Is the Minnesotan accent as strong as Canadian? (Minneapolis: living, vs)

[Wintertimesasness]

Just wondering. I have never been to MN but I have a few Canadian friends and their accents are very strong. Does Minnesota have the same type of Canadian-like accent?

[rzzzz]

Yes, especially up north or down south.

[Kamsack]

I live up in far northwestern Minnesota....about 70 miles south of the border. I am not a native...but have lived here for 15 years. I know friends from Canada as well and chat with them a lot. I would say there are some similarities in talk....but with words is where you can tell the difference. Canadians use mostly washrooms for bathroom/rest rooms and eh does seem rarely used (at least in my area -- Maybe farther east into the Northwoods and into the UP of Michigan that is different). But use of eh among Canadians is also highly varied, more among the old vs young (at least from the folks I know). Also perhaps the term eh is not used as much in the Prairies as in eastern Canada. I have heard the word toque used for winter hat but not commonly....mostly we use hat vs more universal use of toque in Canada.

Most in our area do round our O's like Canadians....though again maybe not as noticeable. To me when speaking with someone from say Winnipeg the accent is barely noticeable personally.... Atlantic Canada accents (of course esp the the Newfie accent) is way more noticeable.

That is my take...others may have different views.

[Ghengis]

noooooooo

[Sandsam]

I've lived in MN my whole life. IMO, we sound nothing like Canadians. And we shouldn't - Canada is a different country.

[green_mariner]

Canadian accents and Minnesota accents do sound different. It is in the subtleties.

BTW, having friends who are from Minnesota and Canada, I like both accents.

[iNviNciBL3]

Not the younger generations, there is a lot of funny sounding old people though

[rzzzz]

I guess I didn't mean minnesotans sound like Canadians, just that many have strong accents.
However, I grew up about 40miles south of the canadian border , and the MN accent up there was very similar to the one in Winnipeg. I'd say it was almost the same, except the Minnesotans didn't say "aboot" and "eh."

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by Wintertimesasness

Just wondering. I have never been to MN but I have a few Canadian friends and their accents are very strong. Does Minnesota have the same type of Canadian-like accent?

A couple of things here; strength of accent is going to vary. None of my Canadian friends have particularly strong accents, although it comes out sometimes with certain words. Same thing holds true for most of the people I know here in Minnesota; they have accents, but not really strong except for a few sounds or words. But you DO sometimes hear the stereotypical really strong MN accent; sometimes you hear it on radio commercials, and sometimes I do meet someone in person with it. I think it's stronger in smaller towns or maybe it's a small town older person thing. In Minneapolis, anyway, it's pretty diluted, and you get more of a generic Midwestern accent (which I don't think of as strong, but I suppose it depends on what you're comparing it with.). Never heard a Minnesotan say "eh," though.

All that said, I've more than once been mistaken for a Canadian when living elsewhere.

[Minntoaz]

Yeah some of us do. Especially those of us raised up north.