Minnesota-isms...anyone???

A forum for discussing US dialects (accents).
Perry
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Postby Perry » Sun Apr 09, 2006 12:17 am

Having grown up a "troll" (see the above link), the pronouniation I always noticed from yoopers (and many Canadians) is "oot" for the word "out".
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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sluggo
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Re: Minnesota-isms

Postby sluggo » Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:21 am

Watching "Fargo" was like going home to me. I didn't realize til recently that "go with" was a local term.
I've heard "go with/come with" occasionally for years from far-flung places including California.

But I think the same form is used in German- therefore maybe also in Scandinavian langs? Am I reaching here for a derivation?

Say ya to da UP, eh!
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!

bethy
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Postby bethy » Tue May 09, 2006 11:06 pm

Hi,

When I first moved to N. California 20 years ago, we had a native San Franciscan co-worker constantly correct several of us Minnesotans when we would say "Are you coming with" to "Are you coming with me?"

Do you think it's derived from mitkommen (Ger), as when conjugated to you (formal) it is "Kommen sie mit"? IE. Are you coming with?

BTW, there are as many persons of German descent in MN as all of the Scandinavians combined. Mostly south central, where I hail from.

Bethy

SLS216
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Postby SLS216 » Thu May 18, 2006 3:12 am

I thought it was funny how one of my neighbors pronounced Chicago /shi-KAW-go/. Everybody else seemed to say /shi-KAH-go/.

A similar "shock" was when I first heard the word sausage, which I and everybody else I know pronounce /SAW-sidj/ being pronounced /SAH-sidj/ by a friend of mine. When I told her I thought it was funny, she said, jokingly "Oh, it's because I'm from /shi-KAH-go/.

He He. My dad and I for some reason have typical Chicago Accents and I was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and so was he -- but my mom is from teh South West Side where the accents are usually pretty thick and you couldn't tell that she was from Chicago. We'd go on vacations and if it were just me and my dad walking around people would ask where we were from. We even got asked that in Springfield, IL and they told us that we had thick accents. We both thought it was pretty funny.

Now I'm living in WI.I'm just over the border but i've traveled with my fiance all over the state and of course he's a native wisconsinite and has your typical WI accent so I always sound so 'harsh' for certain words (ie Sausage and Chicago and even the way I saw Wisconsin). But the Sausage and the chicago are probably the two words that are are the easiest to distinguish as a chicago accent.

Davekent
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What is a Yooper???

Postby Davekent » Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:17 am

Being a Yooper myself, I'm qualified to explain what a yooper is. . .

Michigan is divided into two parts. The Upper Peninsula (or UP), and the Lower Peninsula (or LP). If someone is from the UP, they are a UP-er. . .phonetically spelled YOOPER. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, although very picturesque and beautiful country is a very isolated part of the country which is blanketed with white snow at least 6 months of the year.

Yoopers have their own dialect, unique pronunciation, customs, and distinct accent. As someone mentioned, the accent is similar to canadian. . .They tend to hit the vowels hard, and often accent the first syllable.

Also, they often tag questions with "eh?" rather than "no?" Eg: Nice day, 'eh? at the gas station: "fill 'er up, 'eh?"

There are tons of Yooperisms. . .I'm sure alot of the trolls (LP folks are termed "trolls" because they live below the Mackinac bridge) will comment further.

Perry
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Postby Perry » Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:11 pm

So is a native of Mackinac Island Mr. Inbetween? Or perhaps they are fudgies?
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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AP
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Postby AP » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:16 pm

My grandmother is from Minnesota, and she says so many bizarre things. She always referred to rubber bands as rubber binders. Any one else from up there do that?


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