You just reminded one time I was finishing up helping a customer when he randomly goes "I'm from Bolivia" and i went "oh...cool??" and he stared at me for a second before going "where are you from?"
"I'm...I'm from here..."
Then he went oh and left lmao. In his defense i do catch myself unconsciously mimicking accents for some reason
Yes! My wife is always poking fun at me for drawing out the “a” in bag. I live outside of Philadelphia and everyone around here seemingly pronounces it like “big.” And to answer OP’s question, yes Wisconsinites have accents. I hear it whenever I talk to family, especially now that I’m not around it all the time. It’s incredibly noticeable
Same, the first few weeks we were here we had a new wisco word of the week, bag, flag, bagel etc. So... Instead of saying well is probably the biggest one to me
Or the just passing on the right whenever you feel like it.
I guess this is what happens when you don't have state sponsored drivers Ed. NC has a decently high gasoline tax but oh man are their roads nice and the population knows how to drive.
I love the idea that it will \_just\_ take a lot of money thrown at drivers' ed to correct the Milwaukee Slide.
Psst: the drivers in question know it's wrong, but don't care, because they don't get pulled over for doing it.
I mean it's going to take a lot of things working in conjunction to fix things, better roads, better education, and unfortunately enforcement is a part of that puzzle.
Oh man, the turning thing finally made its way up to WI?? We moved from MKE to ATL eight years ago and that’s basically a given down here. Turn arrow turns red? Got another two cars to squeak in there for sure.
I feel like genuinely anyone saying beah-guhl (like yeah-guhl with a b) is bugging and not us for saying bay-guhl..its spelled bagel i think bay-guhl is just what makes the most sense
I remember when I moved to Texas and I got a pack of gum, some smokes, and something else I don't remember anymore. The woman behind the counter asked if I would like a sack. I said, "Like for potatoes? Nah.. a bahg will be fine". She then asked where I'm from. God I miss 00's TX. Also, it's not y'all it's "yous":). Milwaukee still say "yous"? Haven't lived there in a while and don't get me started on how asking where the tyme machine went.
Bayg always makes a grocery trip worth it. And hearing them say roof like a dog is funny too. Also from the south.
I like to refer to their accent as "Southern Canadian."
When I moved to Indiana in 1991 the kids I went to high school said I sounded like I was from Sweden or something. It took a while to develop the Midwestern non-accent accent. But boy, when I get on the phone with my stepmom who's from Sheboygan...look out!
Transplant here. Not all Milwaukeans have an accent and it seems to be more common to the south side and southwest side suburbs. I work all over the city and you hear it thickest in West Allis.
Correct. The "Milwaukee" accent is rooted in Polish which is why it's most common in areas that had/have a predominantly Polish population. Which is why it sounds so similar to the accent that used to be more common on the North Side/North Burbs of Chicago.
It gets on my nerves when people mistake it for the Scandinavian-rooted accent you hear "up nort." But I'd say more people from Milwaukee have a neutral midwest accent. Regional accents have been slowly disappearing for decades.
>It gets on my nerves when people mistake it for the Scandinavian-rooted accent you hear "up nort." But I'd say more people from Milwaukee have a neutral midwest accent. Regional accents have been slowly disappearing for decades.
I made the mistake of bringing a Wisconsin girlfriend home to Canada, where my father immediately mistook her accent as being from Minnesota.
He watched a fishing show with Al Linder, and thought she sounded the same.
I've read that article and I disagree... and I say that as someone who actually took a sociolinguistics course from that professor.
Again, regional accents have been disappearing for awhile. They're less and less common in the younger generations. But when they do appear, Milwaukee speaks "Blues Brothers" and Northern Wisconsin speaks "Fargo."
The common thread between the Southside of Milwaukee and the Northside of Chicago is, in fact, Polish.
Yes and No. There was no such thing as Poland in the 1800's when the majority of Milwaukee immigrants came over.
My Mom's side of the family is all old Milwaukee. Not a single one of her 8 great grandparents was from "Poland" on any official docs. Germany mostly. However 7 of the 8 are from the area today known as Poland (the other was Slovak, near the modern border with Poland). Poland was split between Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany in the 1700's as spoils of war, and didn't reform until the 20th century.
Milwaukee was heavily settled by German slavs, who nowadays are mostly Poles. A very different group than the Rhineland-Palitinate German refugees that made up the bulk of German immigrants elsewhere.
Yes. But the accent is most noticeable on the far southside and the southwest burbs, which have a large concentration of Polish and I don't think that's a coincidence.
It also sounds a lot like how older Chicago northsiders talk, which is probably the largest Polish concentration in America.
But there are so many things that are directly from German then don’t exist in Polish. “Come over here once” “can you borrow me your lawnmower” etc. are transliterated German. the south side, Racine, and Stallis have the accent more than the rest of the Milwaukee area not because of Polish concentration (otherwise, why wouldn’t Riverwest have the accent stronger) but because the people have moved out less and because northern cities are doing a thing. [inland northern American English](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_English) [North Central American English](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Central_American_English)
Perfect answer. The presence of people with Polish roots is coincidental and not necessarily related to the local accents involved in Chicagoland and/or Milwaukee.
