The ‘bega’ is a main ingredient in pasties.
In July, this column about Michigan English attracted an unprecedented number of comments, and this month we’ll devote this space to comments on the comments.
Several people mentioned two wonderful aspects of American English. The first is the use of Michigander, treated historically in the very first column in this series. The second is Yooper (the origins of which you can discover through the link).
In order to know for certain that a word belongs to Michigan, you need to consult one of the great national surveys of American English. The first of these was organized by Michigan Professor George Hempl in the 1890s and showed the linguistic boundaries of crik and creek, and greasy and greasy. These boundaries can still be identified today, close to the lines that Hempl drew on the map. More recent surveys have resulted in the Linguistic Atlas of North American English and the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), the last volume of which will be published in 2011.
Here are some other Michiganisms and their origins.
Tarvia (“black top”): I first heard tarvia when asking directions near Three Rivers. The man cutting the grass beside the road told me to go a mile and a half and turn right on the tarvia. When DARE conducted its survey in the 1960s, tarvia was mostly found all over the lower peninsula of Michigan, and there were only a cluster of responses in western Pennsylvania. I got a sneak preview of the tarvia entry for DARE and found that they have identified a greater scatter of usages. The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, uses tarvia all the time, probably because the Tarvia Seal Corporation makes the stuff there.
Bam tree (“balm of Gilead tree”): This large popular tree was identified for me by a man telling me where to find morel mushrooms in the eastern U. P: “Look around stands of bam trees,” he said. In early New England, people pronounced balm, psalm, and almond with the vowel of Sam. So bam went west to Michigan with the nineteenth-century migrants. Since it was seldom written down, there was no spelling to confuse people.
Pat hunting (< “partridge”): In New England, partridge had the same vowel as Sam and no R: patridge. So pat hunting is another transplant to Michigan.
Bega (< “rutabaga”): One of the classic ingredients of a pasty (along with onions, potatoes, and carrots). The last one I bought to dice up for pasty was imported from Canada. In England, they are known as Swedes. Tatties and neeps, the standard vegetables to accompany the haggis on Burns Night in Scotland, make use of begas. (Neeps is short for Swedish turnips = begas.)
Traverse City: In his comment on last month’s story, Noah Liebman was just right in identifying Trever’s City as an instance of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. (There’s a map of the territory of the NCVS at the Wikipedia entry for it. I had not been thinking of how Traverse City might be shortened, and I’m not surprised that sometimes it’s just Traverse. When I asked a teenager in Pellston where she was from, she said, “The City.” I was wrong in thinking she must be from Grand Rapids or Detroit.
Honey rocks are what other people call muskmelons or cantaloupes. An excellent variety of honey rock was produced by the Ferry-Morse Seed Company which used to have a huge farm just south of Rochester. The place was swept up in suburban sprawl after World War II and the company moved to Kentucky. Dexter Ferry, Jr., contributed the land that is now Ferry Field, adjacent to Schembechler Hall at U-M. Honey rocks done been good to us.
Lawn extension (“the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street”): Despite my efforts, DARE does not list lawn extension, though they have tree lawn, tree belt, boulevard, parking, parking strip, and other synonyms. The Ann Arbor city ordinances have a lot to say about what you must do (or must not do) to your lawn extension: Don’t let plants grow too tall; mow the grass; put out your recycling. A Google search turns up lawn extension only in connection with Ann Arbor. That’s linguistic goût de terroir for you.
Written up north in July 2010 at beautiful Drummond Island in the Upper Peninsula.
Christa Stahl - 1999957
Growing up in Detroit from the late 1930\’s to 1945 I recall vividly going door to door on Halloween crying \”Help the poor!,\” (not Trick or Treat.) Anyone else? Do I remember correctly? and who was the \”sheeny man\” driving a horse and trailer through the alley ways?
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Ethel Larsen - 1972
I grew up a Yooper and am a lifetime MI resident and pasty fan, but “bega” is a new one for me. I’m familiar with the “rutabegge” variant, but don’t know if that’s Michigan English.
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Tom Cochrane - 1996
I’m from Muskegon, and always pronounced the city at the Straits as “Saint IG-nis”. In 1985 I made friends with a guy from there, a self-described Yooper, who insisted it was pronounced “suh-NIG-nis”. Vive la différence!
Speaking of self-description, my father, a native of Hawks, refers to himself as a Cedar Savage, which I gather is sort of a swamp hillbilly from northern lower Michigan. Nevermind what my mother calls him.
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James Brown - 1993, 1995
I lived in michigan for the first 32 years of my life (18 years in and around Lansing, 6 years in Ann Arbor and 8 years in Detroit) and I have never heard any of the above mentioned terms. It seems that perhaps the DARE should be called the ADARE with the “A” standing for archaic. While archaic may overstate things, my guess is no one under 80 uses those terms and in 20 years they will fade into oblivion….
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Annette Lyttle - 1988
I’d just about forgotten about “tarvia,” but your column reminded me that my grandfather used it (though he shortened it to “tarvy”). My grandmother always called her iron skillet a “spider.” I haven’t heard that term outside Michigan.
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Christine Abrams - 1984 JD
Traverse City is often called “TC.” And something I’ve noticed: A lot of Michigan people make me wince when they say, “I seen…”
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David Passman - 1964
1. “Sheeny” is an old insult for “Jew”, comparable to the “n-word”. Therefore, “sheeny man” is the same breed of casual linguistic bigotry as “jew down” for the verb “bargain”, and suggests that the peddler in the alley was a stereotyped Jewish immigrant.
2. Bumper sticker recently seen in Chicago: “I yoosta be a Yooper.”
3. In Chicago, “parkway” is the term for your “lawn extension”.
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Cynthia Jackson - 1992
When I was growing up in the 1960\’s to the late 1970,s, \”feed the poor\” was still being used in the Detroit/Dearborn area. My father taught us to say it while going door to door begging at Halloween time. I am sad to say that I do not hear it much from the youngsters that come to my door. I do hear a great deal of complaining if I do not hand out Snickers though.
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Dena Bovee - 1977 (AMLS)
I grew up in Grayling, and my grandmother always referred to rutabegas as “beggies.” I have lived in Ohio for 28 years, but still hear many differences between how I pronounce Michigan names and what I hear here. Of course, there is “Mackinack” for Mackinac, but I also say “Gaylerd” instead of “Gay Lord.” One of my uses that caused a “huh?” reaction when first moving was “parking structure” — definitely a use from Ann Arbor. In Ohio they are called parking garages.
I may live in Ohio, but I will never be a Buckeye.
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Roberta Volz - 50
I live on Grand Lake North of Alpena near Lake Huron. People here prize the PUDDIN STONE. It is a rock found in Lake Huron that is inbedded with terracotta colored pieces of something! Any info on these?
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Rachel Johnson - 2006
For something local, how about saying “Geddis” Road instead of Geddes? My grandmas both always pronounced it that way. As far as being archaic – sounds like the north has more variance than the south of Michigan, so perhaps that’s why people haven’t heard some of the pronunciations. As for me, I continue to say Geddis – regional idiosyncracy is fun.
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Vicky Henry - '70, '78
I grew up in Marshall, MI; parents from Olivet and Battle Creek. When serving pie or cake the question posed was, “What’s your face”? My husband’s family, who moved north from Kentucky and Tennessee, were totally confused the first time I said it.
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