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Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Part 1. Abbreviate these words by leaving out the ending. Draw out the vowel. Part 2. Memorize Wisconsinite pronunciations for the state and cities.
Many people go north to vacation, hunt, and fish. Learn local terms for objects. And even though it bugs Grace, she finds the whole thing fascinating, and a bit endearing. There are a couple of ways to answer that question, according to UW-Milwaukee linguistics professor Garry Davis. Settlers established the city of Milwaukee with a variety of ethnic influences — German, Polish, Italian, Irish, and many more — and those influences seep into our grammar.
Davis says as humans, we talk the most like the people we talk the most to. We regulate that almost unconsciously. Try your hand at it here! McClelland says language is all about identity. And because of that, he says, he hopes regional accents never go away. Lived in NY for over 10 years and still cannot break myself of most.
As soon as I open my mouth, people constantly say — are you from Wisconsin. Biggest eye opener was when I realized, when saying Ya as in yaaaaaah that it is really German Ja for yes that I was saying. In squirrelly valley, they talk so funny, they act so silly. I always hear a -boat when you say. People in Milwaukee call 7up white soda and potlucks a carry in. The first time someone asked to borrow them a dollar I really had to think about that one.
License plates are a Wisconsin thing. Down south, there are license plates too. Well, at least in Texas anyway. Not being from there originally, it took me a long time to understand that they meant they were going to go and weed the garden at their house, not at their job. Love this!
Was working in TX and used that expression-had to explain what it meant to my coworkers. This is from rolling dice in the bar. When there were two guys left and the loser had to buy a round for all those at the bar playing , you had to win 2 out of 3 to go out. If you won, you got a horse, and a tie was a horse a piece, indicating that the next round of dice shakes would determine the loser and round buyer.
Loved doing this with the farmers. Brings me home. They do that? Would you like a drink with that at all errrrr? I do this sometimes, but my mom is especially guilty!! Ya so is that cool errr no? Maybe one of these things is exclusive to Wisconsin alone. New England calls it a bubbler and Philly says yous. Inter changing Bring and take. A woman has some trouble moving her car.
Go ahead and backup. Funny thing is that each part of the state has different accents or just say words differently depending on the part of the state you are in. I love how peaceful and laid back Sconnies are in general. I love Wisconsin! That was, is and always will be my home!
Funny story about the TYME machines. I went to basic training in FT. Benning, GA in I had never left the state before going joining the Army. I needed to get some cash so that I could get my hair cut shaved bald back then. After he laughed at me and made fun of me because he seriously thought I was axing lol about a watch or a sci-fi device to jump forward or backward in time, he realized I was serious so I had to explain to him I was looking for the portable bank that allows me to get cash without physically going to the bank and he realized I was talking about the ATM.
Another thing we say in Milwaukee, not sure how much of the state, but we call the Nike shoe, Air Force Ones: dookies or doo-doos. Not sure why but we do. One day at work I was helping a older co-worker get something out of the stock room and banging the flat cart into everything. Oh ya, der hey. That is a predominantly Irish area, so it could be related to that. I have to remind them that either these things come from their Scots-Irish heritage or Southern Wisconsin is part of the South, which offends them greatly.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah — we did miss that one. But it has been mentioned here in the comments before. I would say that one that we find getting in fights the most over is pop vs soda i know up is wisconsin both are said by people but most of its pop right now me and my husband live in nc and miss wi a lot lol but we say pop and our friends are like what then we say pepsi or whatever and then they go you mean soda no we mean pop lol its on going here with those words.
It was interesting! My dad was stationed in Hawaii for a bit and when I went to go live with him, I had a bit of culture shock…. I was a precoscious child. Not only was my new middle school layed out in campus fashion but, apparently, they had a stylish water feature to match!
Loved reading the article and these comments. Took me back many years. Wonder where he got it from…? I was born and raised in Wisconsin and apparently used that word when he was growing up. Is it so hard to say…have a good day!!! Wisconsin dialect varies quite a bit! Sam — after we posted this article — I actually started noticing myself saying things I thought I never said. Again, as others have mentioned, certain ways of saying things must be regional. I have heard of that Sara.
Is your dad originally from the U. P or Northern WI? Anyone else heard of that being a Wisconsin thing? All my Grammas yes, Grammas… can you tell im a Sconnie? I am from the west coast but have lived in Wisconsin for the past 32 years…. My pet peeve is Will you borrow me a dollar? The proper way to ask this…. Will you lend me a dollar?
