Michiganders know that ‘pasty’ does not rhyme with ‘hasty.’ (Photo: David Johnson.)
Last month we reflected on the word terroir. (It’s a shortening of the phrase gout de terroir, “taste of the earth.” It refers to the mysterious flavor that helps us to taste the difference between strawberries that come from Michigan and those that are imported from elsewhere.) Linguistic terroir is the stuff that lets us know where we are.
Now Michigan English is not all one thing, but there are surprising differences between the English used here and what you encounter in Ft. Wayne or London, Ontario, or Green Bay. We need to talk about probabilities. So if you say dennist for “dentist” or pellow for “pillow,” you are likely to be from here. If Trevor’s City and Traverse City sound pretty much the same, you’re probably a Michigander (and probably young and female too). If you say mango for “green pepper” or “bell pepper,” you’re probably from Ft. Wayne. If you say pickerel for “walleye,” you’re probably from Ontario. If you think a really big bottle of beer is a “picnic”, you’re probably from Green Bay.
People tend to think that broadcasting, education, and mobility have made English far more uniform than it used to be. Of course there are arguments on both sides, but it’s likely that differences in English are increasing rather than decreasing. We can discover differences for ourselves when we go somewhere else and encounter puzzled stares when we speak.
On its hunting website, the Michigan DNR includes this FAQ: “Q. When may I shine deer?” People in Michigan know just what this illegal hunting practice involves. (And they know in Wisconsin and Minnesota too.) But other Americans are puzzled by the question. “What do you mean shining deer?” In northern Michigan, the same practice is called headlighting.
Did you ever hear somebody exclaim “cry-eye!”? If you did, they were probably in Michigan. People more generally say criminy! with the same meaning. These words have a kind of exasperated quality to them: “Oh for cry-eye. Her again.”
How about “help the poor”? It’s what kids in southern Michigan used to say on Halloween. Nowadays, trick-or-treat seems to have taken over.
When I was in high school, boys had brush cuts. Turns out if you had one of these, you were likely a Michigander.
Oak openings are clusters of trees—usually burr oaks—where there tends not to be too much underbrush. These groves, when they were on good soil, made it easy for early settlers to prepare the ground for growing crops since there weren’t many stumps to remove. One view is that the Arbor in Ann Arbor was an oak opening. Nineteenth-century settlers in Michigan often wrote approvingly of oak openings.
Of course there are lots of Michigan expressions that people know are characteristic of our terroir. Paczkis, for instance, or Petoskey stones.
Michiganders know to rhyme pasty with “vastly” and not with “hasty.” We eat bagas and honey rocks and lunch rolls. We might hunt pats among the balm trees.
And we have a good time talking about things.
Dave Lovelace
“Pasty” doesn’t rhyme all that well with “vastly”. The obvious rhyme is “nasty”.
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Barbara Rachelson - 1979
What about “pop” versus “soda”? In Michigan a hot dog with Chili is a “Coney Island”. Oddly enough, in Vermont, where I live now, they call them “Michigans”. In Michigan people “sleep in” rather than “sleep late”.
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Fritz Lyon - 1968
Help the poor!
My feet are sore!
And I don’t wanna walk no more!
(What we yelled on Halloween in the 1950’s)
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Phoebe Jettle - 1966
Yessss and. Orange is one syllable. Crayons are crans.
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Eras Cochran - 1947
How about ‘putnier’ for ‘nearly’? Then there is okie dokie..which I still say at certain times.
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David Garelick - 1967
I grew up in Detroit in the 50s and on Halloween, we used to go “begging” (not “trick or treating” ) and we yelled “Help the poor.” My friends here in California find that incredible, so it’s great to finally have some confirmation! Thanks, Professor Bailey (I was in your English Survey discussion class back in 1966). Another Michiganism is Pasties. My ex-wife grew up in the U.P. and ate those all the time. We didn’t see real pasties for years until we traveled through a small town in Oregon, settled by a lot of Finnish immigrants. Just like the U.P. (and don’t get me started on U.P. jokes…)
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Sue O
Pasties actually originated with the miners of Cornwall, England. When they came over to work the copper mines in the U.P., they brought their food with them. Michiganders adopted those tasty delights as their own. You can still get them at nearly any train station in London.
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Duke Garin - 1982
People in Michigan tend to make store names plural. “I’m going to Krogers.”
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Mary Griffith - 83
Meijers
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Julia Ward - 1987
Thank you so much for using the word Michigander instead of Michiganian.
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Joel Pilcher - 1974
I have lived in California since I graduated, and my kids always laugh when I say the word \\\”wash\\\” I now say waaaash. I used to say worsh.
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Jill Granger
Actually, those of us from Northern Michigan have some other variants for Traverse City. For example, if you are a native of that area, you will say “I’m going to Traverse”. If you use both words, you are usually speaking to someone who is NOT from that area, so you will say “I’m going to Traver-city”. We don’t usually separate the two words…. it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well, and marks you for a tourist! So if you want to look “in-the-know”, never say “Traverse City” as two separate and distinct words.
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Ed Howe - 1992
I have no idea what “We eat bagas and honey rocks and lunch rolls. We might hunt pats among the balm trees” means! Perhaps I’ve been out of Michigan for too long.
Though I still say “corders” in lieu of “quarters,” and I frequently say “okie dokie,” so I can’t be that far removed.
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Paul LeValley - 1964
I have lived in Florida for 30 years, and still cause blank stares if I accidentally use words like davenport, tarvey, or boughten. And when we come to a T in the road, there is no simple equivalent here for “jog left” or “jog right” to continue traveling in the same direction.
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Anonymous
I am a young male who has lived in various parts of lower MI all my life and I would be curious to know what part of MI Dr Bailey refers where the young women say “Trevors” instead of “Traverse.” For younger women with strong MI accents Traverse is uniformly “Traaaaaverse” (where “aa” is very bright, almost an “ee”). If anybody says “Trevors” like the boy’s name (e as in ‘Ed’), it would be Michigan men.
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Noah Liebman - 2006, 2010
The previous poster is referring to the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_cities_vowel_shift), which is indeed more prominent in females than males.
And coming from a family with a background in broadcasting, I find it unbelievably annoying, as I do “pellow”, “melk”, and “dennist”. Please, make it stop.
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Alan Bell - 18
One I always associate with Michigan is, \”Yeah, buddy!\” – an expression of agreement with what has just been said. The term \”pop\” is common to the midwest in general, not just MI. Another one is, \”we\’ll see ya,\” uttered by a single individual. Cheers!
AB
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John English - 1966
My favorite is “fried cake,” the term we used in Marshall when we wanted a cake donut. When I moved to Washington, DC, no one knew what I was talking about (and the cake donuts are really yukky down here). You’re from MI if you know that Kelloggs is in Battle Crick and that the Soo Locks are not really in “Sault” Ste Marie. You can tell someone is from Michigan if they habitually hold up their right hand, palm forward, and point to a spot on their open hand when asked where they are from. My question: if a guy from MI is a Michigander, is the gal a Michigoose?
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Kathleen Young - 68
Michigander is just wrong. It has a political connotation but I can’t quote the history on that one although I know it was a term of approbation. And, yes, it sounds like a goose! Please…”Michiganian” Another term: In Southeast Michigan, we all know what “upnorth” means.
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Mary Jannausch - 1989
I grew up in the UP, and ‘rutabaga’ was more
often ‘rutabeggie’ or ‘beggie’. As in, “Does
that pasty have beggies in it?” As a kid, I
used ‘cry-eye’ all the time, but had forgotten
until I read this article.
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Greg Higby - 1977
Honey Rocks! Makes my mouth water, wow! I grew up in the Thumb and these melons were a real treat.
Oh yeah — Michigander all the way!
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Kathleen Young - 68
Correction to my earlier comment: I meant that Michigander was a term of derision, not approbation.
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Sharon Weremiuk - 64, 68
How about Vernors. My first trip to Paris in 1963 baffled me because nobody knew what Vernors was. The waiters kept bringing me all sorts of drinks instead. Upon return I understood that our beloved Vernors was a Michigan thing. SW
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Ranae Ikerd Beyerlein - 1976
Yous people forgot the use of yous. Maybe this was a Southeastern MI thing. The plural form of you is yous to some folks. Is that seen anywhere else?
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Lynn Swanson - 1976
I didn’t know it wasn’t pronounced “ashfalt” until I moved away from Michigan!poli
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Linda Alvira - 1979
Wow! The comment section is as fun and informative as the article (maybe a little more of both!!). As someone born and raised in Detroit, a few years in the ‘burbs and 30+ in A2…. This Michi-goose doesn’t know a great many of those words! Probably because I haven’t been up-north. Never even see the Bridge let alone that land up there.
I went “trick-or-treating” in Detroit… until I went with a group of new friends in middle school who said “Help the poor, our pants are tore, give us some money and we’ll buy some more”! Ah, peer pressure. I thought it odd, but the treats kept on comin! (Ever trick-or-treat at Funeral Homes and Bars?? We did!)
In high School (suburb) southern transplants were appalled at my saying “You guy’s” for boys as well as girls.
