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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.
It's pretty much Canadian, that's how we sound, or at least that's how I sound. I notice it now when I go back home and talk with friends, because mine is less than it used to be, and all the sudden my friends sound like complete Canadians. I grew up in the tip of the Thumb, so it could have been my location. Who knows. I'm proud of it, especially living down here with all the southern drawls, i'm thankful for it actually!
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?
Wow, maybe 'melk' but nothing else. I definitely never say ' I got some' I have great grammar, thank you, and find this a bit offensive. Oh well, I know I have an accent, but thankfully, I know it's nothing like the one you've described.
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.
Only heard that on the East coast, never heard that once from a native Michigander.
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2. Short i's as in "milk" is pronounced as a short "e" sound to make it "melk."
Some do some don't, not a set in stone thing across the State though.
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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.
Guilty as charged of pronouncing the names of the towns like they are pronounced from the people who live there. How they would be pronounced elsewhere really has no relation to an accent, it is a pronunciation thing. (Never heard it pronounced as "MAH-COMB though in all my years living in Michigan, always heard it pronounced with a long "A" and a short "O")
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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?
Ending sentences with prepositions: Again, I have heard this a LOT on the East Coast but never in Michigan.
I have heard "I've got some" a lot, but can't recall anybody over 8 or 10 using "I got some". Instead of "May I come with you?" I always hear (and use) "Can I come?" or "Can I come with you" While not perfect Grammatically, I do not hear people butcher the language like you are describing.
An Accent? yes.
A complete train wreck of the English language though? No!
Only heard that on the East coast, never heard that once from a native Michigander.
Some do some don't, not a set in stone thing across the State though.
Guilty as charged of pronouncing the names of the towns like they are pronounced from the people who live there. How they would be pronounced elsewhere really has no relation to an accent, it is a pronunciation thing. (Never heard it pronounced as "MAH-COMB though in all my years living in Michigan, always heard it pronounced with a long "A" and a short "O")
Ending sentences with prepositions: Again, I have heard this a LOT on the East Coast but never in Michigan.
I have heard "I've got some" a lot, but can't recall anybody over 8 or 10 using "I got some". Instead of "May I come with you?" I always hear (and use) "Can I come?" or "Can I come with you" While not perfect Grammatically, I do not hear people butcher the language like you are describing.
An Accent? yes.
A complete train wreck of the English language though? No!
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.
I've lived in Michigan all my life and I know for a FACT I do not say anything the way you posted. LOL
Everyone has an accent. Of course you dont hear your own. It is next to impossible for someone to hear their own accent coming from their your own lips. Trust me, if you were born and raised in MI and still live there, you have a strong "wolverine" accent. I can detect a MI accent a mile away, at least one from the Northern Great Lakes area anyway. And my friend who lives here in PHX has lived here for over half her life, still has her Minnesota accent. Although its not real strong.
I never used to think I had an accent either--a central Indiana accent (I am from Indianapolis)--until I moved 10 years ago and people told me I did. And now when I return a visit, I can hear everyone's accent vividly. And I laugh that I sound like them. Compared to MI, it sounds slightly southern. It sounds like something heard in much of Illinois (except the far nothern and Chicago area) or even parts of Missouri, but definately not Ohio (more eastern)!
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?
A pretty good summation of the MI twang, though I don't personally notice what you mentioned in #1. I've definitely noticed the "melk", though, and that word is pronounced more this way than in other Great Lakes locations. As far as #2 and #3, you hit the nail on the head, LOL!!! Town names are pronounced very literally. A person from the Northeast, from a locale such as Eastern PA or NJ, is likely to find some of the MI town pronunciations pretty humorous. Binghamton, NY, is a fairly large metro area. Folks in PA, NY, and elsewhere in the Northeast all pronounce Binghamton "Bing-uhm-tin". This is the way everyone pronounces this!! If you said "Bing-ham-ton", someone would probably have a hard time controlling their laughter!!!
While in MI, I encountered a Reading, which the locals pronounced "Read-ing". The PA city is pronounced "Redding", and this is the pronunciation the British use. The PA city, Lancaster, is pronounced "Lank-iss-ter". This is the way the British pronounce this, and also the way folks in the Northeast pronounce this. In the midwest, though, I usually hear the laughable mispronuncation of this town name, "Lann-cass-ter". THe worst part is that folks, when gently corrected, actually defend their incorrect pronunciation!!!
You forgot to mention "ee-ack", or the NOrthern Cities shift. In MI, locals don't back out of a parking space. They "bee-ack", and they "pahrk" their "cahr", with a noticeable twang on the a sound in such words. You also didn't mention the open-mouthed word ending thing that some MI folks have quite strongly. Instead of enunciating a consonant that ends a word, such as the "t" ending the word "lilt", the word just stops without the consonant being said. I being dialect researchers call this a glottal stop.
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
NAH!!! We-don-have-n-ahcent, we-jist-run-ar-werds-togither n talk-fast.
Even as short a distance away as Cleveland my homegrown MI accent stood out. I had many, MANY field personnel tell me over the phone "you aren't from around here." LOL
To a NE Ohioan, yes, there is a definite MI accent. Toledo has it a little. It is very twangy and nasal, with some interesting pronuncations. I don't notice MI folks talking fast, but I do notice some interesting pronunciations and syllable dropping. Around Toledo, for example, Temperance, MI, a town just north of the border, is pronounced "Temp-rinse". Out our way, it would be "Temp-err-rinse", with three full syllables. I've also noticed "this afternoon" sounding like "s'afternoon".
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.
I have never met a person who did not have an accent, but the people who have the most pronounced accents are always the people who think they don't have an accent.
Before I retired, I worked on a public job and some people would come in making fun of our Southern accents, and they were so much worse than any of us. Last week a girl at Sam's was marketing a product and after the third time she repeated what she had said, I realized that she had said, "Do you use a little make-up." She talked so fast that all the words were running together. I felt so sorry for her. From what I have read on here she may be from Michigan.
Poor thing did not have a clue that she had a pronounced accent.
Technically, an accent is anyone who does not speak like the people they live around. My opinion, not the dictionary. So if you leave your part of the country and go somewhere else, you will be the one with the accent.
Um.....it doesnt sound like you've been to MI much at all.
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.
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