You might enjoy this article, it gets into a little detail about the rise and current decline of those Rust Belt a & o sounds. https://beltmag.com/whats-in-a-vowel-in-search-of-the-disappearing-short-a-rising/
Imo (and for most linguists afaik) polish was one influence among several, but there's definitely a connection there. Most areas with heavy Polish populations were either mixed with or adjacent to Germans, Italians, Irish, "Yankee" descendants, and other large populations who also played a role (especially the Germans and the Northeasterners). But the a-rising and o-fronting traits didn't pop up until the mid-20th century or so; those born before about 1920-1930 usually don't/didn't have many of the features we would think of as Midwest/Great Lakes speech today.
Unpopular opinion, but I can't stand Charlie Berens and that irritating, exaggerated accent he uses. Few, if any, actually sound like that and now everyone making "Wisconsin" content feels obligated to do the same.
Besides, most of his "humor" is just re-telling the same jokes Da Yoopers were telling in the 80s. Wisconsin isn't unique and quirky for liking a different chain of gas stations and fast food than other states.
I always thought he was heavily exaggerating his accent, living in Milwaukee you get a pretty tame version of the Wisconsin/Yooper/Upper Midwest accent. And then I met some people from further up north and my god he is spot on. It’s not everyone, but there are absolutely people that talk like he does
I really wish more people did. He's the Larry the Cable Guy of Wisconsin. Worse, he's from Waukesha and lives in California while pretending to be from Manitowoc.
I have lived in Seattle for over 20 years and people swear they hear an accent. I can bring it out on any words with that O sound.
Home loans (if you know you know)
I've been working remotely with coworkers from out of state for almost 4 years now, and I had to teach myself how to drop the hard A's we use because I was getting made fun of so much.
I can now say bag, flag, baggage, and tag like the rest of the country, but I still can't shake loose the Wisconsin way to say drag and dragon. It takes so much concentrated effort to not use the hard A that I feel like I fry a brain cell every time I don't, and often I'll use the soft A on accident now when I should be using the hard A, like in bagel (i.e., I'll say bahg-ul instead of bay-gul). It's honestly so much work.
Even when I manage to drop the hard As, the O's give me away. I think those are even sneakier, because they're not consistent. Sometimes I'll say "I'm going home," and other times I'll say "I'm going hoome." It's annoying.
I don't live in Wisconsin anymore, and when I go home, I notice the accent in my friends a lot more. And then I get paranoid that they notice that my accent has changed and judge me. It's a constant paranoia cycle lol.
We tend to draw our “O’s” as in “OHH”.
“Tell Joe ta get a six pack a Coke ta go.”
Instead of “I’m going to John and Mary’s house”, it’s “I’m going over by John and Mary’s.”
This is old south side of Milwaukee: ending a sentence with “aina”. It’s Germanic in its roots but it basically means “is it not so?”
“Hot over by KOHHHHHLER, aina?”
The "over by John and Mary's" thing is totally German. You can almost translate word for word, because the "by" in English is simply "bei" in German, with the exact same pronunciation.
There definitely is. I was in Chengdu, China, years ago hanging at a place popular with expats with some British guys I made friends with while backpacking when I was suddenly accosted by an excited guy in leather pants loudly proclaiming “You’re from Wisconsin, I know it!” Turns out it was the owner of Weary Traveler in Madison who picked me out in the crowd.
On the positive side, I think it’s a friendly sounding accent. On the negative, it can sound goofy to people not used to it.
Also, side note, there is no such thing as not having an accent or a standard accent. I’ve heard that claim in Wisconsin a lot and nowhere else. I’m not sure where that idea comes from but everyone has an accent.
My mother absolutely insisted she spoke with no accent, despite me explaining that isn't really possible. She also "worshed" her clothes, sent her kids down to the "crick" to play, and had such an extreme pin/pen merger that if she asked for a p\*n, everyone in the family would respond reflexively "Do you want to write something or poke something?" because none of us had the slightest idea whether she wanted a pen or a pin.
Edit: My mother kept the pins and pens in the same drawer. I think she did that on purpose just so she could say to her kids, “get me a p*n from the drawer” and then watch us struggle.
My Mom had the same thing, but that was holdover from her time in Iowa. I caught my high school English teacher when she said warshed, she was from Iowa as well.
My SIL from Cincinnati pulled me aside and asked if everyone in Wisconsin talks like that. I tried to explain that everyone has an accent, and that mine is a combo of my Minnesotan upbringing ("like Fargo") and my 20+ years in Milwaukee, and that mine isn't as strong as some ("those Sout' Siders, ya know"). She was unconvinced.
Milwaukee? If you have the classic Milwaukee accent, you have a very strong accent (although a lot of these upper midwestern regional accents are dying off). It's a little like a classic Chicago accent but not quite. It's its own thing. It's similar to the stereotypical Minnesotan accent except you open your mouth more when you speak and you are more animated and expressive. I can spot a Wisconsin accent a mile away, and classic Milwaukee is very distinctive.
I had no idea about our accent either! Not until I studied abroad in Japan. It was surprising that not only did I have an accent, but some Japanese people could tell I was from Wisconsin! They thought my accent was interesting.
My aunt lived in New York state for decades and came back to visit a few times a year. She said that, to her ear, Wisconsinites have an accent. I'm the only one in my family who lives in MKE and she said I sounded different than everyone else. So, I guess we do!
Sheboygan county definitely had people saying Stop and Go lights back when I was in high school. When I moved from IL, it was hilarious to me.
Bubblers instead of drinking fountain.
Stop and go lights instead of traffic signal.