Or can I borrow a dollar? I hear borrow me all the time……. I was so happy to see it in this list. I live in South Texas. A friend of mine moved from Wisconsin to south Texas. Can anyone confirm this for me???? Honestly, it strikes me kinda weird too. When attached to the end of a sentence: Saying you look like someone or something. Saying you resemble someone or something. Also someone with a funny look. I moved to san antonio tx. I see and hear myself doing most all of these. And most of my friends here love to pick on the way I say things.
But most hold true,as well as the very many extras in the comments. I very much so appreciate the ruff roof comment as I get a serious amount of picking on for that. I am a Wisconsinite Lived on a farm so have used may of the phrases in my life still do. I moved to Missouri for about 8 months —-there are a lot of different words I was working for a store down there and the customer asked for a skillet —-I stood there dumbfounded lol after they described it I was like oh you mean a frying pan—-in wisconsin we call a shopping cart a cart well down there it is a buggy —-Everybody down there thought I was from Canada —Which I thought was funny when I moved back I had Wisconsin accent with the southern drawl just imagine the confusion on peoples faces.
When I lived in TX, my circle of friends were transplants from everywhere. However, if you look into it, Wisconsin is kind of split on the pop vs soda thing.
Thanks for reading. How about this one? Worsh your clothes in the zinc and then put them in the dray-yer drawer. I hear that mostly around Little Chute. Great story! I probably say it all the time. I went to high school with some Vans who had really long last names — like Vanderzandenlangenberger. In…10th grade? Makes me a little homesick! I am from Kenosha and we always said Pop.. I grew up in central WI and it was always pop never soda.
Water fountain was interchangeable with bubbler. A bakery is a place, people, not a food group. Hard rolls in Milwaukee are actually hard and flake and crumble, in Sheb. Never heard of a brat fry outside of Sheb. The leftover kuchen would get cement-hard in the bread drawer! I still call them stop lights, and drinking fountains. When I live in PA they picked on my accent so much. Said I drawled out my words. I remember the check out girls look of dismay when I asked where there bubbler was.
We use the term yous they say youins. What in the world sloppy Joes have to do with hot tamales stumps me. That is weird, Ken! Never heard that before. Chuck — do you know WHY folks in Sheboygan call them that? They call them the same in Manitowoc. Our church has started an ESL program and we had to stop calling them hot tamales because of the many hispanics using the ESL program.
It was quite confusing. Ooo, I was waiting for this one! My mom called them hot tamales too! The only time was when I had just moved to Texas and my friend said she could tell I was from somewhere else, but not where.
Very exaggerated, of course. The funniest one is a friend of mine who says utter for the word other. Proud to be a cheesehead. Someone gone Washington pointed that out to us recently! We call it pop, my brother in law who is from Pennsylvania says coke. Coke is for every kind of pop, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, 7up, all of if is Coke! I have been told we use the word yeah.. My godparents and their kids—good German folk the Schwandts —say uff da all the time. And they have about the thickest WI accents of anyone I know.
Then actors act out the interview scenarios with real voices. I live in AZ now, and I said this a while back to my husband. He looked at me like I was crazy. I tell them we have snow machines, they are the machines they use to make snow on hills for skiing- but one cannot ride them!
Your input… Another word I heard in the Milwaukee area, esp. I really enjoyed your articles, will forward to my non-Wisconsin friends to explain myself, or at least my language! Thanks for the enlightenment! I agree — the snow machine thing always sounds strange to me too, but I guess it is technically acceptable. I think the dem, dat dere thing is more Upper Midwest. Definitely Chicago more-so than the whole state of IL.
Suffer the wrath if you do not heed that greeting. I am from Wisconsi but live in California. Def a Wisconsin thing! I grew up in wi and then moved to mt.. When I went to college in Appleton, however, and many of my friends were from out of state, I started to realize just how much Wisconsin had colored my dialect!
Now that we are living out of the country, and I am the only one with a strong Wisconsin dialect around, I realize even more how much of an impact the Badger State has had on my language. Thanks for the fun and interesting article! He classic response. Aina was a big one in my neighborhood while I was growing up. Croix, had gooms, fil-lum, ahmond, and el-lum. I think that some of the sayings were translations from Middle European languages.
I was born and raised in Madison. Some of the list, I can relate to, some I cannot. Maybe I am and am not realizing it. Yous guys? When I saw this on a quiz, I figured it was an Eastern coast accent. Very surprised that to hear that it is from Wisconsin. I always called them Stop lights, maybe I just shortened it. Ya Know? Too funny, I am so guilty of saying this. Real quick or real fast. I actually scolded my kids for calling a water fountain. My Dad always said Warsh…drove me crazy. Anyone else ever hear that.
