The Michigan Accent

“Michigander Slang Words”

Michigan Slang/Colloquialisms:

“The Mitten” The State of Michigan “The U.P.” The Upper Peninsula “Up North” Where you go if you're traveling within Michigan

In Michigan we….

...go tuh the store, not "to" it.

...usta' have jobs in Detroit, not "used to" ...go huntin' in the wuds, not the "woods" ...get our tires slashed for driving a Tie-ota, not a Toyota.

...say er' not "or." ...feel like we're ki-nuh like Minnesotans, not "kind of."

Michiganders like to save time...

We talk really fast here, so in order to do so, we do something similar to what the French call a liaison and elision . This is basically a way to mash up words in order to make pronunciation easier and faster.

"Well, how am I supposed to say it?"

This comes out sounding like, "Well, how my spose'ta' sayit'?"

Ja-eat?

Did you eat?

Yuh guys

you guys

Lookit!

Look at it! check this out!

Secretariah State

Secretary of state

Where at?

Where?

We end many sentences in prepositions such as “at”

Grranrapids

Grand Rapids

AK-cidih

accident

aeh Narbor

Ann Arbor

Ashfault

Asphalt

bolth

both

Char-LOTT

Charlotte

Ciddy

city

cloze

clothes

CAHL-yum

column

COMF-terbul

comfortable

Cahngriss

congress

C’Meer

Come Here

Cranz

crayons

crick

creek

Deeah or Dayaahd

Dad

DiTROI

Detroit

drownded

drowned

Eeeevs Traaaf

eavestrough

FI-yerr

Fire

FREVer

Forever

Frigerraider

Refrigerator

GoverMit

Government

grage

garage

GROSHries

groceries

Haahkee

hockey

Hunnerd

Hundred

I-munna

I’m going to..

KI-nuh

kind of

LayKEERie

Lake Erie

Lie-berry

Library

liVONEya

Livonia

maahm

mom

Melk

milk

Mier or meer

mirror

muskeeda

mosquito

nuclear

NUKE-yuller

Pah-neeack

Pontiac

pahp

pop

pellow

pillow

reeelatur

realtor

ruff

roof

seckit

second

tempachur

temperature

thenks

thanks

vanella

vanilla

weeken

weekend

winzerr

Windsor, (Canada)

yuh

you

The Michigan Accent: The letter "A"

as in "car" is a kind of light ee-yeah or ēă sound.

Crayons are "crans" Dad is dēăd

The long "e" sound

like the "i" in "mirror" is a bit longer and really nasally.

Also, we don't waste our time with the "or" in "mirror", so it's just "meer."

The letter "t"

If the letter "t" occurs in the middle of a word, it has a "d" sound. City is pronounced "ciddy"

The Michigan Accent: Glottal Stop

This is when your voice kind of stops in the middle of a word and then starts again. In Michigan, we like to do glottal stops at the end of our words, which is kind of like a last bit of forced breath. When we say Detroit, we don't say the "t" sound at the end. We say “Detroi” and then a bit of forced breath.

"kitten" or "button", there is a glottal stop without the t sound actually being pronounced kitten = kih'ihn, button = buh'ton

"Ah"

is drawn out, as in “faahh-ther” for father and “maahm” for mom.

After school, you go to "haahckey" practice.