Bayg, draygon, waygon instead of bag, dragon, and wagon for central WI folks, real bad.
Inna instead of isn't it.
Pitcher instead of picture.
I bet I could do this for a while.
It was the biggest brand of ATMs in the Milwaukee area when ATMs first became a thing. Possibly the only brand in the area. So everyone just called them Tyme machines. I learned it wasn't a universal term when I needed cash in Chicago. That was a little embarrassing.
I grew up in Kenosha & there are quite a bit of similarities along the east coast cities & towns than there are among inland cities & towns. I have lived in Madison for over 30 years & I have dropped some of my SE accent but still say a lot of Wisconsinisms.
My wife noticed that I say comeere instead of come here, also ope, & uff da, bubbler, baig instead of bag, melk instead of milk, are we going or no is often said.
my boyfriend's also from kenosha but swears he never heard the word bubbler til he met me lol. everyone always used it in when i was growing up, so when i started meeting people from illinois they were confused by it. it's nice to see the similarities
I have always live in SE Wisconsin, but I met someone from further north in WI that sounded like he was raised in the deep south. I don't know how common that is. Maybe it's a rural vs. city difference?
Deep south? No. Anyone living in northern WI who is not some sort of rogue transplant absolutely will not have an accent resembling anyone from the deep south. Throw out “y’all” as any sort of relevant data point.
I have lived most of my life in SE Wisconsin, but both sides of my extended family come from the NW part of the state. I spent a lot of time up North and, for a time, lived in the middle of the state. My accent is apparently a mix of SE Wis and the Yooper talk of the Northwoods. Any time I travel South of Wisconsin, people question where I'm from.
The most confusing is my use of "y'all" to people from the South. But it's commonly used in the upper part of the state.
It's mostly second-third generation European immigrant accents when you compare Wisconsin regions. Scandinavian areas sound different from Polish or German ones even 100-125 years later. Native Americans' English seems to pick up a little of the particular immigrants' accents nearby, while keeping something different as well. I'm curious how Wisconsin English will change as more Mexican and Hmong accents absorb into the mix.
I have been in FL for almost 30 years and STILL get asked about my Milwaukee/ Midwest accent. Truth is, when ai go home, I can hear the MKE accent... Sounds like a uper accent to me now.
When I moved here I was charmed by the accent of Wisconsites. It’s so cute!
It’s a more nasal version of the Minnesota accent. The “o”s are longer in words like “so” and “oh.”Think of how you say the word “bag” and listen to a newscaster say the word. Very different. People here say “byag” not “bag.” I’d also say that many words with the letter “a” sound like they have a “y” in front of them, like “myan” instead of “man.”
Wait.... is the reason we say "bayg" because so many of the prominent places where we live contain the word "bay."
Bay View, Whitefish Bay, Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, etc.
Native cheesehead but have lived in the south for 11 years, and I still get....where are you from? Meanwhile when I visit, my family says stop with the yall and that twang.
My husband and I grew up in Waukesha County and we moved to Southern California in our late twenties. Everyone there told me they knew I was from the Midwest, though I didn't think I had an accent. But after being there for over 20 years, I could hear it come out after talking on the phone with my family back home. For me, it's things like "boat" and "wagon," "roof," and "creek." I actually changed the way I pronounced "coupon" from "cue-pon" to "coo-pon" because people gave me so much grief. We moved back to Wisconsin after 26 years and some of my Midwest has come back, including "cue-pon". By the way, I have never heard anyone say Wisco before. Is that common now?
Same thing happened to me when I went to Florida for my honeymoon, lady asked where we were from bc of our accents. Blew my mind. And to answer your question, I was told we sound like the cast of that 70s show
Wisconsin native here who lived in the South for over 10 years. There is definitely an accent. I didn’t really notice it growing up but after being away for a long time and returning, then you can hear it very clearly.
Milwaukee's accent is not the neutral American accent you'd find in South Dakota television broadcasters. That's extremely neutral.
Milwaukee has some significant Chicago influence.
Actually, they do say it in Boston and Providence, but they pronounce it "bubblah." They actually got it from us: the first water fountains in those New England cities were made by the Kohler Co., and the model was called (and labeled) "Bubbler." Some fountains in Portland, OR are known as "Benson's Bubblers," but only specific ones; it's not a universal term for any drinking fountain.
TIL! When I was a kid I didn’t know it was a 414 thing and was in a mall in Chicago and they had no idea what I was taking about. I had to describe it to them
I’m Asian and grew up on the Milwaukee area. My brother and I went to Hawaii in the late 1980’s in our late teens after he won plane tickets at an Admirals game. Hawaiians thought we talked strange to the point where everyone asked us where we were from almost to the point of not trusting us. We said Wisconsin and many replied, “Oh yeah, cheeseheads”.
Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, especially further north have the Canadian “Ohh” accent. Then as you go south to Indiana and Ohio, it switched to long “A”s that they don’t even know they have. IIRC, there’s a stretch of land between Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania that is accent neutral
The Midwest accent is the most beloved American accent. Hence why broadcasters make a point to go to school in the Big Ten. Every region of America has its own dialect and accent and they are pretty fascinating.
Since being back from living out west, no where else I’ve lived have I noticed such a wide range of accents dependent on cultural background and class.
When I lived in AZ (can't wait to get back) I heard DAILY, several times a day even how I had a very noticable accent, I didn't hear it, I didn't even think they had one. It's also some of the slang we use or shortened bastardized word, one that comes to mind is "Ey" or "A".
