UP terms

hpst@earthlink.net hpst at EARTHLINK.NET
Mon Jun 5 17:19:14 UTC 2006


I agree and many of the terms are also not finlander in origin.

I was not born when finlander was spoken in the UP but my father remembered
hearing that dialect in the 1920s and 1930s. I have seen references to it
here and there mostly there since I no longer remember where I read them.
It may have been in one of the novels of Robert Traver, a pseudonym of John
D.Voelcker whose most famous novel was Anatomy of a Murder which was filmed
in and around Ishpeming.

I never met Johnny as his and my friends called him

A story dad told me once which was probably a legend when he heard it in
the 1920s was that the finlanders lived on one side of Ishpeming and the
cousin jacks on the other side and got along alright until on a Saturday
night someone would get drunk, cross the line and start a riot.

Anyone interested in contemporary UP culture and comedy should look up Da
Yoopers http://dayoopers.com/.

I first ran across Da Yoopers one day when I was wandering through the
streets of Ishpeming a few years ago and saw a sign which said something
like record store and since I always like to look at record stores when I
am in a town in order to see if they have any recordings by local groups I
wandered in only to discover that it was not a store but a recording
company owned by Da Yoopers.

Having never heard finlander spoken I have no idea what it sounded like.

I do know that there was a local tradition which suggested that those who
did were were looked down upon by those who did speak it as being socially
inferior.

Page Stephens


> [Original Message]
> From: <RonButters at AOL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 6/5/2006 9:35:55 AM
> Subject: [ADS-L]Re:       [ADS-L] UP terms
>
> An interesting list. Many of these terms and expressions are much more
> general than just UP, e.g.,
>
>
> BAKERY: Baked goods, rather than a place where things are baked. "Go
store an
> get me some bakery, eh?"
>
> BIKE RIDING: In Yoopanese, it's not always aufficient to say "biking,"
> "skiing," or "snowmobiling." Instead, substitute the phrase "bike
riding," also
> "snowmachine riding," or even "ski riding."
>
> I didn't check DARE for any of the items on the list, but I suspect that
DARE
> gives a much better picture on most of them.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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