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.
“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?
Zymurgist
I’m a Michigan transplant, and I think LP Michiganders sound like a cross between New England, Canada, and Nashville.
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it.
George Bernard Shaw
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).
Tom~
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!
“If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge
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!
Hey, Frankie–I’m from Indiana, and, among others in the family, my mother detests the word “Hoosiers”!
“If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge
I’m from Flint. As for an accent, well, most of us here just sound really, really pissed off.
All the time, Cristi? 
I’m a transplanted Michigander, and damn proud of it! Michiganian is . . . boring.
Leslie Irish Evans
http://leslie.scrappy.net
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.
Yer pal,
Satan
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
Dougie: No, not all the time. Just when we’re actually inside the city limits.
Sheesh!
Sorry about all the typos in that.
---->>>>slinking away,
Veb
I prefer Yooper.
My work often takes me to Michigan (the beautiful berg of Zeeland), and I have used “Michiganders” “Michigonians” and the additional “Michigites” and “Michigese.”
SoxFan59
“Its fiction, but all the facts are true!”
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…"