Hard to break the habit of adding ‘s’ to a stores name. Is that really only local?? Gee, it seems so normal!!
My dad was also born and raised in Detroit, while my mom was from Chicago, for 49 years they compared ways of saying things – the Chicago way or the Detroit way!
I think there is a vast difference in language usage between Detroiter’s and ‘other Michiganders’. Outside the city limits there’s a whole ‘nother world!! City vs suburbs, city vs rural. Yet all in the same great state.
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Lois Santalo - 1943
When I lived in Michigan, one of the most notable pronunciation differences was the word crick (creek.) Michiganians, or Michiganders, always said crick. Also, the word soda did not refer to anything bottled or canned. A soda came from the soda fountain. Bottled drinks were called pop.
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karen adams - 1978
I’ve lived in the Philadelphia area for 30 years. Yous is the plural of you. They think I talk funny and come from Deeetroit. They drink soda, it’s beauty-ful if yous have a good addytood. But I talk funny because I say water and berry instead of wudder and bury.
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Kathy Bowersox - 91 MILS
Oh Honey Rocks! I can’t even find seeds here in Louisiana. They don’t know what a muskmelon is. As for Traverse – I want to break the TV whenever I hear Chevy’s pitchman accent the backside of their new SUV!
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James Mercier
Kathleen Young, I believe you are correct that “Michigander” originated as an insult, but the same is true for many, many collective nicknames. To me it’s a lot easier on the ears than “Michiganian,” which just has too many syllables to be useful. (And, rightly or wrongly, a lot of teenagers are going to object to a demonym in which the syllable “gay” is stressed.)
Barbara Rachelson – there’s a great map of the pop/soda/coke divide at http://popvssoda.com:2998/.
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Clark Benson - 1957,1961
I grew up in Detroit with “Pop”. Then I moved East and encountered “Soda” in upstate NY. In Massachusetts, it’s “Tonic” and finally in Texas, it is called “Coke” — regardless of the flavor.
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Connie Green - 1961
Us lucky “Michiganders” who got to tour the Vernor’s plant (before they quit the tours) and got the out of the keg Vernor’s. Always used when sick as a child (and it worked). A Sunday night drink treat served with popcorn. Michigan is a very special place. Linda you should try very hard to get “upnorth”, it is very beautiful. What a great article. I will most likely forever say “pop”.
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Gilbert Sloan - 1954
I join the group of people who experienced confusion about soda/pop. When I started as an undergrad at MI Tech, entered a store and asked for a soda, I was met with a blank stare. Finally the merchant understood what I wanted, and informed me that \”soda\” refers to bicarbonate of.
Gil Sloan
Rackham 1954
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Greg Jablonski - 1973
I much prefer Michiganian. Nonetheless, here’s what’s on the State of Michigan website:
Michiganian or Michigander?
The web site of the Michigan Historical Center uses Michiganian. Michiganian has a long history. It is the term used for the state’s citizens in The Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society since the 1870s . But people who call Michigan their home use the word they like best. There is no “official” term.
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Michael Kovnat - 2006
I grew up in the Detroit NW suburbs and always pronounced milk, pillow, vanilla, dissertation, and Semitic so that the i with the main or secondary stress sounds like the e in red. For the plural of you I normally say ‘you guy’s’ or ‘you guy’s all’ whether the group is mixed or all guy’s or all gal’s. Saying ‘You gal’s’ to a group of women would sound too presumptuous or inappropriate.
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Linda Head - 1955, M Mus. 58
Speaking of “oak openings”, James Fenimore Cooper wrote a novel about them, appropriately entitled “Oak Openings.”
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Betty Anne Stone - 1954
Just today I was telling my husband, Jerry, that until I came to Michigan in 1950 from Rochester, New York, I never heard the term “wait on” someone – meaning to “wait for” someone, as we said in NY. We also drank pop, not soda and I still see the fog (like “tog”) roll in; it has never been fawg- and I never drove a Pawntiac, either! Never heard of help the poor at Halloween in Rochester, since we always yelled trick or treat. We girls all wore stockings, too, not hose. The article was interesting but I really enjoyed all the comments! (And up north is truly beautiful – you all know that.)
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Z Z - 2013
i do know that people in Michigan say “Cran” for crayon while people from NY say “Craay-on.” And pizza vs. pies. And people from NY say “lets have a catch” while people from Michigan say “go play catch” or “throw the football.” And people from Michigan tend to say Ditroit as opposed to Deetroit
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Ellen Quart - 1969
What about a Boston Cooler? It’s Vernors and vanilla ice cream blended like a milkshake, not a float, topped with whipped cream. Anyone remember the Big Boy on Woodward Ave that hand-made them in the 60’s? Having no connection to Boston Mass, Fred Sanders who is credited with inventing the ice cream soda, is probably the source. Wikipedia suggests that it “was named after Detroit’s Boston Boulevard, the main thoroughfare of what was then an upper-class neighborhood a short distance from James Vernor’s drugstore.”
