Latest TikTok Challenge Has Us Believing The Detroit Accent Is Real

This one simple phrase has ignited a fiery debate on social media.

Now, there is such a thing as the "Michigan accent", I'll give you that. But how much do you know about the so-called "Detroit accent"? Because the newest TikTok challenge is making me question everything I know.

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A viral post that's been circulating social media claims,

if you need a laugh and/or don't believe people from Detroit have an accent, say "the horrors of war" aloud...

An inconspicuous enough phrase-- you'd think. Seems like Detroiters are having a hard time accepting this one!

What Is The Michigan Accent?

I always wonder what we Michiganders sound like to outsiders. I only hear my Michigan accent when I pronounce something with a long 'A' sound; We get very nasally! Of our Michigan accent the Detroit Free Press writes,

The Michigan accent is a part of a more wide-ranging regional accent called the Inland North accent, which covers a broad geography primarily around the Great Lakes region, from Buffalo, New York, all the way to Chicago.

So, where does Detroit fall into all of this?

Well, they've taken the "Inland North" accent to a whole level with something called the "Northern City Vowel Shift". Detroiters quite literally shift or change their vowels entirely!

One linguistics blogger explains,

This peculiar linguistic phenomenon circulated throughout Michigan and  northern cities including Chicago, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Cleveland. No one knows how this trend emerged but it became popular among blue-collar workers....short a’s become tensed...Their o’s become quasi-short a’s. So instead of having a job, they have a ‘jab’.

Take a listen and see what you think: do Detroiters have an accent?