Re: Aspects of English Grammar

Ph.D. wrote:

> Mark J. Reed wrote:
> >
> > Roger Mills wrote:
> > >
> > > Michigan (where, I now realize, I've spent 4/7 of my life).
> > > (And yes, Philippe C., there are said to be big differences between
> > > Northern-- especially the Upper Peninsula, as we call it--
> > > and Southern Michigan; at least we joke about them......
> >
> > You're just bitter because you can't point out your location on your
> > hand.:)
Oh yes I can, it's about 10 hairs north of the wrist, on the left side.
(that's looking down on left hand; it works palm up on the right hand,
except I don't have hairy palms, thank you very much........)
>
> I live in southern Michigan where I grew up (I'm forty-nine), but I
> went to college at Michigan Technological University which is in
> the far northwest of the upper peninsula. There is definitely a
> difference in spoken English between the two peninsulas.
The usual joke is that UPers say "eh" a lot, like Canadians.  The
interesting differences are (or were?) that the ethnic make-up was large
Cornish (copper miners) and Finnish (I don't know what they did). The
Cornish have contributed pasties (meat pies) to our local culture, the
Finns, "Sisu" bumper stickers.   The little Keewenaw (sp?) peninsula, not
far from Mich.Tech., was a source of native as well as (later) mined copper;
and when I was there almost 40yrs ago it looked rather moonscape-y with
abandoned mines and slag heaps.  IIRC geologically it has some of the oldest
rocks on the surface of the earth.

> 1. Yes, that's the way it's pronounced around here, too, but those
> who live more than twenty-fives miles away tend to pronounce it
> as if it were spelled Yipsilani. It's often referred to simply as Ypsi
> (or Yipsi in some cases).
>
Right; or else Ypsitucky, which is snobby and not nice.  Note that Milan,
despite appearances, is pronounced ['majl@n], conversely nearby Saline is
[s@'li:n].

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