Minnesota Accent

I was feeling under the weather yesterday and was watching the tv show "Cops" last night. The first segment of the show had them in King County Washington near Seattle therefore the accents were fairly "generic" but then they were in Minneapolis. Wow- I thought I was watching  an excerpt from the movie "Fargo". The cops were relatively young and was surprised their accents were so strong, it was definitely not a put on (I'm waiting for Davydd to say that it was)  I guess regional accents are certainly alive and well!

You Betcha!

Watched any coverage of the floods in Fargo and Moorhead?  Those are the accents.

WJ-You are such a rabble rouser!

Ate at a fried chicken place in Charlotte today and it was a real battle understanding what the young man was asking me.  It was apparent that he had equally a hard time understanding me as well. 

buffetbuster


WJ-You are such a rabble rouser!

Ate at a fried chicken place in Charlotte today and it was a real battle understanding what the young man was asking me.  It was apparent that he had equally a hard time understanding me as well. 

Ok, you know how I bust on others for never traveling, but....DON'T YOU EVER STAY HOME???

WJ-
I'm working on my Southern accent.

wanderingjew

I condemn you to watch this TV show...

Apr. 01 7:00PM ET
(30 minutes)


Remind Me
Travel Channel's Man v. Food
Minneapolis
TV-G, CC
Adam arrives in the Twin Cities, where he'll search for the birthplace of the Juicy Lucy-the Minneapolis cheeseburger with the cheese inside the burger.



and this one...

Mar. 31 10:00PM ET
(60 minutes)


Remind Me
Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern
Minnesota
TV-PG, CC
Join Andrew on a culinary tour through the place he calls home - Minnesota. From deep-fried bar fare to sophisticated cuisine, you'll see why this northern-most state is far from ordinary.

You will get your fill of lutefisk in both these shows.

Davydd,

I have it on my calender!

I'm currently torturing Julie with my rendition of what her mom's coworker said to her on the phone about three months back: 'ooooh, it's snoooowin, ya' know, your mom went hoooooome.'

The last visit home, they accused Julie of having a Southern accent.  ;)

Nancypalooza


I'm currently torturing Julie with my rendition of what her mom's coworker said to her on the phone about three months back: 'ooooh, it's snoooowin, ya' know, your mom went hoooooome.'

The last visit home, they accused Julie of having a Southern accent.  ;)

That's funny, because my friend Julianne grew up just outside of Milwaukee so she has "the best of both worlds" the dreaded Minnesota "o" and the Chicago style hard vowels. She's been living just outside of Atlanta and now outside of Charlotte for over a decade, her family in Wisconsin accuses her of having a southern accent, however to me, her Wisconsin accent is just the same!

I now live in norther North Dakota.  The accent from "Fargo" is completely over done.  There's some old timers up here with that northern accent, but the general population is pretty mid-western neutral.

You do get a lot of "you bettcha"'s and "Oofta"'s.

WarToad


I now live in norther North Dakota.  The accent from "Fargo" is completely over done.  There's some old timers up here with that northern accent, but the general population is pretty mid-western neutral.

You do get a lot of "you bettcha"'s and "Oofta"'s.

Wartoad,

It's definetely not overdone. I've heard plenty of people both young and old talk like that not only in North Dakota, but also in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
When I think of midwestern neutral, I think of folks from Indianapolis or Kansas City.

 
 
From 1975 to about 1988 I was a rep for a national company based here in So Cal but I was on the road for 4-6-8 weeks at a time 3 or 4 times a year during that time, I have been to 42 of the 48 continental states.
 
I am of the opinion that much to my dismay regional accents as well as regional products and regionalisms are rapidly dissapearing, such a shame too.
 
The national TV and radio networks are mostly to blame as going back to the 60s they would not hire anyone with a regional accent-they wanted everyone to be "accentless"-Mid American was the goal. Also the gobbling up of indy business by the mega corporations and mulit nationals and malls also added to the homoginization of the USA. I could blind fold you and drop you off in an undisclosed mall somewhere in the nation and you would see the same stores in the same order, if the TV and radio outlets didn't identify themselves you wouldn't be able to tell the difference that way either.
 
