Some Minnesotans Have A Tough Time Pronouncing This Beverage (2024)

And, no, it's not beer-- we're all pretty good at saying that.

But have you ever noticed that some of us Minnesotans have a tough time pronouncing the name of this beloved, dairy beverage?

I'm talking, of course, about... milk. It's a pretty simple word, only four letters long. Yet some Minnesotans don't actually pronounce it like its written. Have you ever heard anyone say, "Do we have any MELK?" Take a listen. It's more common than you'd think.

I've noticed milk being pronounced that way over the past seven years I've lived here in Minnesota. To be fair, though, I heard it pronounced that way many times back when I lived in my home state of Wisconsin too. (And geez, Wisconsin's known as 'American's Dairyland,' so you'd think my fellow Wisconsinites would know how to pronounce something as integral to the dairy industry as that, wouldn't you?)

And, it's not just our everyday Minnesotans and Wisconsinites that pronounce milk as 'melk.' I've noticed that a few reporters on the Brownfield Ag Network (which you can hear during the 5 a.m. hour on Quick Country 96.5) say 'melk' instead of milk too. As in, "'Melk' futures trended down again at the Chicago Board of Trade yesterday..."

So go ahead, say it out loud right now. (Just not too loudly if you're there at work-- people might start staring at you, regardless of how you pronounce it.) Do you say 'milk'... or 'melk'?