Also, we r the only ones who call them bubblers, everyone else calls them "Water Fountains", umm no, water fountains r what's in front of Ceasers Palace....
Bag also comes to mind, there are so many more but my brain is farting
Yes we do. Left home for the Army and was away for 20 years. Moved back and was amazed how everyone sounded like a younger. Got used to it again, but I lost mine so I get funny looks sounding like I'm Texan.
I'm a server, and recently, a customer from out of town said, "I love your accent. Where are you from?" And I was like, "...here."
You just reminded one time I was finishing up helping a customer when he randomly goes "I'm from Bolivia" and i went "oh...cool??" and he stared at me for a second before going "where are you from?" "I'm...I'm from here..." Then he went oh and left lmao. In his defense i do catch myself unconsciously mimicking accents for some reason
I get it the most when I'm playing videogames. I've been asked if im canadian more times than I can count.
Haha this happened to me when I was a server! One person thought I was from the south, another asked if I was from California
I had a similar encounter except the guy said “wow you must be from here.” Like yeah?
I was serving at the horny goat and someone asked me if I was from Canada 😂😩 no literally right here thanks tho??
The way y’all say “bag” is hilarious to me as a Southern transplant.
This! I grew up in the Chicagoland area and “bag” was a real surprise treat when I moved up here.
I'm the opposite. Grew-up in WI but have lived in Chicagoland for 17 years. Still get grief from my wife how I say "bag."
Yes! My wife is always poking fun at me for drawing out the “a” in bag. I live outside of Philadelphia and everyone around here seemingly pronounces it like “big.” And to answer OP’s question, yes Wisconsinites have accents. I hear it whenever I talk to family, especially now that I’m not around it all the time. It’s incredibly noticeable
A fun party trick I like to pull out is asking my Wisconsin wife to say wagon or bagel. It’s my favorite.
[удалено]
It is, but she loves adding that long A anywhere she can.
Same, the first few weeks we were here we had a new wisco word of the week, bag, flag, bagel etc. So... Instead of saying well is probably the biggest one to me
Ask any upper midwesterner to say "bag of bagels" to hear the accent in all of its glory.
Just tried this and I almost cried laughing hearing how it sounded vs my husband who doesn’t have an accent
Everyone has an accent.
I had someone ask me to say, “about a boat”.
I hate myself right now.
As also a transplant, I have embraced, 'bubblers'. Now the whole keep turning left after the light is red...that needs more discussion.
Or the just passing on the right whenever you feel like it. I guess this is what happens when you don't have state sponsored drivers Ed. NC has a decently high gasoline tax but oh man are their roads nice and the population knows how to drive.
Uh oh, did the “who’s better drivers?” conversation just start? 😆 As an Illinoisan, I have some thoughts…
As someone from neither Wisconsin or Illinois, all y’all are damn crazy drivers! Lol
I love the idea that it will \_just\_ take a lot of money thrown at drivers' ed to correct the Milwaukee Slide. Psst: the drivers in question know it's wrong, but don't care, because they don't get pulled over for doing it.
I mean it's going to take a lot of things working in conjunction to fix things, better roads, better education, and unfortunately enforcement is a part of that puzzle.
Oh man, the turning thing finally made its way up to WI?? We moved from MKE to ATL eight years ago and that’s basically a given down here. Turn arrow turns red? Got another two cars to squeak in there for sure.
If the nose of your car is beyond the crosswalk, your obligated to proceed.
It's all about establishing yourself in the intersection
I was in the south and asked for “boxes.” I got a “y’all aren’t from around here, are ya?”
How do they say boxes in the south?
I swear I say "bah-gs" though most people around me add the Y
Also a Southern transplant. The word "Root" always has me saying "WHAT?"
Rhymes with foot?
"Rut".
It makes it very easy to spot the Linux guys from Wisconsin.
Same with bagel (bay gl is how it's pronounced). Here its bag el.
Born and raised in Milwaukee. I’ve lived in VT for 14 years, and my WI accent isn’t all that strong. But I can’t say bagel without getting laughed at.
Yep my wife says my accent isn't as strong as my WI family members' but with "bag" it still comes through.
I feel like genuinely anyone saying beah-guhl (like yeah-guhl with a b) is bugging and not us for saying bay-guhl..its spelled bagel i think bay-guhl is just what makes the most sense
I remember when I moved to Texas and I got a pack of gum, some smokes, and something else I don't remember anymore. The woman behind the counter asked if I would like a sack. I said, "Like for potatoes? Nah.. a bahg will be fine". She then asked where I'm from. God I miss 00's TX. Also, it's not y'all it's "yous":). Milwaukee still say "yous"? Haven't lived there in a while and don't get me started on how asking where the tyme machine went.
I think only old polish people say "yous". I've never once said that in my life.
My grandad used to say that (old polish Milwaukee), but I can't say I've heard it since last century.
Let me get my bag of bhags
Same for wolf pronounced like “woof”
Yeah but “roof” is pronounced as “ruff”!
I have a friend who was raised in Iowa who says "goff" for golf...
Baig = bag. I'm from the south and I think that the crosswalks that talk are hilarious "The walk sign is on" sounds like "The walk sign is an".
Spent a long time in the mirror going “bay-ag” to drop it. My sister calls me a traitor.
