We Are Studying Our Own Dialect

 

Acrost

To the other side.  This is different from across. 

Acrost describes movement, as in “We went acrost the Mackinac Bridge,” while the word across merely describes stationary position, as in “The Post Office is across from the park.”

Alls

All that

“Alls I want is…”

“Alls I need is…”

Ant

The wife of the uncle

Never rhyme this word with daunt, taunt, or flaunt. 

Brung

Past tense of bring.

At a potluck dinner: “Wutcha brung?”

Chuh

Pronoun, 2nd person singular accusative

“Leave that dog alone or he’ll bite chuh.”

Variation: “Cha”     “That dog might bite cha.”

This word forms such compound words as Dincha, woncha, cancha, wutcha, etc.

Dinny

“Did he not?”

“He went an’ took the snowmobile, dinny?

Drug

Past tense of drag

“The dog drug out that old inner tube.” 

Dune

Present participle of do

“The teacher asked me what I been dune.”

Melk

A white consumable liquid, usually obtained from cows.

 

Pello

What one lays one’s head on at night.

 

Ride

Besides the usual meaning of the word, this may also mean “to give a ride”

“Did you ride your kids over to the school?” 

Say Nig nuss

St. Ignace, a small city in the eastern UP

 

Spackon!

This is an announcement to someone out of the room that television commercials are over.

 

Such good of

“Very good”

             “She doesn’t make such good of chicken.”  Variation: “She doesn’t make such good a chicken.” 

Tooken

Past tense of take when used in a passive sentence.

“He left it out and it got tooken.” 

Use

Pronoun, 2nd person plural; especially used by wait staff

“Would use like some coffee?”

 

PRONUNCIATION

Dropped final Gs from ing:

Dropped central Ts: Kih-en = kitten

Combination dropped final G’s from ing and central T’s: Ee-en = eating