Accents
So, I've been watching random YouTube videos about accents; mainly accents of the US. Some of the things I do or say, I didn't realize they were related to Michigan or sometimes Northern Midwest states. There's a few I enjoy in particular. A couple are specifically about my home state of Michigan. A couple are generalizations of certain states / regions of the US.
Of course not everyone in a certain area says things the exact same way, but watching these made me realize that I am definitely all Michigan. While I don't say "melk" for milk, I know plenty who do. Otherwise, I speak fast, don't say my "t" in many instances, and pronounce things just the way they've been shown.
Some of the "accents" have to do with ancestral migration patterns and from where they originated; at least that's pointed out in one of the videos and I can say that it's likely the case. When I'm meeting with my global counterparts, I have to slow down what I say for everyone except the French... maybe the Germans too in most instances. My family originated [I'm talking from the 1500s] in France, went to Canada and migrated "south" to Michigan. I quoted south because some of my dad's family stayed right along the border of Canada in the UP, which in reality, means they migrated West... almost directly West.
So, if you're interested, here's some fun videos about accents.
From Michigan:
US Accents:
NO POLITICS, NO PRESIDENTS PAST OR PRESENT!
Just for fun!
I am of mixed heritage and grew up on the AZ/Mexico border. I lived with and was partly raised by my maternal grandmother who spoke only Spanish and no English. Understood it perfectly though. I spoke no Spanish, Went to live with her when I was 5 years old when my parents divorced. One of the first things she made me and my two older siblings aware of was that if we wanted to converse with her, we had to do it in Spanish. I learned fast. When I was 18, I left home after high school and joined the Navy. I have been to and lived in many parts of the world, primarily in the Pacific and Far East, that included time in New Zealand. The end result was that as a results, I have no real definable accent that ties me to any one particular region or country. I generally picked up accents of the countries I was in at a given time. Many people over the years have tried to guess my origins based on what they perceived my accent to be. They always get it wrong. Amuses me to no end.
That is fun. My great aunt had been born and raised in the UK, but when she married my great uncle, she moved to Georgia with him... it's a very interesting accent to say the least. My mother in law was born and raised in the UK [Norfolk area of England to be more precise] and considering she's been in MI for more than 50 years, her English accent has, for the most part disappeared; although, I occasionally catch a bit of an accent.
I once had a girlfriend from Monroe, MI who pronounced milk as melk and pillow as pellow. Drove me crazy. My current language peeve is listening to Blake Shelton on the Voice turn one syllable words into two syllables.
I love a South African accent. Hint, hint Trevor Noah!
In the first video the guy is talking about pronunciation, not accent. Adding an s at the end of a company or store name does not represent an accent.
Semantics
Uh, no.
That was interesting, I have never been told I have a Michigan accent. I am guilty of using the possessive for Kroger and Meijer but it may not last for too many generations. Every time I say Kroger's or Meijer's around my granddaughter I get corrected.
I have lived most of my life in Michigan but my family moved here from the south when I was young. Many of my family members have southern accents and I find it comforting when they speak. Whenever I drink a bit too much my southern draw decides to come out.
Most romantic accent has to be French.
Hm... I find Irish, Scottish, or Australian to be more sexy, but maybe it's because I hear the French accent almost daily and I'm kind of numb to it?
Very cool videos. It is a shame he didn't do a Long Island accent. We do have a different accent from the city.
LawgIslanD (one word)
But since I grew up between here and London, I don't have that. I also don't have the hard DT and N's but I have a soft A
Agreed. Similar with Detroit and the well-known Michigan overall... Detroit has a unique accent.
When we moved from Chicago to Ft. Wayne, IN, the first student I met said; You know y'all have an 'aksyent'? I laughed out loud.
I've been 'blessed' by being influenced by southern women in my use of language.
The things that stuck the most were 'y'all' and 'darlin'. I never got 'carry' for take and 'you'uns' was a no go.
Thought you might like this.
I watched that one as well. It was funny.
Aub, a couple of years back, I heard that Northwestern University spent $250,000 on a study to find out why people in the UP talked the way they do. They determined that it probably came from Norwegian and Finnish immigrants, who came to work in the Iron and Copper mines in the 1800's. Hell, I could have told them that and wouldn't have charged them more than a hundred bucks for the info.
Right! Although, there were a lot of French up there at that time too [my dad's family for example] and they were maple syrup farmers after the fur trade diminished. However, yes there was a large Norwegian population for sure... they could handle the cold and snow in the amounts that the UP gets!
And, this is the way it's done
That Coke thing threw me and my mother off something terrible in Tennessee. We had to elaborate with COLA.