This is a mistake in my way of thinking, the dictator of Spain Franco duing his 40 years of rule attempted to wipe out regional dialects and regionalisms of Spain, as soon as he died all the regionalisms made a strong comeback, the Catalan language is alive n ell in Barcelon as is Galician is Santiago de Compestela, ditto for regional customs and cuisine too. Chine does have a national tongue-Mandarin I believe but throughout China regional languages and customs still floursh. There was a time in the USA that a New Englander, Southerner or other regional accent was prominet and easily detected noit any more, yes it stills exists on a small scale but it is vansishing.  It can be argued that mobility is to blame as well, folks don't live their entire lives in the same area as much as before so let's say a Bostonian with a pronounced accent moves to Atlanta she or he will attempt to lose his regionalism and blend in with all many other transplant there as well
 
I like regionalisms, a soda in California is a pop in Colorado, a bubbler in Boston is just a drinking fountain in Miami, a washateria in Dallas is a laundromat in St. Paul,  a hoagie in Philadelphia is a sub in Reno, the y'all of Atlanta is the yuse of Brooklyn etc
 
There's an old joke that may not be valid much longer, where do the missing r's of Massachussets go? e g  paaak the car, make your maaak
They wind up in Texas where people warsh their cars or run a 50 yard darsh.

I'm from Indianapolis but after being away for 40 years Hoosiers sound more southern but people in Indianapolis talk with a tired apologetic sigh combined with a s**t eating grin to me. Oops! Maybe I'm describing myself.

Davydd


I'm from Indianapolis but after being away for 40 years Hoosiers sound more southern but people in Indianapolis talk with a tired apologetic sigh combined with a s**t eating grin to me. Oops! Maybe I'm describing myself.

Davydd

I can understand that considering that the Minnesota accent is so extreme, but frankly, those from Indianapolis don't sound any more southern than folks from Seattle, in fact their accents sound almost identical to me.

If you were to have someone who lived their whole lives in either Alabama or Mississippi listen to someone from Minnesota or Indianapolis, I bet they wouldn't be able to tell them apart!


Jonjax

I know all to well about the "mallification" of America.

I grew up on Long Island but have lived in Seattle, Pittsburgh and now Rhode Island, however I deliberately kept my Long Island accent over the years..

BTW,  nowadays in Brooklyn you'll rarely hear someone under the age of "80" use the term "youse".

I always thought youze was an Italian thing, not based on age or geography.

stricken_detective


I always thought youze was an Italian thing, not based on age or geography.

I don't think its an Italian thing. In fact from my experience, Italian Americans sound exactly like other folks in the region that they settled in. 

If you want to talk about overdone accents, just watch any episode of the sopranos.
I grew up on Long Island, lived in Brooklyn and Queens and knew people from New Jersey and never met anyone who sounded like the characters on that show.  Now that I live in Rhode Island, to me it sounds more like a Rhode Island accent everyone sounds like that (and you don't have to be Italian)

Perfect example, everyone thinks Joe Pesci has the typical Brooklyn accent, although if you watch his earlier movies he sounds nothing like he did after he became famous.

wj,

When I was at the U of Buffalo the girls from Queens and Brooklyn salted their speech with plenty of "youse".  One in particular that comes to mind would be 50 now, and was Jewish, not Italian. 

It's hard to believe that all of the 50-79 years old people have dropped their youses.

MiamiDon


wj,

When I was at the U of Buffalo the girls from Queens and Brooklyn salted their speech with plenty of "youse".  One in particular that comes to mind would be 50 now, and was Jewish, not Italian. 

It's hard to believe that all of the 50-79 years old people have dropped their youses.

Don,
 
they "hammed it up" for all of the "upstate yahoos"
 
 
I grew up there and lived all of my life there and never heard someone use "youse" except from an "old person". Think "Jerry Seinfeld" or "Ray Romano"  for the typical contemporary local dialect.
BTW, while they were at it, did they say "toity toid and toid" while they were at it- that's going back several generations..
 
I know of many locals who will put on their "Joe Pesci Best" to "impress" out of staters.

Sorry, WJ.  I coudn't disagree more.  My experience with the northern accent up in northern ND this past year in daily life is a bust.  Rarely exists.

WarToad


Sorry, WJ.  I coudn't disagree more.  My experience with the northern accent up in northern ND this past year in daily life is a bust.  Rarely exists.

That's because you're probably used to it.
 
