Have you noticed that in "Fargo"...

[TreasonousBastard]

they all talk like Sarah Palin?

[JonLP24]

1. I recall

Tina Fey on David Lettermen, she mentioned she had a relative that spoke 'Minnesota nice', the accent used in Fargo so when she was doing her Sarah Palin impression she was really mimicking the way her relative spoke.

[mtowngman]

2. You betcha. n/t

[Odin2005]

3. I still can't figue out how Palin got our accent. That's just weird.

:crazy:

[Brickbat]

9. Back in the 1930s, a bunch of Minnesotans moved to Alaska as part of a federal relief program, and

the majority of them settled in the next town over from Wasilia, and the rural Minnesota accent went with them. The Strib had an article about it last fall.

[Odin2005]

11. Interesting! Thanks!

[Brickbat]

13. No prob!

[Bucky]

16. Reality: Sarah Palin was born in Idaho, which had many Minnesota transplants

Don't just make shit up. Oh, wait, this is the Lounge. Nevermind.

[Brickbat]

17. Um...I'm not.

Looks like we're both right.

[JonLP24]

18. I've read the family moved to Wasilla

when she was still an infant.

[raccoon]

24. Maybe she's really from MN and yall don't want to claim her? LOL nt

[mcctatas]

4. the unenlightened always say that I sound like Marge Gunderson

but everyone knows the WI accent is totally different, ya know?

[keroro gunsou]

5. ya der hey

i do know. :D

[yurbud]

8. accents are class and subculture based too

I grew up in Oregon and noticed that poor and undereducated whites had a different accent from the middle and upper class, even if they were born in the state. What's really odd is a lot of women there suddenly adopt that accent around 40. Maybe they think it's a turn on for their husbands or something.

[Odin2005]

14. I've read that sound changes are adopted by women earlier than men.

[yurbud]

20. you mean the entire gender or over one person's life span?

[Odin2005]

21. I mean that sound shifts tend to be seen first spoken by teen girls and young women

And spreads from there.

[yurbud]

23. Oh! you sound like a real linguist. I'm just making random observations.

[Brickbat]

10. Wisconsin is VERY different, and different in different areas.

As is Minnesotan, of course. Someone from the Range sounds completely different than someone from Delano.

[Odin2005]

12. I know a 20-something guy from Milwaukee and he has a pretty weird accent.

Lots of consonant dropping, a guttural R like in French or German, etc. He says it's perfectly normal for young working class people from Milwaukee to sound like that. A poster at a language message board I frequent who is from Milwaukee said the same thing and did a very interesting phonological analysis of his accent.

[Brickbat]

15. In another life, I would have liked to have gotten into the study of regional accents.

Not that there's a lot of money in that. But I'm excellent with languages (I speak three besides English, and can get by in a couple others) and a natural mimic, and spent some time studying linguistics and regional usages in college. Fascinating stuff.

[Odin2005]

19. American English dialects are a current interest of mine.

Fascinating stuff!

One thing I have noticed is that here in the Upper Midwest B, D, and G are no longer fundamentally voiced, only the aspiration (slight puff of air following the consonant) distinguishes P, T, and K from B, D, and G, as in Mandarin Chinese.

[peekaloo]

6. She's Jerry Lundegaard in drag.

Darn tootin'!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. Didn't you hear Katie Couric once say...

...."Oh for Pete's sake! She's fleeing the interview! She's fleeing the interview!........How do I get an outside line here?"

[question everything]

22. The other way: Palin sounds like Marge Gunderson (nt)

[Arugula Latte]

25. That's their deal, there.

[TZ]

26. Uff Da!

I went to Minnesota for the first time last year and was really surprised that they DO sound like the people in Fargo, especially in the Rochester area (the first time I heard a group of women go "Oh YAAA! I almost died laughing) :)

[LeftinOH]

27. Off-topic, but, Marge Gunderson's baby would be about 22 years old now;

-film took place in 1987. The (essentially orphaned) Lundegard boy would be at least 30. The Oldsmobile dealership which figured so prominently in the story would be closed -or selling Kias. Marge would be nearing retirement now -if she hasn't already retired.

I can't help thinking about stuff like that.