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

...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."

In Michigan we….

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.

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

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

Ja-eat?Did you eat?

you guys

Yuh guys

Look at it! check this out!

Lookit!

Secretary of state

Secretariah State

Where?

We end many sentences in prepositions such as “at”

Where at?

Grand Rapids

Grranrapids

accident

AK-cidih

Ann Arbor

aeh Narbor

Asphalt

Ashfault

both

bolth

Charlotte

Char-LOTT

city

Ciddy

clothes

cloze

column

CAHL-yum

comfortable

COMF-terbul

congress

Cahngriss

Come Here

C’Meer

crayons

Cranz

creek

crick

Dad

Deeah or Dayaahd

Detroit

DiTROI

drowned

drownded

eavestrough

Eeeevs Traaaf

Fire

FI-yerr

Forever

FREVer

Refrigerator

Frigerraider

Government

GoverMit

garage

grage

groceries

GROSHries

hockey

Haahkee

Hundred

Hunnerd

I’m going to..

I-munna

kind of

KI-nuh

Lake Erie

LayKEERie

Library

Lie-berry

Livonia

liVONEya

mom

maahm

milk

Melk

mirror

Mier or meer

mosquito

muskeeda

nuclear

NUKE-yuller

Pontiac

Pah-neeack

pop

pahp

pillow

pellow

realtor

reeelatur

roof

ruff

second

seckit

temperature

tempachur

thanks

thenks

vanilla

vanella

weekend

weeken

Windsor, (Canada)

winzerr

you

yuh

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" soundlike 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:

The Michigan Accent:Glottal StopThis 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.

Chicago is "Chic-aah-go" not "Chi-caw-go"