[EddieOlSkool]

I love the Michigan accent. The mainstream one spoken by the majority of the population has Northern Cities Vowel Shift and is similar to the Chicago accent, albeit not as fast talking or harsh unless you're around the D. However, it's still nasal and very distinct from the typical "Midwest" spoken in most of Ohio and Indiana.

I hear that Yoopers have a more Finland influenced accent that has some Irish/Scottish intonation. I only met one Yooper my whole life but he spent the majority of his life in the Lower Peninsula, so he didn't have the whole "saOOnah" pronunciation heard up there.

I lived in Michigan and being from Chicawgo, nobody noticed my accent and I thought they sounded normal. But in the rest of the Midwest, we sound nasal and to OUR ears, they might as well sound Southern. If you don't hear a difference between a Columbus, OH native and a Michigander, you might be deaf.

[michigan83]

But in the rest of the Midwest, we sound nasal and to OUR ears, they might as well sound Southern. If you don't hear a difference between a Columbus, OH native and a Michigander, you might be deaf.

Yup. Ohioans sound southern/twangy to me when I get south of Toledo somewhere. Indiana residents sound southern-ish almost as soon as I cross the border.

It's not actually southern, of course, but it doesn't sound anything like the way people talk here.

[canudigit]

Can anyone give me some examples of the Michigan accent? I do telephone triage for a living and on several occasions I have had people in places like California and Oregon ask me where I'm from and when I tell them Michigan, they'll say, "Aha! I knew it! You have SUCH a Michigan accent!", which is funny to me, because I'm not even from Michigan originally (grew up in NW Oho, which I know, isn't very far away) and I only live 20 minutes from the border now. I have lived here for almost 19 years, but still, I think I just have the plain, no accent, "Midwestern Vernacular", as they say. I was totally shocked the first time I was told that I have a Michigan accent, but, especially since I didn't move here until my early 30s, it makes me proud!

[Ladle of Gravy]

The Detroit area has some Canadianisms that aren't found further outstate (like in Flint). I was raised in Ferndale and realized later that I say "eh?" quite a bit, usually at the end of a sentence, although not as often as Canadians use it. In Flint I don't hear that. Detroiters also tend to pronounce words in a more urban way. For example, "frawg" rather than "frahg," which is how rural Michiganders say "frog."

The lower peninsula accent, to my ear, starts somewhere east of Syracuse, NY, goes west in NY (and northern PA), through the northern tier of counties in Ohio. I lived in Toledo, OH, which is in this region, but noticed that Little Sandusky, OH (just a bit south of Toledo) had more pronunciations in common with Pennsylvania (like saying "warsh" for "wash", "mayzher" for "measure," etc.). Fort Wayne, IN, is definitely different. But it continues through the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, through northwestern Indiana. Chicagoland is very close, but I can hear a difference (more of a vowel shift). Southern WIsconsin and the northern part of Iowa are the same. But northern Wisconsin and Minnesota are different, as is the Upper Peninsula.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by canudigit

Can anyone give me some examples of the Michigan accent? I do telephone triage for a living and on several occasions I have had people in places like California and Oregon ask me where I'm from and when I tell them Michigan, they'll say, "Aha! I knew it! You have SUCH a Michigan accent!", which is funny to me, because I'm not even from Michigan originally (grew up in NW Oho, which I know, isn't very far away) and I only live 20 minutes from the border now. I have lived here for almost 19 years, but still, I think I just have the plain, no accent, "Midwestern Vernacular", as they say. I was totally shocked the first time I was told that I have a Michigan accent, but, especially since I didn't move here until my early 30s, it makes me proud!

I used to think the same thing. But hang out with people from Indiana or Ohio who speak REAL Midwestern English, and to YOUR ears they will sound twangy. Honestly, Michigan speech is so nasal and has a weird Vowel Shift that anything that isn't from there will sound like it's Southern.

According to linguists, Michigan is part of the Great Lakes accent region, stretching from Western New England to Wisconsin. It is not part of the "General American" Midland region as thanks to tons of European immigrants has undergone a unique "Northern Cities Vowel Shift", wherein odd pronunciations come about as a result of others.

