How to Speak Midwestern

by Edward McClelland

“A dictionary wrapped in some serious dialectology inside a gift book trailing a serious whiff of Relevance” ― The New York Times In this book on Midwestern accents, and sayings, Edward McClelland explains what Midwesterners say and how and why they say it. He examines the causes of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, explains the nasality of Minnesota speech, and details why Chicagoans talk more like people from Buffalo than their next-door neighbors in Wisconsin. He provides humorous definitions of jargon from the region, -squeaky cheese -city chicken -shampoo banana -the Pittsburgh toilet -FIB -bubbler -Chevy in the Hole -jagoff The book also includes detailed glossaries of slang from Buffalo, the Great Lakes, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Wisconsin slang and sayings. This delightful romp through the region is the perfect gift for Midwesterners, and the perfect book for anyone wanting to learn more about the region’s dialects.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, History, Cultural, Linguistics, Sociology, Anthropology

152 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2016

About the author

Edward McClelland is the author of Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President, which will be published in October by Bloomsbury Press. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, and on the websites Salon and Slate, among others. A graduate of Michigan State University, he lives in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood.

His previous books include Horseplayers: Life at the Track, and The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the Great Lakes."

Reviews

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a boatload of fun and erudite discussion of linguistics. Twp parts to the book are key: (a) an introduction to the distinctive qualities of three linguistic communities in the Midwest; (b) examples of words used in each state and some cities, to ground the discussion in concrete usage by people.

The three divisions of Midwest speech--North Central (located in the Dakotas and Minnesota, with a slim slice from Iowa; Inland North (ranging from New York west from Rochester through Buffalo, to Chicago--with parts of the following states: New York, a piece of northern Pennsylvania, a bit of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois with Chicago and surrounding counties); Midland (stretching from Nebraska, Kansas, a bit of Oklahoma, most of Misouri, most of Iowa, Illinois outside of the Chicago region, plus most of Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania).

The author discusses characteristics of each region, in terms of how words are pronounced. The change over time is also discussed. Some parts of a region's language disappeared with time as the older people died off and younger people going to college changed their way of speaking to blend in. This discussion is in itself fascinating. One problem that I found was the book's efforts to distinguish sounds. One example: a fronted o which makes "box" sound like "bahhx." I don't really know how to pronounce "bahhx." There are a number of examples like this. I did get others--such as the move of "cot" and "caught" coming together, lessening regional differences. One example that caught my mind "wash" sounding like "worsh." I recall as a kid being annoyed when people would speak of George Worshington. Well, now I know why it was said that way, given that people in some regions pronounced wash as worsh!

The second part is provides examples of words and phrases characteristic of different states and cities. Some quick examples:

Buffalonians refer to numbered roads, such as "the 190," rather than saying Route 90;

In Illinois, who says the name of Chicago which way? Chi-cah-go or Chi-caw-go or speaking of gym shoes rather than sneakers;

In Indiana, the sandwich referred to as a "Hoosier," although this book calls it a "ternderloin" (a slab of pork tenderloin pounded thinly and
then cooked and placed in a sandwich--so that the tenderloin extends well beyond the bun!);

Iowans refer to the Mississippi River as the East Coast and the Missouri River as the West Coast.

And so on! One reason that I enjoyed this book is that I am from central Illinois and recall hearing people speak in a way as to exemplify the book's examination--such as "worsh."

A lot of fun and an interesting analysis of language and its evolution over time.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read about this book in the local newspaper. I bought it very inexpensively for Kindle. The author focuses on differences in speech in the Inland North, the Midland, and the North Central region of the Midwest. He traces the roots and evolving patterns of pronouniation, identifying the dialects.

I was raised in Buffalo, moved to Detroit, and lived in Ohio and Philadelphia before returning to Michigan. I most noticed my different in speech in Philly (whereI had to learn to say soda, not pop), but there were subtle differences noticable in Ohio as well. My own speech does not correalte with McClelland's rules; but it may be education, and vocal singing training, that keeps me from ssaying 'dese, dem and dose." He talks about 'cot-caught' sounding the same in the Inland North. I do admint to saying 'you guys'. There is an interesting section on Yooper dialect of the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, isolated and adjoining Canada, a place settled by Finns who had no 'th' sound.

A great chunk of the books is a glossary of Midwestern Terms by city. With family still in Buffalo I know 'Beef on Weck', and as a Michigander have no trouble with The Fitz or The Mac.

