Shelby, Michigan
The Shelby Accent
Shelby sits inside the Chicago dialect area, which covers Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, United States. The nearest other area is Midland, about 152km away.
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What people in Shelby sound like
- Raised “trap” vowel — “cat” towards “kee-at”.
- Fronted “lot” vowel — “block” towards “black”.
- “Cot” and “caught” stay distinct.
- Chicago-specific vocabulary: “gym shoes”, “pop”, “the expressway”.
These are the markers of the Chicago accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Shelby has all of them — the full Chicago profile sets out where the region varies.
Shelby against Midland
Shelby is close enough to the Midland area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Shelby | Midland |
|---|---|---|
| Do “cot” and “caught” rhyme in your natural accent? | “cot” and “caught” stay distinct | “cot” and “caught” rhyme |
How Michigan answered the Harvard Dialect Survey
The Harvard Dialect Survey, collected by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder in 2002–2003, recorded how respondents in every US state answered the same questions. These are Michigan’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in Michigan |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | pop 81% · soda 14% · coke 1% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | traffic circle 43% · roundabout 26% · rotary 6% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | drinking fountain 79% · water fountain 20% · bubbler 1% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crayfish 50% · crawfish 34% · crawdad 9% |
| Roly Poly or Potato Bug? | roly poly 47% · potato bug 7% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 56% · you all 10% · y'all 5% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | kitty-corner 87% · catty-corner 4% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | garage sale 64% · yard sale 25% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | tennis shoes 60% · sneakers 20% |
| Frosting or Icing? | frosting 50% · icing 6% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scrap paper 47% · scratch paper 19% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | service road 46% · frontage road 14% · access road 12% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 65% · with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 14% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievous (3 syllables) 40% · mischievious (4 syllables) 34% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 31% · hair tie 30% · (hair) elastic 7% |
Data from the Harvard Dialect Survey (Bert Vaux and Scott Golder, 2002–2003), used under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence. A self-selected sample from two decades ago: how people spoke then, not a census.
Dialect areas near Shelby
Is your accent from Shelby?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the Chicago / Inland North English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.