Re: Aspects of English Grammar

Roger Mills wrote:
>
> Ph.D. wrote:
>
> > 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.
Until the 1970s, there was a Finnish-language newspaper in the
Keweenaw peninsula. I don't know why, but during the great mining
years of the late nineteenth century, there were many Italians. They
even served us pasties in the dormitory cafeteria.


> > 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].
Right. I live in the village of Clinton, twelve miles west of Saline. I can
always tell a non-native because they pronounce Saline with the
usual English pronunciation of saline.

--Ph. D.

Reply