About two years ago I was at my local bank here in Rhode Island. A middle age gentleman in his 50's was in front of me  and was talking to the teller with a very distinctive Minnesota accent. I was listening to him and said to myself, this guy is either from Wisconsin, Minnesota or North Dakota  (although I understand those in the UP of Michigan also have similar accents but I've never been there and can't comment either way). I asked if he was from Minnesota, and he was actually surprised I guessed right, he was actually from Southern Minnesota.
 
When I lived in Seattle back in the early -mid 1990's, we had alot of transplants from North Dakota that I worked with and they were young too (20's and 30's)  their accents were very distinctive.

My girl cousin's boyfriend is 49, he's a several generation Brooklynite of Irish and English descent, he says youse all the time, he calls convience stores candy stores, streteches out words like koughfeeeeeee(coffee), says wassamatta and watta for what's the matter and water, he's a NYU grad and works in corporate offices,  his father says terlet(toilet) and sounds a lot like Archie Bunker or a Mel Blanc character 

wanderingjew

I grew up on Long Island but have lived in Seattle, Pittsburgh and now Rhode Island, however I deliberately kept my Long Island accent over the years..

Problem solved! WJ, if you have kept your long island accent then your ear may not be fine tuned enough to tell the difference between Indianapolis, Kansas City and Seattle. If you kept your Long Island accent do you realize how different you may sound to the rest of America?

I get criticised by native Minnesotans for not saying "wash" or even "warsh" but "worsh", but dammit I am right because I did attend "George Worshington High School" that is how we all said it in Indianapolis.

But seriously, we all come from a different set point of how we perceive others in speech, culture, and food. One thing you should learn not to do is lecture someone in their own backyard. They are not wrong. You just perceive differently, but it is in your own mind from from a different set point. Your fixations sometimes, especially with Minnesota, are pure weird man. Remember, it was the Coen brothers, natives of the Twin Cities, that created the accents in the movie Fargo to be deliberately over the top to suck you into the comedy of it. No doubt, from Garrison Kiellor's Lake Woebegon to Howard Mohr, "How to Speak Minnesotan" to the numerous Minnesota tongue in cheek written books on Hotdish, to Andrew Zimmern introducing lutefisk into two Travel Channel shows, to the Ole and Lena jokes we all enjoy the fun and lore. But I think you have fallen for a snipe hunt and the Stern's roadfood books have set you up well.

Davydd

wanderingjew

I grew up on Long Island but have lived in Seattle, Pittsburgh and now Rhode Island, however I deliberately kept my Long Island accent over the years..

Problem solved! WJ, if you have kept your long island accent then your ear may not be fine tuned enough to tell the difference between Indianapolis, Kansas City and Seattle. If you kept your Long Island accent do you realize how different you may sound to the rest of America?

I get criticised by native Minnesotans for not saying "wash" or even "warsh" but "worsh", but dammit I am right because I did attend "George Worshington High School" that is how we all said it in Indianapolis.

But seriously, we all come from a different set point of how we perceive others in speech, culture, and food. One thing you should learn not to do is lecture someone in their own backyard. They are not wrong. You just perceive differently, but it is in your own mind from from a different set point. Your fixations sometimes, especially with Minnesota, are pure weird man. Remember, it was the Coen brothers, natives of the Twin Cities, that created the accents in the movie Fargo to be deliberately over the top to suck you into the comedy of it. No doubt, from Garrison Kiellor's Lake Woebegon to Howard Mohr, "How to Speak Minnesotan" to the numerous Minnesota tongue in cheek written books on Hotdish, to Andrew Zimmern introducing lutefisk into two Travel Channel shows, to the Ole and Lena jokes we all enjoy the fun and lore. But I think you have fallen for a snipe hunt and the Stern's roadfood books have set you up well.

Unlike others, I've traveled around the country and know different accents by
listening to them
Unlike others I do have a knack for picking out accents
Unlike others I've guessed what region people are from by listening to them, so yes I'm giving myself lots of credit here.
Unlike others, I know I have an accent but can still pick out others
Davydd, the cops in the Minnesota segment on the tv show were not putting it on
the accents were very real.
 
My friend from Wisconsin used to think that she didn't have an accent, and when she moved to Seattle she thought she sounded like everyone else (which she didn't) it wasn't until she moved to Atlanta that she actually realized how strong her family's accent up in Wisconsin was.
 