The book is a nice, short introduction to understanding how to speak Midwestern.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should have also said that it covered the Rust Belt as some of the areas it mentioned were not the Midwest. This was a fun read though and as some of these dialects die out due to social media and the internet and people not being as isolated as they once were, I think an important documentation. Worth reading if you are into dialects, regional histories, and how and why people talk the way that they do. As someone who grew up in the Midwest, an hour outside Chicago in one of the collar counties, and now a Chicagoan, I already knew a lot of these words, phrases etc. but some were new to me partly because younger folks just don't use as many of these colorful phrases which is kind of a shame. A fun fast read that will spark some good conversations about language. There is also some great trivia along with the word/phrase explanations which are divided by region that make the book hilarious in parts.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having spent more than half my life in the midwest (Wisconsin and Illinois) despite not being from the midwest, I was fascinated by McClelland's How to Speak Midwestern. He largely looks at the speech of blue-collar white folks, with nods to actual linguistic studies (sometimes rare in books like these), history, and socioeconomic change. If you've ever wondered why the Midwestern accent (particularly the Inland North variation) overtook the Transatlantic accent, How to Speak Midwestern has the answers you seek.

McClelland appeals to three different variations of Midwestern English (10):

Inland North: the lower Great Lakes from Buffalo to Milwaukee
Midland: western Pennsylvania across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa
North Central: Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota

Of course, there are more regional variations within those regions, as a Yooper (someone from the Upper Peninsula, or UP, of Michigan) has a different accent from someone in northern Minnesota (yes, McClelland talks about Fargo). What fascinated me most was McClelland's linkage of the speech patterns of the colonists who built up the Midwest. German and Scandinavian influences are most marked in the North Central dialect, Scots-Irish in the Midland, and western New England in the Inland North. This also helped me understand why I get about half of Charlie Berens's jokes; I've lived exclusively in the Inland North region, while he hails from North Central.

Moving to Wisconsin from Texas at the age of 7 scrubbed my drawl, but family members pressured me and my brother to retain Texan speech habits at best, and not gain Midwestern ones at worst. I say both "y'all" and "you guys." Decades later, I can recall overhearing kids my age calling a water fountain a "bubbler," and that's when I knew Wisconsin was a different land. My mom particularly abhorred "come with," and it shocked me to learn that it comes from the German phrase Er kommt mit, in which mit functions as a participle: "He's coming along." Our Texan family has an extremely German branch, and I was shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of "come with" being German in a midwestern towel.

Occasionally, McClelland can be a bit...insensitive?...toward the people groups he's not studying. Since I have lived in the West and South, I found these comments to be a bit distasteful. Even though some parts are clearly sarcastic, McClelland is kinder to certain places than others in his remarks.

I would be very interested to find a book like this on Southern dialects, because I have family from several places in the South and they all speak differently. Basically, I need someone to unravel for me the tangled history of Tennessean vowel shifts because it has confused me since childhood. In the meantime, I'd recommend this to anyone outside of the Midwest who wants to know how the Windy City got its nickname, who Touchdown Jesus is, or how all of those French-named towns in Michigan are really pronounced.

[Melanie H · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars with a full disclosure that I think the internet has ruined books like this for me.

It's rollicking fun, I read many parts out loud to my husband (much to his annoyance) and yet, upon finishing, I felt it just wasn't enough. It was a like a great blog that I would return to again and again. Only there was no blog. There wasn't an on-going series of updates. Damn you inter webs!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this clever book because I am currently enthralled with the Twitter page Midwest vs Everybody and comedian Charlie Berens who is the creator of the Manitowoc Minute and their spot-on observations about those of us who live in the Midwest. While this book is certainly humorous, it is actually more a linguistics guide to explain where expressions came from in the Midwest. It is divided into three main sections- Inland North (where I live in Northern IL), Midland and North Central and explains how each area was shaped by its immigrants years ago. Then a lengthy glossary is given that is further divided into states and sometimes certain cities and gives specific words or phrases that are popular there. I found many words that I use: burgoo, Chibera, Bungalow Belt, gym shoes, machine, The L, The Loop, paczki, pasty, ruin porn, and different. The only word/expression I didn't see in there that I think should have been was ope. This was an interesting book, that made me proud to be Midwest Nice!

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had given this book the benefit of the doubt that all its information was true. That is, until the glossary for my home state, Wisconsin. In it he defines Cheese Curds as "Proof that Wisconsinites will eat ANY dairy product or ANY fried food."

If I weren't the polite Midwesterner that I am, I would exclaim in outrage: "Excuse YOU. Fried or not, cheese curds are DELICIOUS. And if you can't see that, you don't deserve them!"

But that would be too forward of me. So instead I will merely say the author's opinion was...different.

Other Wisconsinite corrections:
a) Most Wisconsinites don't "embrace" being called "Sconnies." They're just too polite to say so. (Most people I know who wear "Sconnie Nation" gear are out-of-staters; since they're trying to celebrate Wisconsin culture, I take the gesture as the compliment it is meant.)
b) Of course you drink from a BUBBLER. A "water fountain" is what you throw coins in to make wishes.
c) I didn't see a section on "Ope." Interesting.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"An important element of Midwestern identity is believing you don't have an accent - that you speak a neutral brand of standardized English from which all other Americans deviate."

