Can Michigan be prounounced "Mitchigan" or always "Mishigan"?

[sellebraytion]

Help me settle a minor disagreement🙂

Yanbu - it can be pronounced either way.
Yabu - everyone pronounces it Mishigan unless they have their head in the sand.

Bless you Brits 😂 Not a single person in the US would ever say MiTchigan. Never. How the hell did the UK ever decide that this was the way to say it? See also: Mairee-Land

I know this is how it is pronounced as family is from NY but, try as I might, my mouth won't let me make that sequence of noises!

It's quite a large lake , too,so more than you might think.

Also, on Pointless. Richard Osman says Mitchigan.Grr.

I watched a documentary last night some of which was in Michigan. The journalist was from New Zealand and pronounced it Mis-keegan.

Ally McBeal, surely?

Depends where you’re from! I’m from Chicago, folks there (esp from the South Side), say Mitchigan. We have a gorgeous lake along our east side: Lake Mitchigan. Look up the Chicago Bears Super Fans on Saturday Night Live for an idea of the accent. Lots of those folks originally Irish so the accent is in part descended from the emerald isles!

Just gonna leave this here.

Tina Fey never puts a foot wrong, so it’s MISHIGAN.

Can you pronounce bellend?

YABU

I suppose we decided based on the pronunciation of

Which
Sandwich
Chip
Chump
Chain

And all the other many many words in the English language where a ch is pronounced with a tch rather than a sh.

As well as the fact that there are loads of ch place names in the UK that are all pronounced tch rather than sh.

So not exactly weird or random really.

This. Midgigan rather than Mitchigan, though.

There are a lot of regional and sub regional accents in the US and the upper Midwest is a big area for that. Oregon in my area would be pronounced Or-e (slight emphasis as ee)-gahn compared to Or-uh-gun.

I’m from CA, my stepdad is from Maryland. He pronounces it like the name Marilyn but with a “d” on the end. Like Marilynd.

We say “Las Angeles” even though it is Los.

Also Las Vegas, just like it’s spelled.

Oregon- I say “Or eh gun”. My mum says “Organ”.

It’s definitely Mishigan.

Arkansas pronunciation comes from the French settlers trying to pronounce the native language. Kansas is pronounced differently because it has English speaking settlers, not French.

Mishi-gan. My husband is a Michigander so I’ve spent a lot of time there - never heard anyone pronounce is ‘Mitchigan’.

the spelling is French but ‘Michigan‘ supposedly comes from Algonquian: ‘meshi-gami’.

Oh my goodness gracious this thread made my whole night. 😂😂 Born and raised in Michigan--the first time I ever heard Mitchigan was in the UK. Where did that come from?? It's MISHigan. No itch. ISH. 😂No American will ever say itch. Ever. Ever ever. This is side-splittingly hilarious.

There’s a song called “Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans”, but they got it wrong.

How’s that pronounced! (I’m Canadian.)

It is only ever pronounced MiSHigan no matter where in the state you are from. I live in northern Michigan and it's pronounced the same in the north.

Holborn = HOE-bn with maybe just a hint of the R.

This reminds me of the Americans trying to buy train tickets to Looga Barooga. Turned out they wanted to go to Loughborough.

I’ve lived all over the state. It’s absolutely never “mitchigan”.

Pronouncing the T is incorrect, as everyone has said.

Surely she was referring to the town of Muskegon, Michigan? Otherwise that’s hilarious.
Although when I lived in the UK there were many things I mispronounced!

American-English loves to bastardize the English, French, Spanish, and Native-American languages. Seemingly all at the same time sometimes. (I say as an American.) I’m from Utah, and the pronunciation of some of our cities/towns makes no sense.

Tooele - two-will-a
Hurricane - hurr-a-kin
Duchesne - du-shane
Mantua - man-away

@Andylion I was tempted to throw Toronto into the mix!

Is it really bastardisation when England, France, and Spain were battling over the vast land for years?

Reading the names and pronunciation listed is different than how I would pronounce them (American here too).

Yes, that's true, but in the case of the Judy Garland song they got it right!