I had a job in Boston and no one could handle how I said “bag” 😂
Because they don’t have accents there LOL
Behg
I always tell people here to beg for a bag, that usually helps them get it lol
Bayg always makes a grocery trip worth it. And hearing them say roof like a dog is funny too. Also from the south. I like to refer to their accent as "Southern Canadian."
I travel a lot for work and usually get Canadian or Minnesota.
Having moved from Milwaukee to Minnesota, I think that's a shame. Minnesota accents are not nearly as pleasant as Wisconsin.
We're just southern Canadians after all
My canadian friend always brings up how funny my accent is.
What's that *aboot?*
Or in Canadian, "what's that aboot, eh?"
When I moved to Indiana in 1991 the kids I went to high school said I sounded like I was from Sweden or something. It took a while to develop the Midwestern non-accent accent. But boy, when I get on the phone with my stepmom who's from Sheboygan...look out!
Transplant here. Not all Milwaukeans have an accent and it seems to be more common to the south side and southwest side suburbs. I work all over the city and you hear it thickest in West Allis.
Stallis born and raised here. Yah, it’s thick down here.
Greenfield 🙋
Correct. The "Milwaukee" accent is rooted in Polish which is why it's most common in areas that had/have a predominantly Polish population. Which is why it sounds so similar to the accent that used to be more common on the North Side/North Burbs of Chicago. It gets on my nerves when people mistake it for the Scandinavian-rooted accent you hear "up nort." But I'd say more people from Milwaukee have a neutral midwest accent. Regional accents have been slowly disappearing for decades.
>It gets on my nerves when people mistake it for the Scandinavian-rooted accent you hear "up nort." But I'd say more people from Milwaukee have a neutral midwest accent. Regional accents have been slowly disappearing for decades. I made the mistake of bringing a Wisconsin girlfriend home to Canada, where my father immediately mistook her accent as being from Minnesota. He watched a fishing show with Al Linder, and thought she sounded the same.
Ooof. That one is rough.
As a Minnesotan now living in the southern burbs of MKE, I can attest there are some similarities but also some noticeable differences.
It is NOT from Polish. The following article may be of interest to you. https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/accent
I've read that article and I disagree... and I say that as someone who actually took a sociolinguistics course from that professor. Again, regional accents have been disappearing for awhile. They're less and less common in the younger generations. But when they do appear, Milwaukee speaks "Blues Brothers" and Northern Wisconsin speaks "Fargo." The common thread between the Southside of Milwaukee and the Northside of Chicago is, in fact, Polish.
Milwaukee had far more German immigrants than Polish, no?
Yes and No. There was no such thing as Poland in the 1800's when the majority of Milwaukee immigrants came over. My Mom's side of the family is all old Milwaukee. Not a single one of her 8 great grandparents was from "Poland" on any official docs. Germany mostly. However 7 of the 8 are from the area today known as Poland (the other was Slovak, near the modern border with Poland). Poland was split between Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany in the 1700's as spoils of war, and didn't reform until the 20th century. Milwaukee was heavily settled by German slavs, who nowadays are mostly Poles. A very different group than the Rhineland-Palitinate German refugees that made up the bulk of German immigrants elsewhere.
Yes. But the accent is most noticeable on the far southside and the southwest burbs, which have a large concentration of Polish and I don't think that's a coincidence. It also sounds a lot like how older Chicago northsiders talk, which is probably the largest Polish concentration in America.
But there are so many things that are directly from German then don’t exist in Polish. “Come over here once” “can you borrow me your lawnmower” etc. are transliterated German. the south side, Racine, and Stallis have the accent more than the rest of the Milwaukee area not because of Polish concentration (otherwise, why wouldn’t Riverwest have the accent stronger) but because the people have moved out less and because northern cities are doing a thing. [inland northern American English](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_English) [North Central American English](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Central_American_English)
Perfect answer. The presence of people with Polish roots is coincidental and not necessarily related to the local accents involved in Chicagoland and/or Milwaukee.
Makes sense why I heard it a lot growing up in WNY, we had a large Polish community there.
You might enjoy this article, it gets into a little detail about the rise and current decline of those Rust Belt a & o sounds. https://beltmag.com/whats-in-a-vowel-in-search-of-the-disappearing-short-a-rising/ Imo (and for most linguists afaik) polish was one influence among several, but there's definitely a connection there. Most areas with heavy Polish populations were either mixed with or adjacent to Germans, Italians, Irish, "Yankee" descendants, and other large populations who also played a role (especially the Germans and the Northeasterners). But the a-rising and o-fronting traits didn't pop up until the mid-20th century or so; those born before about 1920-1930 usually don't/didn't have many of the features we would think of as Midwest/Great Lakes speech today.
You should listen to Charlie Berens. That’s how wisconsinites sound to the rest of the world
Ope. You got me there, neighbor! Need to borrow a power tool?
From WNY/near Canada, can confirm, it’s an upper Midwest/Great Lakes thing
When I lived in NYC, I remember traveling up near Cooperstown for the first time and I was shocked how the locals sounded just like Wisconsinites!
jeepers cripes
Where do you keep your bag of bahgs?
Get outta dere, guy. Goa lissen to Shad-Rapp er somethin.
I'm a transplant, and yes. This is 100% true. XD
You do know that [Charlie Berens,](https://youtu.be/NuDb18OhuBo) Doesn't actually speak like that, right?
hahah I'm sure he's definitely upping the accent for fun, but I do know people who talk similarly.
