Do you have a Michigan Accent? Examples of our accent

Do you have a Michigan accent or are from Michigan and don't feel like you have an accent at all? Maybe you've never heard a Michigan accent and you want to know what it sounds like. Whatever your reasons, you're in the right place.

I was raised in Michigan and have been living in the Midwest ever since. Growing up, I was taught that my accent is the plainest and easiest to understand and so it what is used in Hollywood. However, I later learned that this couldn't be further from the truth. So I've decided to create a series on Michigan pronunciations to share the unique speech patterns in my home state (this is the first video of the series.)

In this video, I highlight some key features of the Michigan accent and give examples (from pop and soda to famous people who speak the accent.)

This is just a tip of the Great Lakes State's thumb (errr iceberg!) Read a ton more about the Michigan accent on my in-depth article:

As always, thank you for watching and for being a part of my channel. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comments below and I'll see you in the next one!

Photo Attribution:
Meijer by rossograph, cc-by-sa 4.0
All other photos licensed via Canva or are own work.

#Michigan #accentchallege #culture

[ga]

I’m from Michigan and living in California has changed my accent significantly so I’m watching this cus I don’t want to sound like them. I’m trying my best to force it back 😭

[KiaraWilliamsX]

“Pop” definitely isn’t dying out lol. But this was a great representation

[Polack-mlfh]

I grew up in southeast Michigan. One thing that made me laugh when I moved away was i grabbed some change from my truck to pay for a pop and one of the coins was Canadian. The cashier was like “Um yea we don’t take that”. I was so confused, then my wife who was from Wisconsin said why would you expect them to take foreign money? I never even thought about it growing up there. You might throw a Canadian dime in without hesitation since you’re back and forth across the border often.

[rsohlich]

Its a really thick accent. I'm from Western Michigan and I sort of lost it once I moved west for a few years. But we loooovvvveeee those vowels!

[kn]

Living in the U.K. I’ve gotten used to a great many accents but my Michigander mouth still makes my friends laugh, especially “mahm”, “meer”, “squrrol”, and “didja” along with my pointing at the back of my hand to show where I’m from, calling hot dogs Koegels, and trying to explain Euchre and blue moon ice cream. And proud of it! Thanks for the video, it proves I’m not an alien 😁

[nancywindnagle]

Everyone I know in Michigan has always said pop. Probably always will. Hasn't dissipated at all.

[TheWBWoman]

I can't believe people talking about the Detroit accent miss this obvious fact: Yes the Detroit, Michigan accent shortens and smashes words a lot. Like we say "Whatchadoin?" instead of "What are you doing?" or "Djeet?" instead of "Did you eat?" It's because we were settled by the French first. The French also combine and smash words together. The Michigan accent is strongly based out of Detroit and you can still hear the impact of the French liaison from the original fur trappers and early French settlers in much of the state.

[cffeefx]

"I have a very light accent"
*accent is super thick!*

[OOOOO]

I'm not sure if I say "milk" or "melk." I'm too aware of how I'm sounding, repeating it over and over each way. I need to ask people around me to let me know in an unguarded moment.

Great video! A new one for me is "meer" for "mirror." I definitely say "meer." Along the same lines is "horror" being pronounced as "hore" (was gonna say "whore" lol but I do feel a tiny difference with the "w" added). Now I need to hear if other people say it as I do.

[canadiandude]

I’m from Ontario and whenever I drive to cities near Michigan I can sometimes hear the Michigan accent through the radio channels. It kind of sounds similar to the Wisconsin or Western NY accent to me.

[Scubasteve]

So interesting! Another thing I’ve noticed is we jam together Secretary of State into Secretary-ah-state.

[cheetahrose]

I'm from the thumb area and I've been told that my accent is pretty thick. Obviously not as thick as the northern Michigan accent, but still pretty noticeable. I've always heard people say pop around here; I've honestly never heard soda outside my southern cousins during a family reunion. 🤷‍♀️

[MrAte-uoyo]

I've been away from Michigan for 20 years and I just now realized I pronounced it "meer", "real a tor", and "melk".

[skylarbix]

This was so cool; I didn't even know that we had an accent!!👍🏻😄

[bussamio]

In the 90's when I was a teen, I was flying overseas and had a quick layover at JFK and asked for a pop. They replied with " you mean a soda?" I get on the connected flight and asked the flight attendant for a soda thinking pop was incorrect. I was given a club soda 😕

[isaiah]

This may have been a generational pronunciation that has since died out, but mom was raised in Michigan and moved to rural South Carolina when she was a teenager. The kids at school used to make fun of her and her sisters for saying “bicycle riding” (referred to as “bike ridin’” in the south).

[Karatoona]

Your description of our accent, I feel like, mostly applies to northern michigan. The further north you get, the more canadian and minnesotan it sounds. Being from Ann Arbor myself, yes I have an accent, but I don't sound canadian or wisconsan/minnesotan. I remember from the article saying we sound like Pirates from kentucky with a head cold. This much I can agree on.

[Resilient_disciple]

I have lived in Michigan my whole life and had no clue we Evan had an accent 😂

[JohnAckerman]

I live in Chicago, and we speak similar to the way people do in Michigan. I read someplace that it’s more like a Great Lakes accent since Chicago is on Lake Michigan, and Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes

[NoWayJoseNotToday]

Best Michigan accent explanation video I’ve seen! Can’t forget ope or however you say it. You know the noise when you almost hit a car or drop something. Ope!