Michigan - Yoopers, Slang and Dialects

I have posted many times in the past about Yoopers, Michigan Slang and Michigan Dialects so I thought I would share this map that appeared in a recent Detroit Free Press.

Fudgies are people who live anywhere in Michigan other than Mackinac Island and travel to the island to buy fudge.

Yoopers are people who live in the U.P. or Upper Peninsula.

Trolls are people who live in the lower peninsula or "under the bridge," also known as flatlanders.

Citiots are people who live in large cities in the southern part of Michigan.

Wood ticks are people who chop down trees in state forests (some with permission, some without).

Popple is Michigan's name for aspen trees.

The Windsor Ballet is a euphemism for the strip clubs across the Detroit River in Windsor.

CoPa is an abbreviated name for Comerica Park (it is not a cabana).

The Subfields of Linguistics

SR = Speech Recognition; NLP = Natural Language Processing

From: School of Computer Science and Engineering

Dialect as Identity Exhibited by Yooper We-Type Solidarity

There are many ways an individual's dialect can be used as a form of identity. People who speak the Upper Peninsula or "Yooper" dialect are able to use their dialect as a form of identity by choosing not to switch to a more common dialect for their audience in an effort to make those who don't speak the dialect feel left out. This has been called a We-type solidarity because it gives the impression that speakers of the dialect think they are better than others and contributes to the us-them distinction that can make people from lower Michigan feel like outsiders. This can also be viewed as a form of retaliation because often people from lower Michigan make speakers of the Upper Peninsula dialect feel like lesser people by teasing them about the way they talk.

A perfect example of the Yooper We-type solidarity can be found in my previous post of the Yooper Map of Michigan.
http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/2008/06/yooper-map-of-michigan.html

The Yooper Map of Michigan