<p>I thought some might find this interesting:</p>
<p>[Northern</a> Cities Vowel Shift: How Americans in the Great Lakes region are revolutionizing English. - Slate Magazine](<a href=“http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2012/08/northern_cities_vowel_shift_how_americans_in_the_great_lakes_region_are_revolutionizing_english_.html]Northern”>Northern Cities Vowel Shift: How Americans in the Great Lakes region are revolutionizing English.)</p>
<p>Fascinating, zoose. I’m always amazed at how different our accent is from Windsor. We go there often for hockey and the accent is very apparent. </p>
<p>Oddly though, I’ve had people in California ask me if I was Canadian.</p>
<p>People in Detroit have a jab, not a job.</p>
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<p>Absolutely not! I can tell you that I have heard the word “job” spoken many times in Detroit, and it is pronounced “j-ah-b” in these parts. “Jab” would be Chicago …</p>
<p>Nevertheless, D’s time living in the south brought a realization that the midwest (MI included) does indeed have an “accent.” She now softens her vowels … not a southern accent, but it is different than it was when she lived in MI. She just moved to Chicago, but I doubt she will soon be talking about “Duh’ Bears” a la SNL. Our Chicago relatives actually pronounce our last name differently than we do — we say “ah” for the “a” in our name, and they say it like the “a” in jab. ;)</p>
<p>One thing I know we do here in MI that is foreign to many … we say “pop” instead of soda (or Coke … ).</p>
<p>I absolutely can’t stand to listen to Katie Couric. I always say “please someone give that woman a G!” because she pronounces ing as een and it squeaks on my ear.</p>
<p>Kels, I assumed the jab was jahb lol. You’re right. We definitely don’t have jabs here! ;)</p>
<p>And it’s pop! I don’t care what anyone else says :p</p>
<p>Interesting subject but I’m not sure why Rob Mifsud is writing about changes to dialects in the English language. He’s a food writer here in Toronto.</p>
<p>He must have been oat of loonies and needed to earn a few dough-lars.</p>
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<p>Oh, me, too, zoosermom! I thought I was the only one who was bothered by that. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to me!</p>
<p>My D sent me this link because she continously gets harrased because she says pop and not soda.
<a href=“http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html[/url]”>http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html</a></p>
<p>A Chicago-based college classmate and I enjoyed pestering each other about using the words “pop” vs “soda”. </p>
<p>Also, I found it interesting there were many locals in the NE Ohio area college town who had southern accents. Found out there were many long-term transplants/migrants from Kentucky and other nearby southern states in and around the area. </p>
<p>And the Boston/New England accent is also still alive and well in the Greater Boston/New England Area.</p>
<p>Yes - all of you people have accents (but not me, of course).</p>
<p>On a somewhat related note - the current National Geographic has an article on the disappearance of entire languages - apparently they’re disappearing at the rate of about one entire language every 14 days (out of roughly 7,000 languages thought to exist).</p>
<p>[Vanishing</a> Languages - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine](<a href=“http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/vanishing-languages/rymer-text]Vanishing”>http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/vanishing-languages/rymer-text)</p>
<p>I took a course on endangered languages last semester. It’s quite devastating what the world is losing imo. Although it’s hard for us to believe, not everything can be translated into English.</p>
<p>Percussiondad … I love it! I just forwarded it to D.</p>
<p>I LOVE this stuff – love accents and linguistics – thanks, zmom!</p>
<p>I hear the NCS around me in Chicago – people starting to migrate towards “melk” for “millk” as an example.</p>
<p>Just read this article this am and posted it to my FB. I am the strange linguistical product of a rural, amish community on the borders of appalachia/northeast Ohio. We got it all here!! We have southern, Pennsylvania dutch (not just the language but syntax etc…) and general midwestern. My husband has a lot of western pennsylvania sounds/northeast ohio and I have a lot of amish. Grew up with grandparents and mom who spoke “dutch.” (german dialect) And many friends were amish.</p>
<p>When I clean a room I “red it up.” </p>
<p>I eat “dippy eggs”</p>
<p>When I want to look at something/have something I say “let me see it once” or “give it to me once.”</p>
<p>And nothing is ever all gone or empty it is just “all.” “Mom do we have anymore shampoo? No, it’s all.”</p>
<p>I differentiate between cot and caught. Don/Dawn </p>
<p>oh and it’s pop for us.</p>
<p>I am in NE Ohio now and I notice German spoken here and there. I don’t notice any accent but then I am a Californian who lived for years in the southwest and Texas and then spent 22 years overseas. Nothing standing out yet. I have learned to listen and do what I hear. Not changing anything yet.</p>
<p>My old boss was from the Boston area … we had both a Don and a Dawn at work, and I could never tell which one he meant! :)</p>
<p>Don’t get me started on Mary/marry/merry. How can people not see that they are three separate words??</p>
<p>My first name is also a name that is pronounced differently in the east (where I grew up) vs in the midwest (where I live now). My kids and husband say it slightly differently from how I say it.</p>
<p>Ok, I saw the thread title and immediately thought “Chicago and Michigan”. haha. I’m in northern Indiana and there are definitely Chicago and MI accents…and as noted above, Amish and Old Order accents and manners of speech.</p>
<p>But…here Don and Dawn and Mary/marry/merry would be the same. Of course it’s pop!</p>
<p>Don and Dawn are different. </p>
<p>Mary/marry/merry are the same to me and my dad (Detroiters), but different to my mom (who has a mix of English and Omaha accent lol).</p>