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“Sh-caw-go” is almost no more

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* Ed McClelland writes in Belt Magazine about the disappearing regional accents among white urban politicians…

But as the white working-class has declined in both population and prominence — a casualty of deindustrialization and education — regional accents are becoming less pronounced, and less widespread. The classic “Sh-caw-go” accent, wielded so effectively by the Daleys, is now only heard in a few white ethnic wards in the far Northwestern and Southwestern corners of the city. With the recent retirement of Polish-American alderman Michael Zalewski, only three members of the Chicago City Council speak with accents that would sound at home on SNL’s legendary send-up of Chicago patois, “Bill Swerski’s Superfans.” One of them is Daley’s grandson, Patrick Daley Thompson. Another is Nick Sposato, a former firefighter who greets audiences by saying, “I’d like to thank youse all for coming.”

In 1980, whites without college degrees made up 65 percent of the electorate; by 2012, that figure was down to 36 percent. As that class’s political influence has diminished, politicians have less motivation to identify with, and sound like, those voters, and more motivation to sound like the professionals who now dominate the economies in such cities as Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, which have transformed themselves from industrial hearths to centers of finance, tech, and health, respectively.

Today’s politicians are also less likely to have emerged from working-class backgrounds. The politicians coming to power in today’s Midwest are well-traveled, well-educated late Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, such as Emanuel and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, who both got their starts in national politics, rather than rising through the ranks of a local political machine.

There are some exceptions, of course, but they’re no longer the rule. Jim Thompson used to change his accent to suit his audience. And Gov. Rauner sometimes talks like he’s from… well, I’m not sure what that accent is supposed to be.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:12 pm

Comments

I’d say “sh-cah-go” is also on the endangered list.

Comment by Conn Smythe Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:16 pm
I think you are referring to ‘PoDunkville’ when talking about Rauners fake accent. I should know. WORD tells me thats where i am from quite frequently.

Comment by BlueDogDem Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:17 pm
If you head south of Tennessee/Kentucky… head to the Carolinas, Florida… you get the “she-caw-go” once over.

My family in western Pennsylvania have a distinct regional accent, it just depends(?)

I think it was… Veronica Corningstone… who really exposed how this happened… describing how she got to lead the Channel 4 News Team…

“…I’m chasing down leads and practicing my non-regional diction.”

News Anchors.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:28 pm
–And Gov. Rauner sometimes talks like he’s from… well, I’m not sure what that accent is supposed to be.–

Hee-Haw reboot audition failures.

The same phony bit BDD does.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:30 pm
So how does Rauner drop the G in Chicago.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:32 pm
Most all my relatives have left. We were there from 1870, until 2010. One uncle is left, along with my cousins, now in college.

The same has happened to my wife’s family. One uncle, usually living now in Kona, with first cousins finishing up at Pepperdine.

That accent was a patois of Irish, Polish, German white working class. They’re gone.

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:34 pm
Interesting thought. Keep in mind, there are approximately 900,000 Whites living in the City of Chicago.

Of those, only 250,000 were raised in the City. Of those, only 150,000 are below the age of 40. Of those whites from the city, 75,000 are from blue collar households. Of those, 25,000 have blue collar jobs.

I find the accent to be just as prominent in the near Cook western and southwestern suburbs as in the city “enclaves.”

Comment by FOP Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:34 pm
Rauner bought his phony upper southern highland diction from a non-union moonshiner, just beyond the hills of Indiana’s Boone Park. Or so it seems to me.

Comment by Al Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 1:41 pm
How ‘bout a “question of the day” on this topic…which member of the General Assembly has the most pronounced Chicago accent?”

Comment by BC Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:03 pm
==I’m not sure what that accent is supposed to be==

It’s Swedish, the ancestral land of his immigrant grandparents

Comment by PJ Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:13 pm
Golly-gee whiz Word. You beat me to the punch. You must have espn or sumtin.

Comment by BlueDogDem Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:20 pm
A great example of Chicagoese is Jill Talley’s character on SpongeBob: Karen, Plankton’s computer wife. She says “a’s” twangy/sharp, like cat (kee-at), that (thee-at).

Another one is saying Moike instead of Mike, and boike for bike, etc. Older people say it.

One of my favorites is sez, “So I sez to him…”

But yes, Chicago has changed a lot. Lots of people’s goal, in my childhood, was to move to the suburbs, and many did move there and are still there.

Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:25 pm
===One of my favorites is===

Over by dere.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:26 pm
One of my favorites. The wash room. Lived in Lincoln Park nearly five years. Never did find one.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:39 pm
Darn new drvice

Comment by BlueDogDem Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:40 pm
“Over by dere.”

He trew the ball over by dere. I sez to him tree times, watch where you’re trowing the ball.

Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 2:47 pm
–The wash room.–

You mean the worsh room. Like Pres. George Worshington.

However, the east-west street is ROOS-a-velt, but Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor are ROSE-a-velt.

And the German writer is GUR-ta, but the street is GO-thi.

Give it a try on the natives.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 3:00 pm
When I lived in SPFLD, I would frequently be asked, “Is it “Kitty Corner” or “Katty Corner”? “

Comment by Jockey Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 3:00 pm
==Over by dere.==

Yah…fuggeddaboudit.

Comment by A guy Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 3:01 pm
Okay. Wait. How else does one say Chicago? If someone says it other than “sh-cah-go” I’ve somehow failed to notice.

This probably explains my confusion when trying to figure out how to pronounce the name of the awesome new Showtime series The Chi. (Watch it)

Comment by smalltown Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 3:19 pm
An if ya go ta 6400 hunnert nort yer on DUH-von.

Comment by West Side the Best Side Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 3:31 pm
word, that particular iteration “worsh” carries quite a ways sout of da City. Drove me crazy when Governor Edgar would say “Worshington.”

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:00 pm
I never heard any relatives say “how youse doing” and they were living deep in the old neighborhood. Fronch room, sure, but youse, never. Now, do you call it bar, tavern, or lounge? South side has a lot of lounges.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:14 pm
As a nort sider, I can tell you that the accents are pretty rare around here.

Perhaps things are different on the sout side.

As a trial lawyer, I can you that at times it still can be beneficial to pull out that sort of accent. Even if you wearing an Armani suit, the jurors can think the accent makes you just a regular guy (and hence credible).

Comment by Gooner Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 4:22 pm
=== worsh ===

Definitely struck me as a downstate pronunciation. Reminds me of my wife. That and her “sody” compared to my northern “pop.”

Comment by Norseman Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 5:14 pm
Yooz put soss-udge on dat peetza…thats how we do…

Comment by Pizza Man Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 6:11 pm
Norseman, we could have an entirely separate discussion on soda, sodie, and pop.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 6:30 pm
I seen what you did there.

Comment by striketoo Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 6:52 pm
“Youse” is definitely Brooklyn.

Re Duh-von. I had a boss from the UK who called in Dev-in (but one syllable). Also Duh-von Aven-you not Aven-new. Moike, Boike et cetra are Irish. You never hear an Italian or Swede saying that.

Only the uneducated (less than High School) dropped T’s.

I mostly heard Sh-caw-go but some said she-cah-go
Everyone stared at them when they did.

Comment by Streamwood Retiree Tuesday, May 1, 18 @ 7:25 pm
Plus an’ da guy does a rill good jaahhb on twidder:
https://twitter.com/TedMcClelland

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Wednesday, May 2, 18 @ 10:25 am
In what region do they drop the T from Ted’s name?

Comment by Anon and on Wednesday, May 2, 18 @ 10:49 am