[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.)

[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)

[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!

[leilani]

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

and one of these:

(other than a bug & a 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.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this Upper Midwest (WI, IA, MN, MI, and anyone else) list, largely rural issues, please FR mail me. And ping me is you see articles of interest.

[ChadGore]

Yea-der-hey-what-say-you-and-me-go-down-tu-da-bar-and-trow-a-few beeers-in-our-heads BUMP . . and so?

[Incorrigible]

When I was at Marquette in the 80's, my Jersey accent was a source a much humor at my expense!

I lost my accent over those 4 years. In a way, I'm glad since my accent was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

The one word that I'm surprised is NOT in the article is "roof". Why in the world do cheesheads pronouce it "ruff"?

And ya der hey, I had a brat and a brew der at the Brewers game with a guy from Cudahey. He asked me to come with.

[ThomasThomas]

I had a German teacher in high school the gave a test there was a list of words to translate to German from English. No one in the class knew the English word. The word was cuke. Ya all know it?