Do parts of eastern Montana have an upper Midwestern accent? (Billings: live, shop)

[spicymeatball]

Can you hear a "Minnesota" type accent in places like Plentywood, Glasgow and Glendive? Or does this not exist until you cross over into North Dakota? I've heard some towns in eastern Montana, especially the northeast were largely settled by Scandinavians and you can still find lutefisk there.

[MTSilvertip]

You can find Lutefisk and Lefsa all over the state.

Lots of scandinavians settled in Montana, but I wouldn't characterize the accent as midwestern as much as along some of the highline, there are definite Canadian characteristics.

If you look at charts of accents, Montana usually is either classified as west coast or Rocky Mountain.

American Dialects : Dialect map of American English

[SIZE=5]Western Dialects:[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]
Compared with the Eastern United States, the Western regions were settled too recently for very distinctive dialects to have time to develop or to be studied in detail. Many words originally came from Spanish, cowboy jargon, and even some from the languages of the Native Americans: adobe, beer bust, belly up, boneyard, bronco, buckaroo, bunkhouse, cahoots, corral, greenhorn, hightail, hoosegow, lasso, mustang, maverick, roundup, wingding.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=5]Rocky Mountain[/SIZE] [SIZE=3](13)
Originally developed from the North Midland and Northern dialects, but was then influenced by the Mormon settlers in Utah and English coal miners who settled in Wyoming. Some words that came from this dialect are kick off (to die), cache (hiding place), and bushed (tired). They also call jelly doughnuts bismarks.[/SIZE]

[spicymeatball]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

You can find Lutefisk and Lefsa all over the state.

Lots of scandinavians settled in Montana, but I wouldn't characterize the accent as midwestern as much as along some of the highline, there are definite Canadian characteristics.

If you look at charts of accents, Montana usually is either classified as west coast or Rocky Mountain.

American Dialects : Dialect map of American English

[SIZE=5]Western Dialects:[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]
Compared with the Eastern United States, the Western regions were settled too recently for very distinctive dialects to have time to develop or to be studied in detail. Many words originally came from Spanish, cowboy jargon, and even some from the languages of the Native Americans: adobe, beer bust, belly up, boneyard, bronco, buckaroo, bunkhouse, cahoots, corral, greenhorn, hightail, hoosegow, lasso, mustang, maverick, roundup, wingding.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=5]Rocky Mountain[/SIZE] [SIZE=3](13)
Originally developed from the North Midland and Northern dialects, but was then influenced by the Mormon settlers in Utah and English coal miners who settled in Wyoming. Some words that came from this dialect are kick off (to die), cache (hiding place), and bushed (tired). They also call jelly doughnuts bismarks.[/SIZE]

According to that map, Bismarck and Cleveland have the same accent lol.

[MTSilvertip]

Hey, I just gave you the link and what that study says, I didn't do the study myself!

Some people do have accents, no question, but to my mind in the towns you listed, they sound a lot more Canada than Minnesota.

Mostly it has to do with how they say words like "about" or the one that gets me is saying "garaaage" or "gare-adge" instead of "Gr-radge" for the word garage, or the most prevelent, "Shop".

There are a lot of people of German, Welsh, Serb, Croat, British and Irish heritage as well. All have thrown something in the pot, but I don't notice a pronouced accent like the North East or South.

[SageCreek]

I have cousins and a brother in North Central MN.
Spend a quite a bit of time visiting those folks both here and in MN.
They seem to speak a lot like Canadians, MAN ther accents are Waaaay far off from ours in North Central MT.

[attrapereves]

My old boss was from MT. She didn't have a traditional MN accent, but she definitely pronounced things with flat vowels. "bag" pronounced like "beg".

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by spicymeatball

Can you hear a "Minnesota" type accent in places like Plentywood, Glasgow and Glendive? Or does this not exist until you cross over into North Dakota? I've heard some towns in eastern Montana, especially the northeast were largely settled by Scandinavians and you can still find lutefisk there.

There is definitely a Scandinavian influence in that part of Montana and no shortage of lutefisk to be had, but I haven't noticed a Minnesota accent in people from there.

[Russlanddeutscher]

I grew up in that part of Eastern Montana and yes it is more ethnically and culturally connected with North Dakota and Minnesota than the rest of Montana. Most of the immigrants came from Germany, Scandinavia and Ethnic German communities in Russia VIA The Dakotas and Minnesota. So yes the accent is similar or same as North Dakota.

[iDothisoften]

I lived in Billings for a few years (age 12-14) and I remember a few of my friends having accents. It wasn't with everything they said but they would pronounce words such as "bag" like "bay-g"