Yooper Dialect - Some Common Features of English in The UP

Some Common Features of English in The UP

• Canadian raising
• Use of German/Scandinavian "ja" as "yeah" or "yes," spelled "ya."
• Tendency towards intonation that stresses the first syllable of each word, which is an influence of Finnish spoken by many immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• /w/ sometimes becomes /v/, for example, /ˈkiːvənɔː/ for Keweenaw. This is an example of language transfer, where immigrant languages have affected the variety of English spoken in the area. This feature is especially found among residents born before 1950 and in the western region of the UP.
• Ending of sentences in "Eh." Used at end of sentences with the expectation of receiving an affirmative response or as another word for "huh." ("So, you're /jɛr/ goin' out t'nide, eh?"), or to add emphasis to a statement, "That's a pretty dress, eh." "Eh" is often associated with Canadian English. "Heh" is used interchangeably and perhaps more often among younger speakers.
• Replacement of dental fricatives, /ð/ and /θ/, like in "this" and "thigh," with alveolar stops /d/ and /t/, so then (/ðɛn/) becomes den (/dɛn/) and thigh (/θaɪ/) often becomes tie (/tʰaɪ/), etc.
• In some cases, deletion of "to the" has been observed, e.g., "I'm going store," "We went mall," and "We go Green Bay." This is an influence from Finnish, which doesn't have the articles "a," "an," or "the", and the preposition "to" is replaced by the illative and allative cases, which, being absent from English, are simply deleted (cf. Finnish Menemme Green Bayhin).
• The word "boat" is sometimes given two syllables. (bo-ut)
• Words such as "pank" (to make compact, pat down), "chuke" or "chook" (a knit winter cap, from Canadian French "tuque" ), "choppers" (long-sleeved mittens, sometimes with removable finger flaps, often made of deerskin), "swampers" (boots with rubber bottoms and leather uppers), "pasty", "bakery" (baked goods), "make wood" (cut or chop wood), "snow scoop" or "yooper scooper" (a metal implement for "moving snow"), "wa" (instead of wow) and pronunciations such as "grodge" (garage), "crick" (creek), "ruts" (roots)
• Replacing the "-ing" at the end of certain words with "-een" (doing becomes "do-een", happening becomes "happen-een", something becomes "some-theen")
• Deletion of the object of the preposition. Example: Instead of saying "Would you like to come with us?" A Yooper might say "Would you like to come with?" This may be an influence from German, which has similar structures available in its grammar.
• Saying "I'm gonna go by your house" when really meaning they are going to come visit.

Although these features are found in the UP, they are primarily in the western UP, and not all residents use these features. Equally important is the fact that many of these features are found throughout the upper Midwest, especially in northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota.