T.R. Salutes- The Chicago Accent

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com


Little is known about the Chicago accent. What little is known to most people about the Chicago accent is due to "Da Superfans" sketch on Saturday Night Live, the one that made "Da Bearss" a household phrase.

As a Chicago transplant of 4 years, I have yet to find very many great examples of the Chicago accent, or pockets of the city where it thrives. There seem to be a few commonalities with the instances in which I have heard it: It was from someone who seems to be decidedly blue collar, never in a northside neighborhood, oftentimes this person either worked with, or was talking about food and/or alcohol, and they are infinitely more prevalent at White Sox games than at Cubs games. Lastly, one of their tip off words that they have the accent is that they pronounce Chicago as "Chi-caw-go". Subtle, but noticeable. They are also great people 100% of the time. As far as I am concerned the gold standard (and fitting every criterion I listed) is below. He's a little bit Wisconsy, but the best I've found on YouTube anyway.




That dude can be seen here as well.




This one isn't all bad, the description in the margin by the poster of the video is useful as well.


This is a parody, but a doozie of a parody.


This one is a doozie. You can tell she has the accent when you hear the "A" sound.