...except the way you all say apple sounds like it starts with an e. "Eaapple". Haha. It's really hard to explain, hope that makes a little sense

You pretty well nailed it. We moved from New England to the Detroit area when I was a teenager. The overuse of aaaaa was immediately noticed.
On the other hand, my father had a deep, rich New England accent and many people thought he was British.

I came home from school one day and told my mother, a high school English teacher, "You should have heard my math teacher. "Fiii dawwers" (five dollars). Not THAT's an accent.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by stanman13

I grew up in Lapeer and never noticed the "youse" thing. I don't say it. Maybe I was just so used to hearing it that I just tuned it out.

DDevil- interesting link. I see some of that in my own speech, but like others were saying, ya can't think one aaksent wud fit fer da hole state, eh?

Youse. That's a Joizey thing.

I knew a fella from the backwoods of West Virginnie, he used youse a lot too.
Youse guys.