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Ellen Quart - 1974
If you grew up in the greater Detroit area, you know that Lahser is not pronounced LAHser, but LASHer.
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LIL VAUGHAN - 1952
Let\’s not forget \”yoopers\”. When I moved from the upper to the lower peninsula in high school, I was accused of having an accent, which I thought very strange at the time. I guess it\’s not so strange, after all, eh?
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Brian Luchs - 1982
Fun article. I was born and raised near Ann Arbor. I’ve lived in Green Bay since graduating from UM, but I’ve never heard the term “picnic”. We drink “cold ones” or “brewskis” and the fan of the loser in Badgers vs Wolverines contests buys (or “sponsors” as they say here). After 28 years, I still drink water from a “fountain”, not a “bubbler”.
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Andrew Wollner - 2009
Nobody’s mentioned saying “-een” instead of “-ing” or “pitcher” instead of “picture,” I know both of these are common in Mid-Michigan, where I grew up. The thought of “stoppeen by Meijers to get some pitchers developed” makes me nostalgic for my childhood!
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Byron Collier - 1986
I was born and raised in Fort Wayne and in 25 years there I never heard a green pepper or bell pepper called a mango. In my experience, speech in northern Indiana is quite similar to southern Michigan, but I also agree that the differences are fun!
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Amanda Holm - 1995, 1997
“Oh, for cry-eye” is not directly related to “criminy,” that I know of (see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criminy , for example). It’s short for “oh, for crying out loud,” another euphemism for a religious oath, and it evolved much later than “criminy.”
Oddly, to me the long version is much more Michigander-ish (sorry, but “Michiganian” is what people who don’t know better or are trying to be overly formal call us) to me. “Oh for cry-yi,” as I’ve more often seen it spelled, has always struck me as big-city Northeastern (New York or Philly) or Chicagoan.
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Brian Domanski - 2005
Don’t forget that only people from Detroit know how to pronounce Schoenherr Rd
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Charlene Blanchard - 1976
I grew up in western MI. My sister constantly comments on MI accents (I mostly can’t hear it)so these arguments are familiar to me. She moved away in 1969 and has lived on both coasts of the US.
I have no idea what honey rocks are. I don’t think “worsh” or “okie dokie” are limited to MI. I remember saying “for crying out loud” all the time. I still say “melk” and “crick” and at halloween we said “trick or treat”.
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Rosemary Nulty - 1969
After college, I lived on the West Coast, then the East Coast and now Florida. Every time I go home for a visit, the accent becomes clear. My sister disagrees but I beg to differ. As for the plural “s” at end of store names…it’s not a plural is a possessive abbreviation like “Kroger’s” grocery store. And I think “cry-eye” is an abbreviation of “for Christ sake” which some would consider profanity or “for crying out loud”. Both an expression of exasperation. And if Michigander sounds gender biased just take the “d” out and call it Michiganer…but Michiganian?? I don’t think so. Sounds like the academics are the ones who prefer that one…not the rest of us.
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Jane Sullivan - 1986, 87
My favorites, “melk” (miiilk just sounds so wrong) and downt-stairs. Also, my parents grew up in Detroit and always told me that only people north of 8 Mile prounced it Lah-ser Road. South of 8 Mile, it’s Lasher.
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Sue O
Both north and south of 8 Mile, Lahser Rd is pronounced Lasher. I’ve lived in both places and in both places the mispronunciation annoyed me. I learned to read phonetically.
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Carol Schwartz
Like Ed Howe, I was puzzled by this, too: “We eat bagas and honey rocks and lunch rolls. We might hunt pats among the balm trees.” I’ve lived in Michigan all my life and do indeed say “pop” and “dennist” and “cran” (and know how to pronounce “Schoenherr” and “Vernier” and “Gratiot”), but if I’m guessing correctly, I never call bagels “bagas,” or honey dew melons “honey rocks,” or … I can’t even guess at the rest. Help!
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E Timke
This is a fun article. However, having been born and raised in the Green Bay area, I agree with Brian L. who posted earlier regarding a “picnic.” I’ve never heard the term even with friends and family throughout the area spanning many generations. In addition to the expressions Brian noted about beer, another one commonly used is “brews.”