I definitely don't have an accent. I'm from Iowa. But apparently I'm guilty of saying all kinds of Midwestern phrases without realizing why. (Like "Wanna come with?" or "Where are you at?")
I found this book so interesting. I love that the Quad Cities and QC Style Pizza were included in the Iowa glossary.

For the 2017 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge
Read a book published by a micropress

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, though the title is a little misleading. The first half of the book is more about *why* the Midwestern dialects are the way that they are, from the influences of the various immigrant groups (mostly Scandinavian & German) to the socio-economic status of the speakers. The second half is more of the how-to guide. Just one little complaint: the author includes both New York & Pennsylvania as the Midwest, of which they definitely are NOT.

Bonus points to the author for getting a reference to Dave Pirner in there.

[Stephen Selbst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some linguistic analysis of the three predominant Midwestern accents and a glossary with many regional idioms and usages. The latter section is funnier and more interesting.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read, if you are interested in the subject matter. The author ties in real life examples, recommends more in depth studies, and has a phrase book for reference. I didn't enjoy this too much because it wasn't what I was looking for.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun. Unless I missed it, there was no mention of the undeniable “ope.” 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and enlightening, this is more a collection of tangential insights and inside joke observations than a coherent argument. McClelland starts by positing that an important part of being Midwestern is believing that you don't have an accent, which he then complicates by diving into all the quirks of the Inland North, Midland, and North Central accents (he has an eastern center of gravity bias- the plains states are largely ignored here). The way we speak is fundamentally a form of identity, and those most likely to speak the purest forms of Midwestern accents tend to be blue collar men, especially older ones, who primarily interact with others who speak just like them. Accents grow and are reinforced at work, home, church, the local watering hole, and school; they are watered down with exposure to other accents because of professional obligations, higher education, or just extensive travel. Black Midwesterners, living in some of the most racially segregated cities in the country, tend to have retained ways of speaking closest to Southern accents of origin. Fundamentally, having particular accents has become a strong marker of class today, making these speech patterns both a source of anxiety (one younger interviewee says 'we' don't talk like that- our fathers do) and of revanchist, super-local pride.

That's not to say the book is all grimly serious social analysis: McClelland found one of his best sources was always the local snarky t-shirt store, which lovingly documents throwback vocabulary and other markers of local identity. His glossary of Illinois (and Wisconsin) vocabulary was like a warm reminder of childhood- clout, gym shoes, the Stevenson, brats, and all. Rhoticity is fascinating, although the vowel shifts were harder to follow without listening to examples of described speech. In all, highly recommended.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating little book. Originally I thought I'd just skim it, but it was worth the read. And I found out some very interesting things I didn't know. My family has Chicago roots - they relocated to northern Indiana shortly before I was born, so I know a Chicago accent. Now living (many years later) in central Ohio, I often hear what sounds like a Chicago accent, only to find out they are from Cleveland. There's a reason for that! The author brings up John Goodman and his dead-on Chicago accent in Roseanne, yet he is actually from St. Louis. There's the same reason for that! Very interesting (and I don't mean that in a Minnesota way)! I might have given it five stars, but some of the lingo in the glossary didn't seem necessary and left out some words it could have added, like ope. Which, until recently, I didn't think I'd ever heard, only to realize I use it all the time. Ope! One final note: I lived in Indiana for over 25 years, in northern, central and southern Indiana and I have never, ever heard of or been offered a piece of sugar cream pie...

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and fun sociolinguistic survey of the major dialects of the greater Midwest and Rust Belt—the main regions, plus the standout cities and subregions, including Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and the U.P. Lots of information about the history of how each dialect came about over time, and how each one has been dissolving into the gray soup of Standard Broadcast American English. Answers the question: Why do people from the Great Lakes region think they don't have an accent? Intended for the average lay reader and not technical or academic. Includes glossaries. My only complaint is that everything (especially the glossaries) could have been much expanded, but then you don't have a handy little handbook anymore, now do ya?

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any Michigander can tell you that people from Michigan are called Michiganders, but did you know that the term was first used by Abraham Lincoln, as an insult? Why are people from Pittsburgh are so hard to understand? What the heck is the Northern Cities Vowel Shift and why does it matter? Why might people from Michigan have a similar accent to the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock? Why did news anchors in the 1950's try to sound like they came from Cleveland? Do people from Minnesota really talk like the characters on "Fargo"? The answers to all these questions, plus find out what it means when a Midwesterner says your new haircut is "interesting"!

