Talk Like a Hoosier - The Hoosier Dialect(s)

“You guys want me to git you anything when I’m at the groshry store? I’m gonna run real quick into Meijer’s and git some pop and melk and mangoes.”

—      A stereotypical sentence in the Hoosier dialect 

Indiana occupies an unusual place in American linguistics. While geographically part of the North and the Midwest, much of the state is considered to speak a dialect similar to that of the Southern United States. The extreme Northwestern corner of the state, including Gary and Hammond, is part of the Northern Inland region, along with its neighbor Chicago. Northern and Southern Indiana have been noted for their differences in dialect, especially in pronunciation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) places Indiana in ten different dialect regions.[1]

Indiana was a frontier state that entered the union in 1816. White settlers in the 19^th century largely came from other parts of the United States, bringing their dialects with them. The state can, for our purposes, be divided into Northern and Southern portions, with the dividing line roughly drawn at the capital, Indianapolis, in the center of the state. Settlers from the South arrived relatively early in the 1800s, with settlers from Northern states coming largely after the 1840s.[2] The Southern influence on the Hoosier dialect has continued into the present day and has possibly spread as far north as Indianapolis. This part of Indiana that appears to be linguistically part of the American South is often termed the Hoosier Apex.[3]

As a result, the “Hoosier dialect” is actually a combination of multiple dialects, roughly fitting into three major dialectical regions: the Inland North (Gary, Hammond, and the Indiana section of Chicagoland), the Northern Midlands (Northern Indiana including South Bend, Fort Wayne, and extending as far south as Indianapolis) and the Southern Midlands (the Indianapolis area and Southern Indiana, Including Bloomington, Terre Haute, and Evansville).

 

A very rough division of Indiana’s dialectical regions: 1. The Inland North, 2. The Northern Midlands, 3. The Southern Midlands. Map from Google Maps, notation by the author of this blog.

Phonology[4]

When asked if they have an accent, many Hoosiers, especially from the northern part of the state, say they don’t—they in fact consider themselves to sound like the people heard on national broadcasting. Northern Hoosiers often consider their Southern counterparts to have an accent.[5] While Hoosiers may not have an accent as iconic and recognizable as those found in New York or Chicago, they have a wide phonological range within their state.

Notable sound changes

A merger is when the difference between sounds disappears. Certain dialects of American English are currently undergoing a series of vowel mergers, including some forms of the Hoosier dialect. The Low-Back merger, which causes the vowel sounds in “cot” and “caught” to be the same, is ongoing throughout Indiana, though this change appears to have largely missed Fort Wayne and Gary in the north, Indianapolis in Central Indiana, and Evansville in the South.

 

 

A map (based on W. Labov, S. Ash, and C. Boberg, Atlas of North American English (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006)) showing the /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ merger’s prevalence in Indiana. Yellow dots represent places where the merger is ongoing, blue dots where the merger has not occurred, and green where the merger is complete.[6]

There's a chance that if you ask for something to write with in Southern Indiana, you might be given a "pin" rather than a "pen." This is the result of the pen/pin merger of the Southern vowel shift, the progress of which is visualized to the right. Beginning in the American South, it has crept north into Southern Indiana. The vowel in "set" /ɛ/ becomes the vowel in "sit" /ɪ/. This especially occurs before the nasal consonants /m/, /n/, /ŋ/.

Diagram of the Southern Shift. Chart from the University of Pennsylvania.[7]

Purple represents the pen/pin merger caused by the Southern Shift. Note that the merger extends as far north as Indianapolis but misses the southeastern Ohio River Valley and Northern Indiana. Map based on W. Labov, S. Ash & C. Boberg, The Atlas of North American English (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006).[8]

Indiana’s northern border is geographically part of the Great Lakes region, one of the locations currently experiencing the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. This shift has produced the distinct “Chic-aaago” accent, where the cot/caught vowel, usually /ɑ/ becomes /æ/ like in “cat.” This shifts the standard English /æ/ up to /ɛ/ or /ɪ/. This sound change is only heard in the small section of Northern Indiana considered part of the Northern Inland, which includes Gary. The whole change can be seen below. 

