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Michigan Accent

Timize

By Timize
in Grand Rapids Coffee House

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john_denver Hamlet

john_denver

Posted
Posted

I never knew there was a Michigan accent until I lived in Washington state. I was hanging out with friends (all from the state of Washington) and remember talking about how "solid" the wall in our apartment was. For the first few minutes they looked very confused because with my Michigan accent they thought I was saying the wall was "salad".

My friend John also wondered why I called him Jan.

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snoogit Town

snoogit

Posted
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I never knew there was a Michigan accent until I lived in Washington state. I was hanging out with friends (all from the state of Washington) and remember talking about how "solid" the wall in our apartment was. For the first few minutes they looked very confused because with my Michigan accent they thought I was saying the wall was "salad".

My friend John also wondered why I called him Jan.

how else do you say John other then "Jahn"?

Heres one that got people confused I hear people say Satellite like "Sadalide" (including myself) :lol:

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john_denver Hamlet

john_denver

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how else do you say John other then "Jahn"?

It's difficult to write in an email but they would say something like "Jon"...a really closed-short O.

They would mock me in good humor all the time.

Same for Oregon. People from the midwest tend to say Oregahn...they hate that!!! Out in Oregon they say it with a short-closed O.

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snoogit Town

snoogit

Posted
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It's difficult to write in an email but they would say something like "Jon"...a really closed-short O.

They would mock me in good humor all the time.

Same for Oregon. People from the midwest tend to say Oregahn...they hate that!!! Out in Oregon they say it with a short-closed O.

like Oreg own?

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Posted

It's difficult to write in an email but they would say something like "Jon"...a really closed-short O.

They would mock me in good humor all the time.

Same for Oregon. People from the midwest tend to say Oregahn...they hate that!!! Out in Oregon they say it with a short-closed O.

At least it's not "Jawn", "Scawt" (for Scott) and Hauwkee (for Hockey) like the Western UPers say it. :D

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dtown Town

dtown

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Posted

like Oreg own?

No they say it like "Oreg in" .one of my best friends is from Oregon/Washington and he got mad when i sadi Oregon, so ive changed my ways on that one.

And also, my name is Jon, and most people in MI say it like Jahn, but my friend from Washington and his family all say it like Jawhn

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john_denver Hamlet

john_denver

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No they say it like "Oreg in" .one of my best friends is from Oregon/Washington and he got mad when i sadi Oregon, so ive changed my ways on that one.

And also, my name is Jon, and most people in MI say it like Jahn, but my friend from Washington and his family all say it like Jawhn

Yeah dtown, that's more accurate.

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RustTown City

RustTown

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Not really a Michigan thing, besides the fact that the cities are in the state, but a lot of the earlier settlers had a way of messing up names.

People in Charlotte (Lansing Metro, and seat of Eaton County) get so annoyed when outsiders make the mistake of saying the name as its pronounced everywhere else in the English world. lol It's two even more distinct syllables than the normal pronounciation, and pronounced "Shar-Lot."

This also goes for Saline (Suh-leen), and Milan (My-Lynn) in Washtenaw County. Then there is one for the life of me I can't figure out that I've heard used often here in Metro Lansing, and that Williamston just east of Lansing. I swear, the people I know from there have always said something to the extent of "Lame-sten." I didn't even hear the hint of the "W." So weird.

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Rizzo City

Rizzo

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My girlfriend is a Charlotten? and she freaked out when I pronounced it like Charlotte NC... in one of the gas stations on their main drag. I actually knew how to say the city name properly because all the news stations here in Metro GR happen to use the correct pronunciation. I just wanted to see the look on the people's faces in the station, quite suprised at the stares. She said if I went to Frontier Days and said that, I would be the only person there missing body parts. BTW I'd have to vote the Charlotte-Olivet area as my favorite small town in the whole world.

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Rizzo City

Rizzo

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I was there for a whole week and was very impressed with downtown and the County seat. A jem in architecture for that town if you ask me, and properly lit up at night too! I believe Dad(?) has a pic of the county building somewhere.

:offtopic: my bad. :blush:

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LA Dave Hamlet

LA Dave

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Well, you think Michigan place names have strange pronounciations -- you ought to live in an area where you have real and faux Spanish place names.

For example: The port of Los Angeles is in an area called San Pedro. It's pronounced San PEEdro. And a major thoroughfare in the area is Sepulveda Boulevard. In Spanish, that would be se pul VEH da. In Angelese, it is seh PULL ve da. Finally, the city just to the south of LAX is El Segundo. In Spanish, again, it would be El se GOON do. In Angeles, it is El SeGUNdo. (Named because it was and is the site of Chevron's second oil refinery.)

In Chicago, you also have weird pronounciations. The name of a street honoring one of Germany's greatest poets is pronounced Go-thee, with a soft "th." And another street, named after a county in England, is pronounced de VAHN.

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RustTown City

RustTown

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Yeah, that goes for most cities that have had major changes in culture. A whole bunch of Detroit's French-named and other named streets have sound strange in their current english pronounciations (this is after the British took Detroit from the French, and the Americans from the British, lol):

1. Beaubien: Boh-been

2. Goethe: Go-tee

3. Freud: Frood

4. Cadieux: Cad-jew

5. Gratiot: Gra-crap/shut

6. Dequindre: Duh-quin-der

7. Shoenherr: Shay-neer

And so on and so on...

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Yeah, I've never seen any other city so upset about people saying the name wrong. Cool little town, though. Metro Lansing is full of cool little cities and villages, and Charlotte is one of them. I went to school with a lot of kids from these areas.

There's another one LMich: I hear Okemos mispronounced occasionally as O-Ke-MOSE, instead of how the locals call it O-Ke-Mis.

And speaking of Chicago, I hear a few people leave the "s" on the end of Illinois. Ahhhh!

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RustTown City

RustTown

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There's another one LMich: I hear Okemos mispronounced occasionally as O-Ke-MOSE, instead of how the locals call it O-Ke-Mis.

And speaking of Chicago, I hear a few people leave the "s" on the end of Illinois. Ahhhh!

I didn't even think of Okemos because it seems so obvious to me. There is no "e" on the end. lol I've even heard people pronounce is O-Key-MOSE. I mean, it is an Amerindian name, but it shouldn't be that hard. :)

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mejane Whistle-Stop

mejane

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You've actually heard someone say Chicago like that?

Yes and by someone who prides himself on formal and correct

pronunciations - made me doubt myself for a minute - not real

obvious, but enough there to hear it slightly - now just makes me

laugh at his pompousness.

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