What is the Chicago personality? (Phoenix: neighbourhood, bus, moving)

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Finally, using the word "Wisconsin", and listening to its pronunciation, is a good tipoff as to whether someone is from the Chicagoland area.. it sounds like "Wis-caaaaan-son"....

Im born and bred in the area, noone I know (from city or burbs) says Wis-caaaaaan-son". Its Wis-CON-sin, thats how we pronounce it, just like it should be.

[j33]

Perhaps you don't hear it. I'm from Chicago too, and I've got lots of family from the east-coast, growing up me and my cousins would sit around and make fun of how each other talked ... when they'd do their imitations of me they always exaggerated their 'a's .. just like when I did my imitations of them I wouldn't pronounce my 'r's and I'd throw the word 'wicked' randomly into conversations.

[katmoney]

Yeah now that I don't live in Chicago anymore people here are always poking fun at my accent. I never really noticed it til I left the area. I get teased for saying Oregon the way it should be pronounced: ORE-A-GON

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by katmoney

Yeah now that I don't live in Chicago anymore people here are always poking fun at my accent. I never really noticed it til I left the area. I get teased for saying Oregon the way it should be pronounced: ORE-A-GON

Thats not an accent, just a pronunciation problem.

[DC's Finest]

I have a few friends from Chicago and they all say Wisconsin like Wisk-an-san. I have another friend from Naperville and he sounds exactly like one of the SNL characters. "Da Beers." However, my black friends there have more of a southern twang to their accent.

[j33]

I love how this thread has gone from discussing the characteristics of the city and her residents into debating the obvious, whether or not there is a distinct regional accent in the great lakes region and Chicago specifically. Of course there is. This has been documented linguistically and there is indeed a specific regional accent here just as there are distinct regional accents all over the US. Whether or not you 'hear' them is irrelevant. Sheesh!

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by j33

I love how this thread has gone from discussing the characteristics of the city and her residents into debating the obvious, whether or not there is a distinct regional accent in the great lakes region and Chicago specifically. Of course there is. This has been documented linguistically and there is indeed a specific regional accent here just as there are distinct regional accents all over the US. Whether or not you 'hear' them is irrelevant. Sheesh!

I think you hit upon something important... Chicago is definitely a woman's city. It's a female city, that is to say. I don't question that the character is female. But it's probably the only example of a "female" character whose character isn't at all demeaned by her gender. It's very tough and very serious but I still think of the city as female.

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by coldwine

I think you hit upon something important... Chicago is definitely a woman's city. It's a female city, that is to say. I don't question that the character is female. But it's probably the only example of a "female" character whose character isn't at all demeaned by her gender. It's very tough and very serious but I still think of the city as female.

Well, its pretty common to refer to cities, cars, ships, etc as feminine. You just dont hear people say "He's a great city". Dosent sound right.

With that all said, skyline wise I dont think Chicago could be any more masculine.

[j33]

Originally Posted by via chicago

Well, its pretty common to refer to cities, cars, ships, etc as feminine. You just dont hear people say "He's a great city". Dosent sound right.

That is what I was doing. I thought it was pretty well know that cities (or countries) and ships are two of the very few grammatically gendered nouns in the English language. Although admittedly that is falling out of style in common written English, sometimes I forget.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by aragx6

The reason national broadcasters speak in the Midwestern accent doesn't have that much to do with them starting out here. And you certainly don't hear them talking like the SNL skit. Can you imagine?? The "Midwestern accent" is the generally accepted American English accent and as such it is taught in broadcast journalism schools. It certainly gives Midwesterners a leg up on the competition.

I know they are not newscasters or tele-journalists, but Mike North and even Mike Murphy on WSCR "The Score", Dan McNeal,Harry Teinowitz,John Jurkovic on WMVP and more sure sound pretty much like the SNL guys to me and all of them grew up in Chicago or the area.

Some can turn the "Chicago" in them off and on though...