For Yinz and Yous

How to Speak Midwestern provides McClelland’s readership with yet another lens through which to encounter our eclectic region. The book is broken into three regionally focused, braided essay-style chapters—Inland North, Midland, and North Central—with an introduction and sizable glossary of terms. The glossary further segments the larger regions covered in the first half of the book: Michigan, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, and so on. Unlike most glossaries, which would be a slog to read from beginning to end, McClelland’s glossary accommodates linear reading, especially if you’re a word nerd like myself and delight in learning about why you grew up calling your mom “Maa,” but your friends from Oregon (the state, not the little town in north central Illinois) did not.