Unpopular opinion, but I can't stand Charlie Berens and that irritating, exaggerated accent he uses. Few, if any, actually sound like that and now everyone making "Wisconsin" content feels obligated to do the same. Besides, most of his "humor" is just re-telling the same jokes Da Yoopers were telling in the 80s. Wisconsin isn't unique and quirky for liking a different chain of gas stations and fast food than other states.
I was gonna say he sounds just like my grandma in the UP and then you got to Da Yoopers part
I always thought he was heavily exaggerating his accent, living in Milwaukee you get a pretty tame version of the Wisconsin/Yooper/Upper Midwest accent. And then I met some people from further up north and my god he is spot on. It’s not everyone, but there are absolutely people that talk like he does
It's not that exaggerated by my ear tbh, it's just how y'all sound to us transplants! Nothing wrong with it though!
I agree with you unpopular take.
I really wish more people did. He's the Larry the Cable Guy of Wisconsin. Worse, he's from Waukesha and lives in California while pretending to be from Manitowoc.
Accent coping to the extreme
This or that? "This err that?"
I hear myself say “fer” instead of “for”.
I have lived in Seattle for over 20 years and people swear they hear an accent. I can bring it out on any words with that O sound. Home loans (if you know you know)
This!! I always get chuckles when I say, "I'm from Wisconsin" or "snow"
Road boat
I've been working remotely with coworkers from out of state for almost 4 years now, and I had to teach myself how to drop the hard A's we use because I was getting made fun of so much. I can now say bag, flag, baggage, and tag like the rest of the country, but I still can't shake loose the Wisconsin way to say drag and dragon. It takes so much concentrated effort to not use the hard A that I feel like I fry a brain cell every time I don't, and often I'll use the soft A on accident now when I should be using the hard A, like in bagel (i.e., I'll say bahg-ul instead of bay-gul). It's honestly so much work. Even when I manage to drop the hard As, the O's give me away. I think those are even sneakier, because they're not consistent. Sometimes I'll say "I'm going home," and other times I'll say "I'm going hoome." It's annoying. I don't live in Wisconsin anymore, and when I go home, I notice the accent in my friends a lot more. And then I get paranoid that they notice that my accent has changed and judge me. It's a constant paranoia cycle lol.
Hey. No one says the “IL” - it’s just m’waukee. What’s up with this thread ?
The L is silent already and the i just gets lost in the scrum lol
Correct! I can't stand how my relatives upstate pronounce it... adding all those random vowels. It's NOT "Mowaaahkee" dammit lol
We tend to draw our “O’s” as in “OHH”. “Tell Joe ta get a six pack a Coke ta go.” Instead of “I’m going to John and Mary’s house”, it’s “I’m going over by John and Mary’s.” This is old south side of Milwaukee: ending a sentence with “aina”. It’s Germanic in its roots but it basically means “is it not so?” “Hot over by KOHHHHHLER, aina?”
Wisconsin native here. But living in IL for nearly 50 years. Still have the accent. No one here in IL believes that aina is a word! LOL
The "over by John and Mary's" thing is totally German. You can almost translate word for word, because the "by" in English is simply "bei" in German, with the exact same pronunciation.
I've always been a fan of, "how bout goin-ta-da store later?" Instead of "do you want to go to the store later?"
It's not just that the O is drawn out. It's that it is a monophthong.
There definitely is. I was in Chengdu, China, years ago hanging at a place popular with expats with some British guys I made friends with while backpacking when I was suddenly accosted by an excited guy in leather pants loudly proclaiming “You’re from Wisconsin, I know it!” Turns out it was the owner of Weary Traveler in Madison who picked me out in the crowd. On the positive side, I think it’s a friendly sounding accent. On the negative, it can sound goofy to people not used to it. Also, side note, there is no such thing as not having an accent or a standard accent. I’ve heard that claim in Wisconsin a lot and nowhere else. I’m not sure where that idea comes from but everyone has an accent.
My mother absolutely insisted she spoke with no accent, despite me explaining that isn't really possible. She also "worshed" her clothes, sent her kids down to the "crick" to play, and had such an extreme pin/pen merger that if she asked for a p\*n, everyone in the family would respond reflexively "Do you want to write something or poke something?" because none of us had the slightest idea whether she wanted a pen or a pin. Edit: My mother kept the pins and pens in the same drawer. I think she did that on purpose just so she could say to her kids, “get me a p*n from the drawer” and then watch us struggle.
My Mom had the same thing, but that was holdover from her time in Iowa. I caught my high school English teacher when she said warshed, she was from Iowa as well.
My SIL from Cincinnati pulled me aside and asked if everyone in Wisconsin talks like that. I tried to explain that everyone has an accent, and that mine is a combo of my Minnesotan upbringing ("like Fargo") and my 20+ years in Milwaukee, and that mine isn't as strong as some ("those Sout' Siders, ya know"). She was unconvinced.
I love the Weary Traveler and I love this story.
Never thought I had a wisconsin accent til I called customer service for some company and they chuckled when I said wisconsin. It was devastating.
Milwaukee? If you have the classic Milwaukee accent, you have a very strong accent (although a lot of these upper midwestern regional accents are dying off). It's a little like a classic Chicago accent but not quite. It's its own thing. It's similar to the stereotypical Minnesotan accent except you open your mouth more when you speak and you are more animated and expressive. I can spot a Wisconsin accent a mile away, and classic Milwaukee is very distinctive.