 
 
 
 

Sigh! There you go again...lecturing. You are not the only one that has traveled around the country. Here goes my pissing comparison. I had a job that took me to most every state on a regular basis to meet with construction workers, city officials and educated design professionals, btw, Seattle, Kansas City and Indianapolis included many times. In just the past three years I have put on over 34,000 miles in 30 states traveling the blue highways and hitting small town cafes and diners on a regular basis. I will RV rally with several people from all over the United States four separate times this year in Lousiana, Colorado, Nebraska and Ohio. I grew up in Indianapolis, college in Ohio and lived in Rhode Island three years. I have a son-in-law from Iowa, a daughter-in-law from Massachusetts and a wife who lived her grade school years in the bay area of California, high school and college in Ohio with parents from Staten Island, NY, sisters in Connecticut and Michigan, and an aunt and cousins in Queens. I have a sister in Indianapolis and a brother in El Paso, TX. I have a daughter in living in northern Virginia and a son in Wisconsin. My parents lived in south Florida for several years. So, can I too claim a little credibility of traveling around the country and know different accents by listening to them?

Davydd


Sigh! There you go again...lecturing. You are not the only one that has traveled around the country. Here goes my pissing comparison. I had a job that took me to most every state on a regular basis to meet with construction workers, city officials and educated design professionals, btw, Seattle, Kansas City and Indianapolis included many times. In just the past three years I have put on over 34,000 miles in 30 states traveling the blue highways and hitting small town cafes and diners on a regular basis. I will RV rally with several people from all over the United States four separate times this year in Lousiana, Colorado, Nebraska and Ohio. I grew up in Indianapolis, college in Ohio and lived in Rhode Island three years. I have a son-in-law from Iowa, a daughter-in-law from Massachusetts and a wife who lived her grade school years in the bay area of California, high school and college in Ohio with parents from Staten Island, NY, sisters in Connecticut and Michigan, and an aunt and cousins in Queens. I have a sister in Indianapolis and a brother in El Paso, TX. I have a daughter in living in northern Virginia and a son in Wisconsin. My parents lived in south Florida for several years. So, can I too claim a little credibility of traveling around the country and know different accents by listening to them?

I know

All I'm saying is that I'm not making this up...

Here's a map which basically shows that I "sought of" know what I'm talking about




Truth of the matter is the accents west of the rockies are grouped
together- the nuances are very minor. I have a tough time telling apart the midland accents from the western accents.

I've been living in Rhode Island for over 8 years and still have a tough time telling Rhode Island and Boston apart. Same with Philly and Baltimore, or for that matter- Anything South of Trenton NJ into the Northern VA DC Metro area. Same with the inland north accents- if you'e from Buffalo NY I may mistake you as being from Detroit or Chicago.... The South in General I have a tough time with but can usually tell a Charleston SC accent from an Appalachia accent.

Apparently people in North Dakota and eastern Montana don't talk much.
 
It's interesting how the Inland North accent has the spur that follows I-55 through the Midland from Chicago to St. Louis.
 
Brad

wanderingjew

MiamiDon


wj,

When I was at the U of Buffalo the girls from Queens and Brooklyn salted their speech with plenty of "youse".  One in particular that comes to mind would be 50 now, and was Jewish, not Italian. 

It's hard to believe that all of the 50-79 years old people have dropped their youses.

Don,
 
they "hammed it up" for all of the "upstate yahoos"
 
 
I grew up there and lived all of my life there and never heard someone use "youse" except from an "old person". Think "Jerry Seinfeld" or "Ray Romano"  for the typical contemporary local dialect.
BTW, while they were at it, did they say "toity toid and toid" while they were at it- that's going back several generations..
 
I know of many locals who will put on their "Joe Pesci Best" to "impress" out of staters.

LOL!  You may have something there.  There was a lot of that going on - Upstaters vs. kids from "The City" or from "The Island".

I'm throwing in something small.  Early childhood experts and linguists typically argue that your base accent is set by the age of 5, and has way more to do with the accents of your parents (assuming you spent most of those years at home) than that of where you live.

Brad_Olson


Apparently people in North Dakota and eastern Montana don't talk much.
 
It's interesting how the Inland North accent has the spur that follows I-55 through the Midland from Chicago to St. Louis.
 
Brad

Brad,
 
Here's a better map of the North Central dialect.
 
 
 
I think Montana is part of the "Western US dialect map.
 
I didn't know that dialects travel by "interestate"?