Yooper

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Dr. Goodword
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Yooper

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:43 pm

• yooper •

Pronunciation: yu-pêr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A resident of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Notes: Dr. Goodword does not make a habit of bringing a word from such a narrow patois up for examination, but this brings back memories of my wife's and my years in Michigan. We spent a week in the fall driving the length of the Upper Peninsula of that state, enjoying the colors and waterfalls. Besides, Merriam-Webster now seems committed to add this word to its database.

In Play: The Upper Peninsula is famous for its deer hunting. So famous that stories abound about it. Here's one: A man dressed in brand new camos walks into a bar and asks the bartender if he has a picture of a deer. You know he's no yooper. He must have been a 'troll', a person who lives 'under' (south of) the Mackinac Bridge connecting the Lower with the Upper Peninsulas. It was reported while we were in Michigan that someone spotted a truck with a fox, rather than a deer, tied to the fender. A scorecard was reported every day on the local news of the ratio of deer to cows that had been shot: the score was always close.

Word History: The history of this word is pretty straightforward. It comes from the initials of the Upper Peninsula, UP, pronounced [yu-pee]. Simply remove the final double E, replace it with the personal noun marker -er, and voila!—yooper. The claim has been made that yoopers speak their own language or dialect. My wife and I coming up from the Lower Peninsula and, beyond that, North Carolina, understood yoopers without a hitch. (Today's gratitude is owed Gail Smith, a dyed-in-the-wool yooper, for recommending today's Good Word.)
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Pattie
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Re: Yooper

Postby Pattie » Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:45 am

Well,now I know! And, thanks to a friend from Indiana, I also know what a Hoosier is. Any other funny regional names from the US that anyone would care to share? We in Australia have a couple: Queenslanders (like me) are Bananabenders and Western Australians are Sandgropers.
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Perry Lassiter
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Re: Yooper

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:37 pm

Well, Rednecks, of course, - probably because working in the sun burns your neck even with long sleeves.
Redbones in Lousiana are variously defined to mean a mixed race, perhaps black and creole.
Cajuns - descendants of the Acadians who migrated from Canada to settle in south Louisiana. A French, largely Catholic culture with a distinct culture and an addictive cuisine.
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Yooper

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Apr 20, 2014 1:57 pm

Everyone in this state is a Husker,
from the state football team: NU Cornhuskers.
(Except me)
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

William Hupy
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Re: Yooper

Postby William Hupy » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:55 am

Whoa! Just wait a dang second. Yooper should be capitalized. We always do here in the UP.
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Re: Yooper

Postby William Hupy » Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:00 am

I am shocked. Shocked, that no mention was made of pasties. Pronounced "pass tees". A meal in a pie dough that was brought over by Cornish miners. Also available in Cornwall, England, in London and on the train from London to Penzance! Yoopers eat pasties also.
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David McWethy
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Re: Yooper

Postby David McWethy » Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:49 am

If residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula are disparagingly called "Yoopers" by those from the "mitten" part of the state, why aren't those from the Lower Peninsula called "Elpers" (LPers) instead of "trolls" (or "Trolls")? Both parts of the state are "under the bridge"; see below.

Regardless of which side of The Bridge Michiganders (or Michigeese, depending on gender) live on, they're all "Snowbirds"--who fly south in the winter to avoid blizzards that can last 20 days--and return during blueberry (or deer) season.

The Mackinac (pronounced "Mackinaw"; "Mackinack" screams TOURIST) Bridge got its name from the Ojibwa word "Michilimackinac"; the region around the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

Driving over it is NOT for the acrophobic: Not only is it high enough to clear the wheelhouses of ocean-going ships and 600' Great Lakes ore barges, but in the higher spans the driving surface is open-cell steel decking which not only allows but forces drivers looking at the centerline striping to look straight down on the sparkling water--hundreds of feet below.
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Yooper

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:41 pm

Thanks for the warning, David. The Mackinac Bridge is one I will avoid. I have never been to the land of Yooper. Is it anything like Oz? I spent a lifetime one summer at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Michigan was as hot as Texas that summer. The only cool place was in the Baptist Church where it was so cold you could ice skate up and down the aisles :) . I temporarally converted to the Christian Reformed Church (similar to the Dutch Reformed Church) that summer. The fellowship was great, the theology was compatible, the service was a little formal for me, and there was a language barrier at times. Ik heb niet de nederlandse taal speal.
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David McWethy
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Re: Yooper

Postby David McWethy » Sat May 03, 2014 7:16 am

We in Northwest Arkansas have been called "hillbillies" for decades (except for the period--when Hillary and Billary went to Washington--when we had to get "spruced up" for the nation and briefly used the more formal epithet: "Hill Williams").

After which it felt good to go back to wearing overalls and accusing each other of being a "hunyock". Getting Hillary out of the state was just icing on the cake.
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things...."

LukeJavan8
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Re: Yooper

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat May 03, 2014 11:19 am

:D
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Slava
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Re: Yooper

Postby Slava » Sun May 04, 2014 10:47 am

I just learned a new one: sandlapper. Just below the Tar Heels.
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