Do us Minnesotans have an accent? (Jackson, Lake Park: cities, phone, snow)

[Beenaroundabit]

People in MN seem to say "you betcha" more than I hear anywhere else. I actually had a grocery store cleark in Seattle say that to me and I asked her what part of MN she was from. She was from Willmar.

[ozzie679]

Originally Posted by acrylic

No way. I feel the best way we talk is like the people on the Weather Channel. I don't think that's too accenty.

I get a lot of Canadian customers at the place I work, and I hear them and their eh's all the time. It's great, haha.

I completely disagree. When I travel to any part of the country, they bring up the Minnesota accent. I think you are in accent denial

[acrylic]

Originally Posted by ozzie679

I completely disagree. When I travel to any part of the country, they bring up the Minnesota accent. I think you are in accent denial

That very well could be, haha. Oh jeez, all these years I thought I didn't have an accent, and it all comes crashing down!

[roneb]

It even comes through in writing. "Oh jeez" is a very upper midwest thing. Not as bad as "By gosh an' by golly!" but still Minnesotan!

[marmac]

When I was drafted in the Navy, my nickname given was "Swede"

Despite the fact I am not blond nor of Swedish descent.

The other guys said it was my accent.

[Mike1228]

yea, us Minnesotans do have an accent. I've just been noticing it when I talk lately.

[ozzie679]

I think the accent gets thicker (or ticker) as a person gets older.

[BJB817]

I always thought Minnesotans talked just like most of the country, other than the south and northeast, but since arriving in TX, boy was I wrong. Everybody picks me out right away, granted they often mistake me for being from WI. I still don't hear it, but I guess everyone else does. I grew up and spent almost my entire life in southern MN before moving here BTW.

[golfgal]

We don't have an accent, everyone else does

[overrailing]

I remember a family moving into our neighborhood from California when I was a teenager and they used to say we all said words like "bag" wrong. Us Minnesotans saying it with a long a. I said that no, they did because they're in MN now.

I notice a thicker accent in certain places and with the older generations. My mom is from Pierz and my grandparents generation there has a really thick accent. (My grandpa sounds like he's saying "tree" for "three"). I think that's from them not speaking English until they were in school. Most people around there spoke German or Polish at home. Even though in my grandma's case she was the 2nd generation born here!

I think it affects even me. I find myself arranging sentences a little oddly, kind of backwards. I can blame that on my mom growing up in that community of German-speaking people. She does it too. She had someone she works with that was foreign born ask if she had grown up hearing another language. It wasn't even until I took German in college that I realized that's where I got it from, putting all those verbs at the end. It's almost like being dyslexic.