[Ryan John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book is well-researched and interesting. The author goes into detail to explain how and why different areas of the Midwest sound so distinct from one another. I was impressed.

I was looking forward to the second half when I bought it after leafing through it in the store...but that was the letdown. It's a glossary/dictionary of what is supposed to be Midwestern slang/terminology. I can't vouch for the other areas, but I have lived in and around Chicago for most of my life and I never heard about half of the things that were mentioned. Burgoo? The Hawk? Calling Champaign-Urbana "Shampoo Banana? (people from Chicago almost never talk about Champaign-Urbana, so that was doubly odd) Many of the terms struck me as something that maybe he read in one article/book/blog post and just assumed people actually say it.

Maybe some of those terms are from older versions of the Chicago dialect (he does mention how speech patterns have changed in the first half), but at the same time he decided to include the offensive term "Chiraq" in the list of terms, which surely did not exist in the 1940s when "Frunchroom" was more than just a kitschy reference to the past.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, quick read. It starts with an interesting linguistics section about why we tend to think Midwesterners don't have accents. Then it is divided into three sections of the three types of Midwest accents. As someone from Indiana, I found this fascinating and dead-on. Then there's a section for each state and a glossary of our particular words. This would be fun for anyone from the Midwest or a great gift for, say, someone who married a Midwesterner. You can easily skim just your sections too.

[The other John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a light hearted look at the accents of the American midwest--which Mr. McClelland defines as "west of Exit 41 on the New York State Thruway, east of the Missouri River, and north of the Ohio River." There are three accents in this region: the North Central, the Midland, and the Inland North. (Which, of course, isn't an accent. Just ask all the people in my hometown.) The book mixes history, linguistics, and anecdotes from the region, along with a glossary of important local slang. It was a delight to read. All youse from the midwest oughta check it out.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very readable and is aimed at a general audience so you don't have to be a linguist to enjoy the book. The bibliography and glossaries were very informative. Overall, I really liked it and would read more on the subject of regional linguistics based on this book.
I read American Nations by Colin Woodard before this, which was not planned but was useful in understanding the regional nuances in the book.

[William Paley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The opening chapters deal with the broad differences in Midwestern accents while later ones list various sayings and words that are well-known to folks from that area. Having grown up in the region and spending more there as an adult I found this book delightful. I passed my physical copy on to my mother for her amusement as well. (I was born in Chicago, raised in Wisconsin and well-traveled in the region).

[Gabe Labovitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a great deal, having grown up in MI and now living in Chicago. Many of the examples rang true, I speak a lot like McClelland describes. Amusing and modestly true, but a lot of the accents and localisms are disappearing, as economic changes and migration water down the untouched neighborhoods where local dialects still exist.

[Gretchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was alright - some parts were interesting and the glossary was fun. It felt very surface level though and like it was only discussing a very specific age and race subset of the population (this was at times briefly acknowledged). Not quite a reference work and not quite a comprehensive linguistic cultural study.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don't know why i read this (i can already speak midwestern!) but i guess i'm glad i did?

The main thing i actually learned is that the Wisconsin inability to differentiate borrow vs. lend goes back to the fact that (apparently) German doesn't have separate verbs for borrow vs. lend.

This is the book for anyone who wishes that there was A Way With Words midwest edition!

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introductory breakdown of dialects by Midwestern region is extremely interesting and well-discussed. However, the glossary at the end leaves a little to be desired. Instead of location-specific nicknames, I had hoped for more explanations behind regionalisms in these areas. At least now I know why the Clevelanders always sounded so funny to those of us in the more southern part of the state.

["JT" Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting content, but there are a few inaccuracies that diminished my appreciation. The most egregious being that burnt ends did not originate, nor are they popular, in St. Louis. The food is a Kansas City staple, and the oversight makes me wonder about other terms that may or may not be misrepresented for dialects with which I am not as familiar.

[Mohamed Hasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is enjoyable. As relatively new to the U.S., this book gave me a good sense of the midwest, its different dialects, and the associated culture. While reading, I used Google maps to explore the cities and the landmarks mentioned in the book which helped me get oriented with this part of the country.

[Cranky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine as far as it went, but ultimately I felt like I was reading a magazine article, rather than a book. I found it most interesting when the author talked about how certain grammar patterns reflected the language of immigrants who settled in an area generations before.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun, and the notes on the dialect histories was really interesting and I got a lot out of it. I wish the little glossaries were better though--more detailed, etc. They felt very surface level instead, and that was disappointing. Still worth reading, but I probably won't ever buy it.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently Kansas is not Midwest?
-1 star because I take offense
-1 star because the rest of it was actually pretty interesting but I doubt the accuracy of some things. Wish it had used more anecdotes, especially since a lot of it describes class-based differences in each region.