Home Home

A fellow Flickr member and man from the hand put together this website on Michigan . After being told by a Scottish/Irish couple that at times I sounded like a fast talking Forrest Gump, I realized I might just have a little accent. Although, I do not actually sound like Forrest Gump. I hope.

For the fellow Michiganders, please read and enjoy. For the others, hopefully this will help you understand our people better.

Some highlights:

T's --- When in the middle of a word and not supported by another consonant, are generally pronounced like a D (this is common in the US, but especially so in Michigan). "Little" becomes "liddle", "catatonic" becomes "cadatonic". When coupled with an "N", they get dropped like the useless energy-wasting consonants that they are: "cantaloupe" becomes "canalope", and "consonant" becomes "cahnsineh"Freeways

Freeways--- In California, they tell you to take "The 405"... in Washington DC, you get on "495". But in Michigan, since US, state and interstate highways can have the same number, interstate highways are often said with an "I-" before the number. So to get to Detroit's Metro Airport, you git in yer cahrr an' take "I-teoo-sevenny-five" to "I-ninedy-four". Sometimes called freeways, sometimes expressways, but it's rare you'll hear them called "highways"

Company names as possessives-- In the early 1900's, the Ford Motor Company's sole factory was known by people all over Michigan as "Ford's Factory", since it was owned by Henry Ford. Like a virus, this wacky mispronunciation spread to any large shrine of industry or commerce.

"Where do you work?" "Oh, I work at Ford's." "I see, and evidently you were schooled in Ohio."

So "Meijer" became "Meijers", "Kroger" became "Krogers", and inexplicably, "K-Mart" became... "K-Marts"! For the record, folks... there is no family by the name of "K-Mart" that owns that chain.

And some words:

• "Bob-lo": Bois Blanc. The name shared by several Michigan islands (and a former amusement park). Next time someone blows their nose: "Hey, it's the Boblo Boat!"
  
  
• "GROSHries": Groceries. Wouldjamind goin' to the groshry store?
  
  
• "Parrty Storre": US equivalent: liquor store. There's one on every other block. We like it that way, cuz ya never know when the urge fer a Moosehead'll hitcha. Or, ya know... could be Stroh's.
  
  
• "Up North": common for anywhere in the state north of the middle of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, say around Alma. If yer goin' Up North, it's usually fer a vacation er fer deer huntin'