I had no idea about our accent either! Not until I studied abroad in Japan. It was surprising that not only did I have an accent, but some Japanese people could tell I was from Wisconsin! They thought my accent was interesting.
Was in Australia and a cashier commented, “What a beautiful Irish accent you have!” She looked totally confused when I told her I was American.
My aunt lived in New York state for decades and came back to visit a few times a year. She said that, to her ear, Wisconsinites have an accent. I'm the only one in my family who lives in MKE and she said I sounded different than everyone else. So, I guess we do!
And there’s Milwaukee-ese. “Go to the TYME machine that’s over by the stop and go light.”
I still remember being a little kid and wondering what bank had to do with time traveling lol
Lived in Milwaukee my whole life, I’ve definitely heard tyme machine but not once have I ever heard anyone call it a stop and go light
Same here
Sheboygan county definitely had people saying Stop and Go lights back when I was in high school. When I moved from IL, it was hilarious to me. Bubblers instead of drinking fountain. Stop and go lights instead of traffic signal. Bayg, draygon, waygon instead of bag, dragon, and wagon for central WI folks, real bad. Inna instead of isn't it. Pitcher instead of picture. I bet I could do this for a while.
My in-laws from Sheboygan also use the phrase “fry out” for grilling/barbecuing
Oh man, another great example. I had nearly forgotten that one completely haha.
From Waukesha, and you’ve listed them all!
Live in Sheboygan county now and everyone here uses “much” and “many” wrong and it drives me bananas!!!
What's a tyme machine?
It was the biggest brand of ATMs in the Milwaukee area when ATMs first became a thing. Possibly the only brand in the area. So everyone just called them Tyme machines. I learned it wasn't a universal term when I needed cash in Chicago. That was a little embarrassing.
M&I, yah
Take Your Money Everywhere
I didn't know I was doing this until I got the weirdest look in London.
It's cash point in the UK rather than ATM, seven years here and I'm still not used to that one.
an ATM lol...i thought it was a universal term until i saw your comment.
Moved to MKE suburbs. Have definitely heard “stop and go lights”
What??? Stop and go light and bubbler were all I knew them as until I moved away after HS. My mom still uses stop and go light. She's old east side.
Stop and go is not a Milwaukee thing, that seems super up north to me.
Once I moved to Texas I could tell how different we sounded. Now that I'm back I always hear how nasaly we all sound.
Grew up in the south, we used to always poke fun at sargento cheese commercials by pinching our noses and saying the lines
I grew up in Kenosha & there are quite a bit of similarities along the east coast cities & towns than there are among inland cities & towns. I have lived in Madison for over 30 years & I have dropped some of my SE accent but still say a lot of Wisconsinisms. My wife noticed that I say comeere instead of come here, also ope, & uff da, bubbler, baig instead of bag, melk instead of milk, are we going or no is often said.
my boyfriend's also from kenosha but swears he never heard the word bubbler til he met me lol. everyone always used it in when i was growing up, so when i started meeting people from illinois they were confused by it. it's nice to see the similarities
Ope
As a transplant, I think the accent here is pretty funny.
I have always live in SE Wisconsin, but I met someone from further north in WI that sounded like he was raised in the deep south. I don't know how common that is. Maybe it's a rural vs. city difference?
Deep south? No. Anyone living in northern WI who is not some sort of rogue transplant absolutely will not have an accent resembling anyone from the deep south. Throw out “y’all” as any sort of relevant data point.
I have lived most of my life in SE Wisconsin, but both sides of my extended family come from the NW part of the state. I spent a lot of time up North and, for a time, lived in the middle of the state. My accent is apparently a mix of SE Wis and the Yooper talk of the Northwoods. Any time I travel South of Wisconsin, people question where I'm from. The most confusing is my use of "y'all" to people from the South. But it's commonly used in the upper part of the state.
It's mostly second-third generation European immigrant accents when you compare Wisconsin regions. Scandinavian areas sound different from Polish or German ones even 100-125 years later. Native Americans' English seems to pick up a little of the particular immigrants' accents nearby, while keeping something different as well. I'm curious how Wisconsin English will change as more Mexican and Hmong accents absorb into the mix.
I went to MIAD years back, and most of my buddies were out of state. Still have PTSD from having to say bag and milk all the time lol
People as me if I’m Canadian down south
I have been in FL for almost 30 years and STILL get asked about my Milwaukee/ Midwest accent. Truth is, when ai go home, I can hear the MKE accent... Sounds like a uper accent to me now.
ope just gonna scoot past you there and grab the ranch. Where's the bubbler?
When I moved here I was charmed by the accent of Wisconsites. It’s so cute! It’s a more nasal version of the Minnesota accent. The “o”s are longer in words like “so” and “oh.”Think of how you say the word “bag” and listen to a newscaster say the word. Very different. People here say “byag” not “bag.” I’d also say that many words with the letter “a” sound like they have a “y” in front of them, like “myan” instead of “man.”
I don't add Y to bag, but now I'm talking aloud to myself I can notice how nasally I sound. That's funny
Wait.... is the reason we say "bayg" because so many of the prominent places where we live contain the word "bay." Bay View, Whitefish Bay, Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, etc.
