Holy whah! Some Yoopers fear colorful dialect may be fading

AP ^ | 2-22-04 | John Flesher

[Rose in RoseBear]

And since when is Traverse City in the U.P.?

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Whenever I take a trip back to the U.P. I have to have a pasty for at least one meal, lunch or dinner.

Oh, and a pizza from the Riverside Pizzeria in Iron River. Heavenly pizza!

[Rose in RoseBear]

<shudder!>

Ketchup has many uses; on pastry is not one of them!

<laughing!>

[Dan from Michigan]

I wondered that one myself.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

You put ketchup on potatoes all the time!

I don't know if I can wait until our next trip back... might have to have one shipped down to tide me over.

[cameronsmom]

ketchup is one of my favorite condiments. Land o'lakes cheese is good too. I cant find it out here.

[inkling]

My folks are from the U.P. The thing I always remember about the dialect is how certain words are pronounced. Staying in a cabin near Mackinac Island, my FInnish uncle would say, "Let's go fishin, kids. Get OOT of the HOOSE and get on the BOOT!" After dinner, we would have Korpuu and go to the SOW-NAH.

[cameronsmom]

I have alot of family that still talks that way... The dont notice...In fact they still refer to anyone south of duluth, as "612ers" even though the have more areacodes now...

My parents speak to their dogs in finn. (this is also the same family who had thier dog neutered, but had fake ones put in place of the real ones...)

To each his own I guess!!!

[radiohead]

I was always told, the way to say "sauna" is sow-nah.

Absolutely! That's how my husband and his mom always pronounced it. I thought they were nuts at first.

They had a lake on the (dairy, of course) farm and used to jump in as well.

Did i mention I am 90+% scandanavian...

Only scandanavian by marriage. Husband's father is Greek, and like most Greek men, left the childraising to the wife, who was a Finn from the UP, so my husband got a lot of the Scandanavian ways.

ornery and stubborn as all heck.

Hmm, why am I not surprised? Are all of y'all like that??? : )

[Prodigal Son]

I was always told, the way to say "sauna" is sow-nah

I dated a Finnish woman for a little while whilst I was stationed in Macedonia (long story) and that is exactly how she pronounced it- and the inflection was such that the 'n' in the word was actually like a valley between two hills, the 'a' in the last syllable having a rising feel to it.

[jocon307]

"...ornery and stubborn as all heck.

Hmm, why am I not surprised? Are all of y'all like that?"

I'm married to a fellow who is 1/2 Scandanavian, his mother's parents immigrated from the Swedish-speaking enclave in Finnland. So we argue about whether they are Swedes or Finns. Of course, I'm right they are ethnic Swedes as the Finns are different linguistically from the other Scandos.

They, esp. hubby, are certainly ornery, and whoo-boy, super-stubborn, ohmigosh, esp. our kid. Bull-headed.

But, then again, they think I'm Irish and argumentative, which I am.

God Bless America!

[Catspaw]

The first time I tried to make pasties (from my non-cooking M-I-L's recipe, save me), I mixed up the potatoes and the hamburger, and it seemed so bland ... so I added whole-kernel corn, and chili powder, and garlic.

OMG! Corn, chili powder & garlic in a PASTY? Talk about some weird cross-cultural culinary disaster.

BTW, when Yoopers migrate down south (Green Bay), they can find pasties in every supermarket. I love 'em myself, but NOT with corn, chili powder & garlic. My hubby loves 'em with ketchup, I like 'em plain or with brown gravy.

[RockChucker]

Ping for later reading.....

[duk]

If you want a colorful picture of the U.P., watch the Red Green show on channel 13. It's one of the channels you can get with just an antenna!

January's average temperture was 8 degrees. We got about 175" of snow that month. I'm so tired of shoveling, scooping, and blowing snow that I just leave it where it falls now. Just narrow paths now. The snow does keep the bugs down though!!

Well, I'm off to shovel the church steps, yous guys take care, eh.

[PGalt]

The Keewenaw Peninsula hasn't changed in the 45 years that I've been going there.

[ASA Vet]

Why is the UP part of MI?

There was a half hearted yupper movement a few years ago to create a new State
of "Superior."
As I recall there was no resistance from the Michigan State government.
More Michigan tax money went to the UP than was collected there so Michigan
would have been better off.

Now if we could just convince Ontario to take Detroit. Please.

[Theo]

Hey! I grew up in Iron Mountain, and went to school in Houghton and graduated from Northern! I do hope "Yooper" dialect stays. I suspect their affection for the dialect is less militaristic than other people groups'....

Ah, pasties. If you're from Wisconsin, you use gravy. But if you're wanting to truly appreciate a pasty, you eat it with ketchup, the way it was meant to be eaten. :-)

I still tell stories to friends of how in high school, the school cafeteria was in the basement of a Roman Catholic church, and how we'd never have red meat on Fridays. Tuna spaghetti! Whew!

Ah, the UP.... I hope outsiders don't discover it.

[TEXASPROUD]

I got introduced to the yoopers a couple of years ago when I went hunting in Mich for the first time. I love regional differences and had as much fun with the UP people as they had with my Texas colloquialisms. Look forward to going back.

[Theo]

"sauna" is sow-nah

That's the correct pronunciation. Say it with pride, knowing that the rest of the states mispronounce that word. :-)

[ChadGore]

The following phrase is actually a word.

Yea-der-hey-what-say-you-and-me-go-down-to-da-pub-and-trow-a-fer-beers-in-our-heads - - eh?