Michiganders, er, Michiganians

Figured someone should start a thread about this before they started yelling at us on "Geographical Misconceptions."

Yes, ARG220, people from the UP have an accent. And you know what? People from the LP have an accent, too. I learned this when I moved to Colorado. The two accents are different, but both tend to draw out the oooo's. Y'know, the "abooot" syndrom.

Athena, what I've noticed the most about UP'ers is the tendancy to sound like they are swallowing their words. Do you know what I mean? Sounds thicker. Weird, eh?

Now, it is my understanding that the general view of the "Yooper" accent is a slightly less thick version of a thick canadian accent(a la the movie Strange Brew). My experience is that the yooper tends to sound like they are over-pronouncing their words, trying to hard to shake an accent. 'Course, I'm a "troll" (a person living "Under the bridge" meaning the lower penninsula) so I am not an expert.

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"If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, set them on fire."----George Carlin

Ya' heh there, it's gud to meet people from up nort'. Catch any pike lately? Care for a brat and pop? Uffda!

When I was a Michigander, I wondered if my wife was a Michigoose?

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Zymurgist

You aren't too far off. The major English language immigrations came from upstate New York (as opposed to New England), Ontario, and Kentucky (as opposed to Tennessee).

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Tom~

I'm a Michigan transplant, and I think LP Michiganders sound like a cross between New England, Canada, and Nashville.



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The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it.
George Bernard Shaw

[dougie_monty]

I know someone disputed a contention, as printed in a letter to Games, that people from Michigan detest the term "Michigander" (we've already been through a discussion of Abraham Lincoln's use of the word.) But this exchange occurred on the old Hollywood Squares:
Q. What is a Michigander?
GEORGE GOBEL: That's a goose that's been run over by a truck!

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"If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully--because I walk in my sleep."--Victor Borge

[Frankie]

Dougie-
I don't know about anyone else but my family and I know we all prefer michiganders. Its unique and unusual.

Michiganians is so freeking dull! Everyone is an -ian. Californian... oregonian... ohioan... Come on! At least -gander is interesting!

[dougie_monty]

Hey, Frankie--I'm from Indiana, and, among others in the family, my mother detests the word "Hoosiers"!

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"If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully--because I walk in my sleep."--Victor Borge

[Persephone]

I'm from Flint. As for an accent, well, most of us here just sound really, really pissed off.

[dougie_monty]

All the time, Cristi?

[Girl Next Door]

I'm a transplanted Michigander, and damn proud of it! Michiganian is . . . boring.

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Leslie Irish Evans
http://leslie.scrappy.net

[Satan]

Well, I am not an expert, but from my forrays to Michigan, the accent I hear most in what they sound like is closest to Fargo - the movie.

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Yer pal,
Satan

[TVeblen]

Michigander sounds much more...*there*. Besides, Michiginian sounds vaguely like a skin disorder. (No mockery; I'm a native Ohioan who gags at the "Buckeye" bit.)

Cheese Head, you rock: did you know some of us from Illinois (Illinoisans--how's that euhonious? Ill and annoying...) call Iowans "Iowegians"? Not THAT has a ring to it.

Uff da!
Veb

[Persephone]

Dougie: No, not all the time. Just when we're actually inside the city limits.

[TVeblen]

Sheesh!

Sorry about all the typos in that.

---->>>>slinking away,
Veb

[Athena]

I prefer Yooper.

[SoxFan59]

My work often takes me to Michigan (the beautiful berg of Zeeland), and I have used "Michiganders" "Michigonians" and the additional "Michigites" and "Michigese."

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SoxFan59
"Its fiction, but all the facts are true!"

[Persephone]

"Michigites"

Patient: Okay doc, what's the bad news?
Doctor: I'm sorry, but you've got one of the worst Michigite infections I've ever seen.
Patient: Michigite? What's a Michigite?
Doctor: They're small parasites, somewhat similar to earwigs. They crawl in through your ear canal..."

[Pickman's Model]

The beautiful berg of ZEELAND?!?!?!????
Good heavens, man----have you seen a physician about this disorder?

I was born and raised in the Mitten, and I've heard this "Michigander/Michiganian" debate all my life. I myself prefer "Michigan native".

As for immigration demographics, Tom is right, except for da Yoo Pee.....ev'rybuddy from up dere come from Finland. Ya, ok, maybe a few of dem from Sweden.

[Athena]

Norway. I aint no stinkin' Finlander.

Y'know, it was just in the last couple years that I figured out that Finlander wasn't a synonym for Moron throughout the country. In the UP, Finlander jokes are ubiquitous. Everyone's heard the one about Eino and Toivo's icefishing trip, or whatever. But tell a Finlander joke out here in Colorado, and they just don't get it....

[cmkeller]

We Jews like to refer to them as Michiganahs.

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Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com

"Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks."
-- Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective

[DSYoungEsq]

Michganders? Michiganians? Michiganites?

You people are dreaming!

Anyone north of the Ohio border is simply an 'idiot'

<< checking with new Ohio neighbors to see if got terminology right... >>

[Drain Bead]

Idiot, moron, imbecile...all are perfectly apt descriptions of those people up north.

[Persephone]

cmk said:

We Jews like to refer to them as Michiganahs

This is by far the best one yet. Very to the point, I think.

[dougie_monty]

Hey...did you like George Gobel's comment?

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"If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully--because I walk in my sleep."--Victor Borge

[dougie_monty]

Oh, Athena...how moronic can the Finns be when the nouns in their language take fifteen cases? Even Latin and Russian don't have more than six!!
For the record, I am mostly Irish.

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"If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully--because I walk in my sleep."--Victor Borge

[TVeblen]

Oooh, you crazy Scandahoovians!

Finn, Svede, Norsk, Dansk and du all a pissin' in yer lutefisk.

And here most of us dorky anglos thot' you were just good lookin' tall blondes dat unnerstan dirty movies, permafrost and herring.

From a Norwegian-intensive area: the local bar was called "Swede's Office".

Didn't get the joke until a Norske explained it.

Uff da!

Still loathes lutefiske,
Veb

[BunnyGirl]

I don't have a real reply here. Just wanted to be in on the discussion about the Nation's Greatest State.

When I lived in Tennessee, when I met someone new, they always said, "Oh you must be from Michigan. I recognize your accent".
Hey, who's got the accent, you red-neck, sister-lover? Not me, nope. Now I godda go get me some pickled herring!