Is Maine the Only Place Where People Inhale While they Say ‘Yup’?

I've essentially lived in Maine my whole life.

I've spent a lot of time in vans, traveling all over the country, and I've never really found myself having the urge to live anywhere else. If I even had the slightest notion, I'd notice pretty quickly that it was someplace that reminded me very much of home. But there's one thing you will only find in Maine, that doesn't exist anywhere... The Maine accent.

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People from away often say it reminds them of a Scottish accent or old English. Maybe that's true, but it's definitely all ours. And the one word associated with Maine the most is "ayuh". But even that's been turned into something it kind of isn't. The word ayuh is more of an inflection than an actual word, almost more of a sound.

Real Mainers make this sound almost without thinking about it.

What I'm talking about is the inhaled "yup". If you've lived any amount of time here in Maine, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's an affirmative answer, but it's made up of a bit of head nodding, and usually at least two quick inhalations that somehow include the word yup.

You've definitely heard your grandparents, and probably even your parents do this. Then one day, you'll hear yourself doing it. You won't even notice it. Then all of a sudden, you do start to notice you're doing it. But have no fear, it just means you're a real Mainer. It's what separates us from all the transplants from away.

This must happen in other places.

I'm going with... sort of. I've been all over the US, and I've never heard it anywhere else. Maybe once in a while you hear it in New Hampshire or Massachusetts, but that's it. In fact, I've had plenty of people from other areas of the country specifically ask me what the heck that noise is all about. They understand it's a yes of some kind, it's just the styling of it freaks them out a bit, I think.

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However, globally, the sound isn't as unique. You hear it in Canada in some places. There are potentially some 50 other languages that use an inhalation as part of their verbal affirmations. It seems especially true in Norway. They seem to possess a nearly identical "yup/yeah" to ours. So while we may share it globally, we seem to have a lock down on it here in the States. Go Maine!!

Have a look around. Maine is awesome!