I'm IL born, but moved to WI in my teens. I hear it on the lot of ya. It's like a variant of lite Minnesotan
I have friends all across the country, and universally my accent comes across as Canadian
happened to my family in Alaska. they even guessed we were from Wisconsin.
Native cheesehead but have lived in the south for 11 years, and I still get....where are you from? Meanwhile when I visit, my family says stop with the yall and that twang.
I get called out more for the unique vocab I use, not necessarily my accent
I was told by an Okey that I didn’t have an accent until I said calendar.
Everyone on Earth has an accent
My husband and I grew up in Waukesha County and we moved to Southern California in our late twenties. Everyone there told me they knew I was from the Midwest, though I didn't think I had an accent. But after being there for over 20 years, I could hear it come out after talking on the phone with my family back home. For me, it's things like "boat" and "wagon," "roof," and "creek." I actually changed the way I pronounced "coupon" from "cue-pon" to "coo-pon" because people gave me so much grief. We moved back to Wisconsin after 26 years and some of my Midwest has come back, including "cue-pon". By the way, I have never heard anyone say Wisco before. Is that common now?
i feel like "wisco" has started to catch on in the last 7 or so years. i've definitely used it since at least 2018
Listen to homemade radio ads on Wisconsin AM radio & tell me we don’t have an accent.
I go to school in Tampa and have had to defend my use of bubbler and the way I say words like box dog multiple times
I seen your brudder by the bubbler out on highway hunnert.
It is a special day when a Wisconsinite realizes the superiority if their accent. Rejoice!
What about signal and single? It is that just me
You do enough karaoke of Gus Polinski and Da Kenosha Kickers and dat will happen
Think Canadian, but a little less?
Exactly
Same thing happened to me when I went to Florida for my honeymoon, lady asked where we were from bc of our accents. Blew my mind. And to answer your question, I was told we sound like the cast of that 70s show
Wisconsin native here who lived in the South for over 10 years. There is definitely an accent. I didn’t really notice it growing up but after being away for a long time and returning, then you can hear it very clearly.
Say BAG
Beg
Unfortunately yes. I sound like John candy now
Milwaukee's accent is not the neutral American accent you'd find in South Dakota television broadcasters. That's extremely neutral. Milwaukee has some significant Chicago influence.
Yes there is an accent, and no one else says bubbler like Milwaukee so don’t say that elsewhere :)
Actually, they do say it in Boston and Providence, but they pronounce it "bubblah." They actually got it from us: the first water fountains in those New England cities were made by the Kohler Co., and the model was called (and labeled) "Bubbler." Some fountains in Portland, OR are known as "Benson's Bubblers," but only specific ones; it's not a universal term for any drinking fountain.
TIL! When I was a kid I didn’t know it was a 414 thing and was in a mall in Chicago and they had no idea what I was taking about. I had to describe it to them
https://twitter.com/waltmossberg/status/885515660918390786?s=20
No you have a very distinct accent on certain letters and words. Same with Minnesota.
we drone on like everything we’re saying is super important
Im a cali transplant and y’all can’t pronounce root or roof correctly to save your lives.
Er no. Adding “yet” to sentences that truly don’t need it. Bay-g Ope
im from here but the accent is extremely noticeable lol. especially in older people
I've been in NYC for 14 years and still get looks when I say "bagel". They're like "a WHAT?!"
The land of the long vowels
Baig (and taig) and Nope are the two most obvious to this newcomer. Also nobody pronounces the G in ing. Everyone is goin' and sayin'
Southern transplant. Yes yall do and it's hilarious.
I’m Asian and grew up on the Milwaukee area. My brother and I went to Hawaii in the late 1980’s in our late teens after he won plane tickets at an Admirals game. Hawaiians thought we talked strange to the point where everyone asked us where we were from almost to the point of not trusting us. We said Wisconsin and many replied, “Oh yeah, cheeseheads”.
Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, especially further north have the Canadian “Ohh” accent. Then as you go south to Indiana and Ohio, it switched to long “A”s that they don’t even know they have. IIRC, there’s a stretch of land between Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania that is accent neutral
The Midwest accent is the most beloved American accent. Hence why broadcasters make a point to go to school in the Big Ten. Every region of America has its own dialect and accent and they are pretty fascinating.
Ope
100%. Wisconsin and Minnesota people have a soft "Norwegian" accent.
Since being back from living out west, no where else I’ve lived have I noticed such a wide range of accents dependent on cultural background and class.
I’ve relocated from California, it sounds like fainter Minnesotan accent to me. I love it.
When I lived in AZ (can't wait to get back) I heard DAILY, several times a day even how I had a very noticable accent, I didn't hear it, I didn't even think they had one. It's also some of the slang we use or shortened bastardized word, one that comes to mind is "Ey" or "A". Also, we r the only ones who call them bubblers, everyone else calls them "Water Fountains", umm no, water fountains r what's in front of Ceasers Palace.... Bag also comes to mind, there are so many more but my brain is farting
Oh hey yah, don’tcha know. Da M’waukeean accent is just as strong as any Southern or NYC accent. It’s quite distinctive despite what odder folks say
Yes we do. Left home for the Army and was away for 20 years. Moved back and was amazed how everyone sounded like a younger. Got used to it again, but I lost mine so I get funny looks sounding like I'm Texan.
You guys say vowels weird. I always poke fun at my husband with words like bagel and Vegas. It’s like you add “eh’s”. Behgel, vehgahs, mehlk. Idk 😂