For example, most Americans use a different Vowel for the words "that" and "man". The first Vowel of THAT is "lax" with the tongue lower in the mouth and the vowel of MAN is tense with the tongue higher in the mouth.

But in Michigan and most of the North, this rule goes away. THAT and MAN share a tense vowel with the tongue higher in the mouth. That is one of the big characteristics of the Michigan accent.

Also, most Americans pronounce the short letter o as a "British broad A". The same letter used to pronounce "salsa" is the way Americans say the letter O for the most part if it's a short vowel. Not in Michigan. The way THEY say letter O is the same way the British say their short a. So BLOCK in Michigan sounds like BLACK in British English. But most Americans would say it more like BLAHK. So in Michigan mom=mam, Tom=Tam, etc. Keep in mind I am phonetically spelling this in a way that makes sense to most Americans and other English speakers. It is NOT phonetic in Michigan because you're most likely not aware of your Vowel Shift.

[michigan83]

Originally Posted by canudigit

Can anyone give me some examples of the Michigan accent? I do telephone triage for a living and on several occasions I have had people in places like California and Oregon ask me where I'm from and when I tell them Michigan, they'll say, "Aha! I knew it! You have SUCH a Michigan accent!", which is funny to me, because I'm not even from Michigan originally (grew up in NW Oho, which I know, isn't very far away) and I only live 20 minutes from the border now. I have lived here for almost 19 years, but still, I think I just have the plain, no accent, "Midwestern Vernacular", as they say. I was totally shocked the first time I was told that I have a Michigan accent, but, especially since I didn't move here until my early 30s, it makes me proud!

The Toledo accent is pretty much the same as southeast Michigan. When I'm in Toledo I don't really notice a difference in accent from here. Linguist maps usually show this too. Toledo is included in the Great Lakes accent. Cleveland too. But when I've been further south in Ohio it starts to sound much different and more twangy. People from Columbus sound downright hillbilly (especially at football games). But this doesn't apply to everyone, of course. Young people and more educated people have less of a regional accent usually.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by michigan83

The Toledo accent is pretty much the same as southeast Michigan. When I'm in Toledo I don't really notice a difference in accent from here. Linguist maps usually show this too. Toledo is included in the Great Lakes accent. Cleveland too. But when I've been further south in Ohio it starts to sound much different and more twangy. People from Columbus sound downright hillbilly (especially at football games). But this doesn't apply to everyone, of course. Young people and more educated people have less of a regional accent usually.

Many people forget that Columbus is very close to the Appalachian region as it is only about 30 miles away.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by michigan83

The Toledo accent is pretty much the same as southeast Michigan. When I'm in Toledo I don't really notice a difference in accent from here. Linguist maps usually show this too. Toledo is included in the Great Lakes accent. Cleveland too. But when I've been further south in Ohio it starts to sound much different and more twangy. People from Columbus sound downright hillbilly (especially at football games). But this doesn't apply to everyone, of course. Young people and more educated people have less of a regional accent usually.

What's interesting is that Columbus is grouped in with the North Midland accents that according to linguists are what closely approximate General American.

This is because the Columbus area shares more in common with a larger region of the US from Jersey to the West Coast. Michigan on the other hand has features in its accent more confined to one smaller region (Western New England to Eastern South Dakota).

Also, studies show that the Northern Cities Vowel Shift is the least detectable accent to people who HAVE the shift, so even educated people will have it while thinking they speak General American, as evidenced by this thread. I've met lots of educated Michiganders who swore they had no accent despite strong NCVS. I think this is even more common in Michigan since the accent covers a LARGE portion of the state, many Michiganders don't travel outside of the Great Lakes, and there isn't a ton of stigma associated with the accent unlike the New York or Southern accent. It's also hard to detect in oneself as Vowel Shifts without obvious elision or consonant dropping doesn't give way to sounding uneducated. What young people and those who are more educated don't do in Michigan is "th stopping" as in turning "these, them, those" to "dese, dem, dose".

[ctg492]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Some of those I hadn't thought of before. Most probably aren't peculiar to Michigan, but a little self-deprecation never hurt. Here's a couple more:

• Port Urine (Port Huron)
• Ashphalt (asphalt)

Mom would correct me all the time to say Huron , not Urine

[ctg492]

I said I never had an accent from MI, after reading this I guess I do.