 

The Northern Cities Shift. Chart from the University of Pennsylvania. [9]

Other Hoosier phonetic phenomenon

Coalescence

Coalescence is the phonetic process by which consonants fuse together. This is common in all parts of Indiana. Common Hoosier coalescences include:

• “Going” [goɪŋ] becomes “gonna” [gʌnʌ]
• “Caramel” is pronounced [karmʌl]
• “Ordinary” is pronounced [ornari], with an almost, if not totally nonexistent /d/
• The state bird, the cardinal, is pronounced [kardnʌl]
• Hoosier children color with crayons, pronounced [krænz]

The [ɛ] and [ɪ] vowel switch

One common phonological change is a switch between [ɛ] and [ɪ], best illustrated by the Hoosier pronunciations, heard throughout the state, of “get” and “milk.”

• [gɛt] becomes [gɪt], rendering “get” as “git.”
• [mɪlk] becomes [mɛlk], meaning Hoosiers go to the store to buy “melk” rather than “milk.”

For a historical example, this switch appears in James Witcomb Riley’s poem “Little Orphant Annie,” where the final lines of each stanza are “An' the Gobble-uns 'at git you / Ef you / Don't / Watch / Out!”[10]

• [gɛt] > [gɪt]
• [ɪf] > [ɛf]

The /ɪ/ > /ɛ/ merger that comes from this change is often observed in front of the nasal consonants (/m/, /n/, and /ŋ/). This is especially prevalent in Southern Indiana.

• Bring [brɪŋ] > “breng” [brɛŋ]
• Rinse [rɪns] > “rense” [rɛns]
• Hinder [hɪndər] > “hender” [hɛndər][11]

The epenthetic (or intrusive) /r/

An epenthetic sound is inserted into a word where the sound technically does not exist. A pronunciation that was once common in the Midlands, Indiana included, was the epenthetic /r/ after /ɑ/ in some words, meaning you “warsh” ([wɑrʃ]) your hands and the first president of the United States was George Warshington ([wɑrʃɪŋtən]). This pronunciation become less common in Indiana and today appears to be largely limited to the older population.

The /s/ > /ʃ/ merger

Some Hoosiers have been observed to merge certain instances of /s/ with /ʃ/:

• “Grocery” [grosəri] > “groshry” [groʃri] (note the coalescence)
• “Anniversary” [ænɪvɜrsəri] > “annivershery” [ænɪvɜrʃəri]
• “Nursery” [nɜrsəri] > “nurshary” [nɜrʃəri]

Hoosier Lexicon 

Most non-academic descriptions of the Hoosier dialect focus on the words and phrases common to Indiana. These are used in other parts of the country but are especially prevalent in Indiana.

• Pop – Like most of the Midwest, Northern Indiana calls carbonated beverages “pop.” The exception is Southern Indiana and the Indianapolis area, which more frequently uses “coke” regardless of brand. 
• Mango – Green pepper
• Sweeper – Vacuum sweeper
• Davenport – A genericized trademark for sofa (like “Kleenex” as a generic name for “tissue”), this was especially prevalent in the 20^th century.

Indiana is well-known for having unusual town names. Some of them are merely odd (like Santa Claus) and others are interesting from a linguistic perspective. The earliest European inhabitants were the French. The main French influence on the language of Indiana is in place names, which Hoosiers pronounce differently from the original French.

• Terre Haute – Pronounced [ˌtɛrəˈhoʊt] in Hoosier, [tɛʁ ot] in French
• Versailles – Pronounced [vərˈseɪlz] in Hoosier, [vɛərˈsaɪ] or [vɜːrˈsaɪ] in French
• Vincennes - Pronounced [vɪnˈsɛnz] in Hoosier, ​[vɛ̃sɛn] in French

Morphology and syntax

Many Hoosier speech patterns are often unfortunately considered uneducated, though this is usually the influence of classism.[12] Hoosiers, like speakers of any other dialect, simply have their own way of talking, regardless of education level. Much like the vocabulary mentioned above, these formations occur in other dialects of American English, but are especially prevalent in Indiana:

