3 years ago, I would have sworn upon a Bible that Wisconsinites do not have an accent. Midwesterners, I would have attested, were given this reputation from Wisconsin's Minnesotan and Illinoisan neighbors.
However, it occurs to me that in the 3 years I've lived in North Carolina, Wisconsin has developed its own dialect. This must have been a recent development.
It first came to my attention on the plane from Charlotte to Milwaukee. The passengers on board could be heard to borrow sounds from the Scandinavian and German languages. Coincidental, I thought, as Wisconsin was settled by the Scandinavians and, yes, the Germans. If this state were to garner an accent, better that it overlap with history, I decided. Kudos to the accent committee on that one.
Upsettingly, I now realize that I have the propensity to build an entirely unattractive way of speech . I have, in my studies of this new development, found many Wisconsinite-translation dictionaries. I identified with more of the terms than I should admit to, and have listed a scattering of them below:
| Term | Definition |
| bubbler | appliance that spurts drinking water slightly skyward |
| cheesehead | This was originally a pejorative term coined by flatlanders. We've willingly accepted the term and use it freely. |
| flatlander | Illinoisan |
| eh? | Isn't that correct? |
| up nort' | To a flatlander, north of the south Wisconsin state line. To a Wisconsinite, at least 100 miles north of home (at least we agree on something, in a relative sort of way) |
| we | the Green Bay Packers |
| down south | Chicago |
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. May my children be spared.
