Michigan slang: regional words, sayings, and how locals talk.
This page collects regional vocabulary from Michigan: slang you'll hear in conversation, sayings that travel through families, and pronunciations that mark a person as a local. Pick a city to narrow the list, or keep "All cities" to see the full Michigan picture.
41 wordspage 1 of 2
Michigan for a corner liquor / convenience store.
Wisconsin: a traffic signal / stoplight.
Wisconsin's brandy-not-whiskey take on the old fashioned, often 'sweet' with 7-Up.
Bands of intense snow off the Great Lakes.
Fast Canadian low that crashes temps overnight.
The deadly November gales on the Great Lakes.
Indirect left turn made by going straight, U-turning, then turning right.
Michigan splits between the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula, whose residents are "Yoopers" (from "U.P.") with a distinct Finnish- and Scandinavian-flavored dialect of their own. Statewide a soft drink is "pop", a convenience store is a "party store", and people show where they live by raising a hand and pointing to a spot on the palm, using it as a map of the state. The "Michigan left" turns traffic around, and "ope" slips out when you bump into someone.
Michigan slang includes "pop" for soft drinks, "party store" for a convenience store, "Yooper" for a resident of the Upper Peninsula, the "Michigan left" turn, and using your hand as a map to show where you live.
A "Yooper" is someone from Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the "U.P."). Yooper English carries heavy Finnish and Scandinavian influence and its own vocabulary — "eh", "da", "choppers" (mittens).
In Michigan, a "party store" is a convenience or corner store that sells snacks, beer, and lottery tickets — not a shop for party supplies.