• “Where are you at?” meaning “Where are you?”
• “Anymore” to mean “nowadays,” as in “Mangoes are expensive anymore.”
• “Real quick” to mean “quickly,” as in the sentence “I need to run into Meijer’s real quick.”
• The formation “X thing actions Y action” in place of “X actions to be Y action.” for example “The floor needs sweeping” rather than “The floor needs to be swept” or “The cat wants out” rather than “The cat wants to go out."
• “You guys” is the most common form of the second person plural, regardless of the gender being addressed. This construction often results in the possessive “you guys’s,” pronounced [ju gɑɪzˈəz]. Despite the influence of the American Southern dialect, “y’all” is rarely if ever heard in Indiana.

 

Everyone's favorite Midwestern groshry store

The Unnecessary Possessive Attached to a Business

An unusual morphological phenomenon, often seen in Indiana and Michigan, is the addition of the possessive “-‘s” to names of businesses, especially stores. The grocery stores Meijer and Kroger, both major businesses in Indiana, are often called “Meijer’s” and “Kroger’s,” despite there being no apostrophe in their proper names.

“How To Speak Hoosier”

The video series on YouTube entitled “How to Speak Hoosier” is a humorous yet accurate depiction of the Hoosier dialect. [13]

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[1] “Dictionary of American Regional English | DARE,” Dictionary of American Regional English, accessed April 28, 2020, https://www.daredictionary.com/regions?rcode=region.IN.

[2] James M. Bergquist, “Tracing the Origins of a Midwestern Culture: The Case of Central Indiana,” Indiana Magazine of History 77, no. 1 (1981), 2.

[3] Dennis Richard Preston, “Presidential Address: Where Are the Dialects of American English At Anyhow?,” American Speech 78, no. 3 (September 17, 2003), 240.

[4] All IPA transcription has been made by the author, a native speaker of the Northern Hoosier dialect and as such reflect NHD perceived pronunciation.

[5] Devon Haynie, “Hoosiers Weigh in: Do We Have an Accent?,” The Journal Gazette, March 15, 2009, sec. D.

[6] User:Angr, English: Map Showing the Distribution of the Cot–Caught Merger in North American English. Green Dots: /Ɑ/ = /ɔ/ in Perception and Production. Dark Blue Dots: /Ɑ/ ≠ /ɔ/ in Perception and Production. Pale Blue Dots: /Ɑ/ ≠ /ɔ/ in Perception or Production. Yellow Dots: Merger in Transition., June 4, 2006, June 4, 2006, Made by User:Angr. Based on W. Labov, S. Ash, and C. Boberg, Atlas of North American English (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006: p. 122). Base map is Image:BlankMap-USA-states-Canada-provinces.png by User:Astrokey44, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cot-caught_merger.png.

[7] William Labov, “The Organization of Dialect Diversity in North America,” accessed April 29, 2020, https://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/ICSLP4.html.

[8] Angr, Areas of the U.S. Where “Pin” and “Pen” Are Pronounced the Same., September 11, 2006, September 11, 2006, Own work; base map is modified from Image:Map of USA with state names.svg; data from W. Labov, S. Ash & C. Boberg, The Atlas of North American English (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006), p. 68., https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pin-pen.svg.

[9] William Labov, “The Organization of Dialect Diversity in North America.”

[10] James Whitcomb Riley, “Little Orphant Annie,” Poetry Archive, 1885, http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/little_orphant_annie.html.

[11] Marvin D. Carmony, “Hoosier Dialect Studies and the Teacher of English,” Teachers’ College Journal; Terre Haute, Ind. 38, no. 5 (March 1, 1967), 210.

[12] Carmony, “Hoosier Dialect Studies and the Teacher of English.” This article focuses on the speech of Terre Haute, in Southwest Indiana, and addresses some of the classist assumptions related to dialect.

[13] Brad Bryan, How to Speak Hoosier, Episode 1 - “There’s Lots of Uses of 'S,” accessed April 30, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swqaM4TiX2I.
Indiana