Speech Differences in Wisconsin Being Studied (Yah-Hey!)

JSOnline via AP ^ | September 4, 2006 | John Hartzell

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Worthy of a Midwest Ping List Ping?

[muawiyah]

No matter how their pronunciation shifts, Wisconsonians can be picked out of a crowd of inestimable size with a certainty that can only be explained by someone well versed in detecting "sing song".

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

My wife, whose parents were Pennsylvannia Dutch, says "just as leif". Her mother used it too. Of course, "lief" is archaic in English, but liebe is up to date German. She also says "the cat wants down/out", also perfectly good Deutsch. (Er will aus.)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Wisconsinites." :)

[muawiyah]

That's sounds so New Yorkish ~ my version is much more melodic ~ and it will rhyme with a gazillion English words.

[Dumpster Baby]

I had a temporary job once taking phone orders and doing customer service stuff. I became able to tell different states apart by the accents. I came to absolutely dread the calls from Wisconsin and Minnesota due to Statewide Personality Disorder - extreme levels of sarcasm, insults, demands, complaints, and threats. Some of the same came from Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire, but they were a distant third on the list of "calls you don't want to get".

Anyway, after learning the regional and state accents, I laughed all the way through "Fargo" because it was a documentary to me. :o)

[muawiyah]

"Statewide Personality Disorder" ~ I love it. Used to have to handle business calls from USPS administrators all over the country. Got so I could untangle anybody's accent (except Houma LA 'cause they speak French).

I first noticed "Statewide Personality Disorder" in Utah and Idaho ~ you had to be careful with those guys because if you told them they could "do something", they'd do it whether anybody wanted it done or not. Very obedient crew.

They sounded so nice too.

[MotleyGirl70]

Anyway, after learning the regional and state accents, I laughed all the way through "Fargo" because it was a documentary to me. :o)

"You betcha!"

[MotleyGirl70]

Another unusual aspect of Wisconsinites' vocabulary is using the term bubbler to describe what people in most of the country call a drinking fountain or water fountain, Salmons said.

Bubbler:

Water fountain:

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

My husband's family, from Long Island, say "Do you want to come with?" -- with a nice broad New Yawk accent.

As for cot and caught, wrought and rot, Don and Dawn ... they're not supposed to be pronounced the same? Who knew? And I'm from Texas!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

It certainly doesn't seem all that hard to me to differentiate between the two, LOL!

[SAJ]

What G-d hath wrought, he don' wring dot way sahm mo', boo.

;^)

[leilani]

Diana, what do you guys in WI call one of these:

and one of these:

(other than a bug & a sandwich)?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I didn't know there was going to be a TEST, LOL!

A 'Dragonfly' and a 'Sub Sandwich.' And it's 'Youse Guys' and not 'You Guys,' LOL! :)

How about you?

[leilani]

Well, I grew up a bunch of places so I'm really confused. The bug I call mosquito hawks & dragonflies & helicopter bugs.The sandwich mostly poorboys,or subs (never hero or grinder). OK. Next question (I got this from a thread here on FR recently. Seems there's great controversy about this little guy, depending on where you, er youse, live:

In case the picture is not clear, this is the bug that little kids like to poke with sticks to make 'em curl into a ball)

[tet68]

In the Marines the proper term is "Scuttlebutt".

It's where you find out the "Poop".(what's happening etc.)

Hence any unsubstantiated information gathered is referred to as Scuttlebutt.

[tet68]

Oh, and that sandwich, if it's made with baloney,
it's a Horse C**k sandwich.

[FairWitness]

I grew up about 40 miles from Eau Claire (near Menomonie, Dunn county). It does my heart good to hear (in my mind) "Do you want to come with?" again.

[redwhit]

Thanks for posting this. In the late eighties I spent a couple of summers in Sheboygan WI. What blew my mind was not just that the dialects and accent were so different (I'm from Boston originally) but that old-timer Sheboyganites had a different accent from the rest of the Wisconsonites.