Anyone else notice when people say mitten, butter, better.. Not at all. I think most of these come from the area along Lake Michigan. Ok wow…. By the lake not to the lake. And saggy. Like my bread is soggy we pronounce it with an a.
Where is that from? Also German descent. I thought it was a contraction of aint it. I grew up in Sheboygan where we were lucky to get coolers in the summertime.
Yes, we also used the term bubblers! I think you missed the biggest one! Oh, that brings back memories! As a born and raised Madisonian, I had to chuckle at the Wisc-isms in your blog. If you would like a giggle try googling an Aussie phrase book for some peculiar expressions. Maybe because I am still kinda younger. I am not sure if this is just a Wisconsin thing or not but my whole family says bag different. Some stretch the vowel.
My parents rip on my pronunciation of this word. Tbh I think I pronounce Wisconsin Wee-skon-sin. Not sure if that was already said but just wanna say that. I have caught myself saying Real quick or bubbler. I disagree with all of this. I have lived in Wisconsin all my life. While there may be a grain of truth here and there. This is more pointed to Canadian speech. But I lived in Tulsa, OK for college. Asked her if she was from Canada….
I was also born and raised in WI 38 years there. I have now lived in VA for nearly 2 years. My job puts me on the phone with people who live all across the US. Lots of them tell me they think WI people talk with their own sort of twang! I am 75 and was born and raised in Milwaukee, but left in I can still remember people from WissGONsin going to buy their schneckens! She came back with two Sloopy Joes!! Wisconsin is the only place I have ever heard them called Tamales. It was always sloppy joe in my neck of the woods.
It was the safe spot where no one could tag you. I when people are telling stories I always say oh yeah after they finish telling it. It was a brand name not used by anyone I know of in any other way. My grandma was raised in North Carolina and moved to Wisconsin when she married, we all carry some southern accent and wording! Tiffany — what a coinky-dink! My grandma was also raised in North Carolina and after she married my grandpa, they moved to Milwaukee. So we got to eat fried chicken, fish fry and brats!
I disagree on the meaning of real quick. Just buy bread, and get home before dinner burns. My grandma was from Forest County,and she pronounced words funny. Bath was bat,throat was troat,battery was battry. My uncle would say baddry instead of battery,and bode instead of both. We say it because it is a remnant of the strong influence German has on Wisconsin. Very interesting. I knew that German heavily influenced the WI accent, and I assumed some of the words, but I never knew this was a direct translation.
Talk about heavy German influence! What happened to the English language…? I love all the comments on this! They add all the little ones missed on the main list.
But I love our dialect. People like to make fun of it in an endearing way, not in a way that makes us sound less intelligent like when you make fun of a southern person from, say, Texas lol. But we DO say it. I thought it was just her family, but I later heard others say it too.
And then from Watertown east to Lake Michigan pop is definitely soda. I just LOVE this! I grew up in MN and now have lived in WI for 34 yrs. I think that the dat, dem, dere thing is related to Germanic heritage. My grandma, a true German speaker, used these words all the time.
Hey der Schmitty, run on up der to the hoose and grab us some beerss,eh, its a scorcher doncha know. Translation: Attention Schmitty, please go to the house and obtain a 6 pack, because its hot today as you are aware, is this acceptable to you?
Today I tasted a free sample of cheese on the street in St Andrews, Scotland. She is from New York, I grew up in Wisconsin. I live in Maryland. Aged at least 9 months! I thought Vermont was supposed to have good cheddar. That might not be too far out of your way.
But nothing like Wisco cheese! It may interest you that number 10 is directly translated from the northern European style of speaking. This is bothersome because, to me a ramp is a transitional space—one you move through, not one you stay in. A brat is something you eat. A Friday night date consists of taking you girlfriend shining for deer.
Saturday you go the local bowling alley. You have driven your car on a lake. At least twice a year, your kitchen doubles as a meat processing plant. Bernie Brewer is your idol because he gets to dive in a giant beer mug. Cheese is an important staple in your diet.
Down South to you means Chicago. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes fill in with snow Every sweatshirt you own is either red and white or green and gold. FFA was the most popular club in high school. Football schedules are checked before wedding dates are set. Pattillo mentioned the town of New Berlin, and how people began to stress the first syllable — New BER-lin — instead of the second to differentiate it from its German counterpart.
She said it has a high number of indigenous-language families, which is uncommon in many other states. We have a lot of variation because of immigration patterns in the s, but we also have a lot more linguistic diversity than most people realize. Readers also had questions about hot dish vs. ATM and where, exactly, "ope!
We'll be saving these for future installments of What the Wisconsin.
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