With regard to pronunciation particular to Green Bay, a better example would be roof, which is pronounced around Green Bay like the bark of a dog (“ruff”). And then there’s the word that will get people fighting; well, at least among my friends and family: “creek” versus “crick.”
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Carole Cooper - 1977
Residents of Michigan used to be called Michiganians, which is seldom used now. I thought the term Michigander was slang, but it seems to be preferred and commonly used today.
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Chris Cunningham - 2006
Most of the specific claims in the article seem incorrect; I grew up in the middle of Michigan and I’ve never heard of a “cry-eye” or “shining” a deer. The comments, on the other hand, are significantly better: “melk,” “warsh,” and “Meijers / Krogers” come up much more in day-to-day life for me, moving East. Maybe the Michiganderisms in the article are outdated?
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Ed Marod - 1977
I grew up in Western Michigan, and I assure you we never referred to “bagas” because we had never even heard of a “bagel.” We were more into “bread” which we called “bread.” While I did hear the use of “een” instead of “ing”, “melk” instead of “milk”, and some of the other colloquialisms here, it always seemed to me it was only people who didn’t do well in school who mispronounced those things. “Trick or treat” was the phrase on Halloween, not that other thing that must have been a Detroit phenomenon. I heard plenty of “pop” but now have to think what that means. I still find it disorienting when a Michigan waitress stops by the table and asks “How’s everything tastin’?” The biggest Michigan dialect characteristic I remember is the nasal tone in “Oh how ya dooin?” Sorry, after 33 years in South Florida I do NOT miss the mispronunciation. Give me a network anchorman with Merriam-Webster Collegiate any day.
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Carrie Landrum - 1999
What interesting comments! I am shocked to learn that this native Michiganian is apparently in the minority by preferring “Michiganian†over “Michigander.†Others see this as being overly formal, preferred only by academics, or just seldom used? Really?? Also, I grew up two miles north of the Detroit border and had never heard “help the poor†– that’s rich indeed! I DID hear, however, “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!!â€
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John Holt - 1983 &1985
As another native of Fort Wayne, I agree with Byron Collier. I’ve never heard the term mango for a bell pepper. When I was in school I was asked if we used the term “ret up” in Fort Wayne and I answered with a definite NO. A couple years later I heard a friends parent use the words to mean clean up – I couldn’t help but smile.
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Eric Sponberg - 1971
Criminy, as I used to say growing up in both the UP and Lower Peninsula (we never say LP do we?), is also short for “Holy Crime in Italy”, also pronounced Crime-in-It’ly”.
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Michael Wirt - 1971
Referring back to John English, having been born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, I can assure him that the Soo Locks have always been and still are there. As for the word “yooper,” I don’t remember hearing it when I lived in the UP or was in college in lower Michigan (“down below” as we said, meaning below the Straits of Mackinac). It seems to me that it was long after my 1972 move to Washington (State) that I first heard it
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Barb Wirt - 1965
I have totally enjoyed this. I remember trying to write “yous guys” as a little girl and wondering how to spell “yous” I’ve often wondered about the term “making strange” in reference to a baby who is uncomfortable being passed to someone other than a parent. Is it a term used only in our family?
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Terry Jansen
This is a great article and the subsequent comments bring back memories. My grandmother, who was born and raised in Detroit, referred to Woodward as wood-ard, corner was cah-ner, and onion was ung-yun. And what about Manoshevitz. I never knew what a honey rock was until I was about 50; I’d always called them Howel mellons.
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Meredith Tigel Saltzman - 1956
What a delightful set of comments, even better than the article itself! Having lived in New York City for over 50 years, I’ve forgotten some of the Detroitisms I grew up with. But the only comment that really provoked an exclamation was the one that mentioned the Boston Cooler — I haven’t thought of that treat for half a century! It brought back lovely memories from my childhood.
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Chris Herdt - 1992
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of “Michigander” was by Abraham Lincoln in 1848. While it may have been a pejorative then, it certainly hasn’t been in my lifetime.
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Lin Siebert - 1985
Enjoyed the comments. I grew up in OH (moved to MI as an adult) and my mother (who lived there most of her life – still does) calls sweet/bell peppers mangoes. When I lived in MI, I grew honey rock melons. IMHO they are the best muskmelons (no they are NOT honey dews) there are. My kids teased me about saying warsh and exshurcize (exercise) – so I thought that was an Ohio thing. Others I noticed were ten for tin as in the “candy came in a ten”, on for un as in “he ontied his shoe”, fur for for, thu’ll for they’ll, etc.
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Jay Bird - 23
To me (an Englishman) many Michiganites sound similar to English.
Sounds like they were born and raised in England then moved to US and got a mixed English/US accent.
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