Help me talk like a local.

[Jimaz]

if you're canadian, you pronounce detroit as detroy-it

I recall Mayor Coleman Young pronouncing it as dee-TROY-it.

[DetroitPlanner]

Baseline continues in pieces all the way across the state to lake michigan, and then across the lake it is the border between Illinois and Wisconsin.

This is basically true, but what does it have to do with how we pronounce words?

While the Wisconsin Border is technically at the same latitude, it is not the same line. Both use different meridians so if you extend the imaginary lines, they will cross.

Now back to the subject, learn some french diction and you will have an easy time saying the names of Detroit streets and places.

[Detroit_uke]

I grew up near Warren and Livernois.....I remember asking one of the older neighbors how she pronounced LIVERNOIS......her answer "Mother makes the LIVER...children make the NOISE." That was probably in 1960....don't know why something like that sticks ion my old brain....

[MidTownMs]

If you're talking about eastside Seymour, that's not McNichols. It just happens to roughly line up with where McNichols ends at Gratiot but its just a residential side street. However, before McNichols takes that angle NE if you follow it straight across on the map it would line up with Houston-Whittier which might be what you're thinking.

Speaking of Houston-Whittier that street has always confused me. Why does Whittier suddenly become Houston-Whittier when you get to what I consider one of the most confusing intersections in the City of Detroit. That would be the Houston-Whittier, Hayes and Kelly meet-up. Growing up I never went over in that part of Detroit nor did I know anything about it until 1963 when I took driver's ed at Denby.

[KJ5]

Here's an interesting one: "M-10" is pronounced "The Lodge".

[louis]

on a side note i'v also knowtesed that Michiganites don't pronounce the letter t if it is at the end of the word

[MidTownMs]

Here's an interesting one: "M-10" is pronounced "The Lodge".

That's funny. I was in Ypsilanti a while back and I asked someone where the Ford was they said the plant is about 1/2 mile away. I said not the plant I meant the Ford expressway. They said what's that. I said it's the expressway that goes to Detroit. They said oh you mean I94. I said yes. They said why do you call it that.

[Király]

Now back to the subject, learn some french diction and you will have an easy time saying the names of Detroit streets and places.

Ha ha, right. I'm quite good at French diction, which is why I asked how to pronounce the words like a local. Locals don't pronounce them the way they would be said in Paris.

[marshamusic]

Six Mile in addition to McNichols is also known as Seymour. E. Seven mile is also known as Moross. Fenkell is 5 mile and Cadieux.

Yeah! I forgot a out 7 Mile/Moross. I didn't know that Fenkell was Cadieux!! Wow!

So, I'm sure this has been asked on this board a million times, and I've forgotten - the mile roads are ____miles from where? The river? Jefferson? Campus Martius? Where?

[marshamusic]

here's an interesting one: "m-10" is pronounced "the lodge".

lolololololololol!!!!

[JVB]

I didn't know that Fenkell was Cadieux!! Wow!

It's not...

[dtowncitylover]

So, I'm sure this has been asked on this board a million times, and I've forgotten - the mile roads are ____miles from where? The river? Jefferson? Campus Martius? Where?

The Point of Origin of the City of Detroit located in Campus Martius. Right now it's covered by the skating mats for the ice rink but it's there.

[gazhekwe]

Let's see, the mile roads run north from Warren, I think. Warren would be One, Joy Two, Plymouth Three, Schoolcraft Four, Fenkell Five, McNichols Six, then Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, then Fifteen Maple, Sixteen Quarton and Big Beaver, Seventeen Lone Pine, Wattles is in there somewhere, either 17 or 18, Eighteen Long Lake, Nineteen Square Lake, Twenty South, Twenty One is 59 and from there I believe we lose the grid.

[Zacha341]

Yeah, we tend to omit that clipped 'te' sound at the end. Good point...

on a side note i'v also knowtesed that Michiganites don't pronounce the letter t if it is at the end of the word

[marshamusic]

Let's see, the mile roads run north from Warren, I think. Warren would be One, Joy Two, Plymouth Three, Schoolcraft Four, Fenkell Five, McNichols Six, then Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, then Fifteen Maple, Sixteen Quarton and Big Beaver, Seventeen Lone Pine, Wattles is in there somewhere, either 17 or 18, Eighteen Long Lake, Nineteen Square Lake, Twenty South, Twenty One is 59 and from there I believe we lose the grid.

Wow, thanks gazhekwe.

It's only a mile from the river to Warren? Seems like more.

[marshamusic]

Yeah, we tend to omit that clipped 'te' sound at the end. Good point...

That's part of what is called a Detroit Accent. A softer, more southern, northern speech.

[Brock7]

Speaking of Houston-Whittier that street has always confused me. Why does Whittier suddenly become Houston-Whittier when you get to what I consider one of the most confusing intersections in the City of Detroit. That would be the Houston-Whittier, Hayes and Kelly meet-up. Growing up I never went over in that part of Detroit nor did I know anything about it until 1963 when I took driver's ed at Denby.

Houston-Whittier is Taylor Road on 1893 through 1915 maps. It's Houston Ave. on some plats I've seen starting from about 1919 and on a 1930 map. I don't know when Whittier was added to Houston. The road that will be Whittier is on the 1876 map intersecting only with the road that will be Kelly, but the first instance I find it named is on the 1930 map where it appears to connect with the street paralell with and north of Houston, which is Alma.

http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1185499758
This is from the January 16, 1964 edition of The Northeast Detroiter...
"At one time, Houston-Whittier, or the Hessian road, was called Taylor because it led to a tailor shop on the corner of Gratiot. George H. Diegel knew the street well. Over eighty years ago he was passing Johannes Groll's tailor shop just as the angry tailor was chasing out a bunch of squealing pigs.

So is Greiner GRAIN-er or GRINE-er?

[douglasm]

That I-94/Ford Freeway problem in Ypsi has been around at least since I went to EMU [[BBA 71). To complicate matters, you'd find some old head who would call it the Detroit Industrial Expressway.

[DetroitPlanner]

Yeah, we tend to omit that clipped 'te' sound at the end. Good point...

This is due to the french heritage. French don't either.

[marshamusic]

Wow, thanks gazhekwe.

It's only a mile from the river to Warren? Seems like more.

sorry, Dtowncitylover already answered this, and I missed the post - the point of origin is in Campus Martius.

But why there? why not the river, or Jefferson?

[southofbloor]

And Windsor - some french is butchered, some isn't. Depends on our mood...

Ouellette - oh-LET
Pierre - PEER-y
Machette - MAT-chet
Langlois - LANG-loyz
Pelissier - pu-LIS-ear
Baby - BAH-bee
Drouillard - DROO-lard

And some of you might not realize that according to my 95 year old aunts, you live not in DEE-troit or de-TROIT, but in de-TROY-eht. That one seems to be disappearing.

[southofbloor]

I recall Mayor Coleman Young pronouncing it as dee-TROY-it.

I wonder what the age cutoff is of people who still say deh-TROY-eht - for me the youngest person I know who still pronounces it that way is 87. Think its disappearing.

[scottn55]

I wonder what the age cutoff is of people who still say deh-TROY-eht - for me the youngest person I know who still pronounces it that way is 87. Think its disappearing.

"At a musty old hall in De-troy-et they pray..."

-Gordon Lightfoot

[EastsideAl]

I wonder what the age cutoff is of people who still say deh-TROY-eht - for me the youngest person I know who still pronounces it that way is 87. Think its disappearing.

A lot of elderly African-Americans, from around Coleman's generation, still pronounce it this way. But otherwise it seems to be fading out.

[Downriviera]

Detroit - bro-ke