<p>Neat story about the taxidriver, Percussiondad.</p>
<p>I have to disagree about foyer though. It may be borrowed from the French, but in English, the usual pronunciation is foy-er. Like a lot of borrowed words, the pronunciation changes.</p>
<p>^ “Native” vs English pronunciations are how you can tell whether someone is a Michigander or even a Detroiter. </p>
<p>My favorite test words are Mackinac (which 99% of people in Michigan can say correctly) and Gatriot (Detroit people can say this).</p>
<p>Fwiw, Mackinac is NEVER EVER EVER mack-i-nack. No. No no no no. Mack-i-naw is the correct pronunciation.</p>
<p>But, foyer is foi-yer :)</p>
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<p>That sounds like a a heavy Utah accent. The classic Utah phrase of an exaggerated Utah accent is "We have harses and we feed’em carn.</p>
<p>One thing I’ve noticed in my business travels to Minnesota is the custom of Minnesotans to draw out some words with extra syllables. For example, here in California the word “unknown” is a two-syllable word. With a heavy Minnesota accent it becomes a three-syllable word: “unknowen.”</p>
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I say Ant. ;)</p>
<p>^ black, red, or carpenter?</p>
<p>Pronounce: Houston Street.</p>
<p>Lived in St. Louis for awhile and that “farty-far and farty” (Hwys 44 and 40) pronunciation isn’t common in other parts of the central midwest (they don’t say that in Indy or KC). I always thought it came from the Irish immigrants. (Central midwest is very heavily German, but St. Louis had a lot of Irish, too.) I thought some of the “different” vowels in MN, WI came from the Swedish and Danish immigrants.
I don’t associate the Great Lakes accent with the Appalachian accent. Short vowels in one, long vowels in the other. Completely different accents. (They don’t have many Appalachians in Milwaukee, but the vowels are similar to those in Michigan.)</p>
<p>And nothing is ever all gone or empty it is just “all.” “Mom do we have anymore shampoo? No, it’s all.”</p>
<p>This reminds me of my Chicago family. Instead of saying, “Are you going with me?” They say, “Are you going with.”</p>
<p>I like to tease my Midwest hubby about how he says “college” and “doll”…cawledge…and dawl.</p>
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<p>Ant. Like “can’t”.</p>
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<p>Funny. Fun fact of the day from one of my profs: Minneapolis, MN residents speak the fastest of anyone in the country.</p>
<p>I’ve spoken with this prof one on one. I believe it lol.</p>
<p>It is Soda in SE VA. Accents here are a mess because we have so many people from all over the US and world in the area (military). Today there was a Saudi Arabian sailor in front of me at the pharmacy.</p>
<p>It’s Ant for me, but my African-American students and friends, from the same part of the country, say Aughnt.</p>
<p>As far as Houston Street, if it’s the one in NYC, it’s Howston, unlike the city, pronounced Hughston, in Texas.</p>
<p>So the Wheat Thins commercial with Brian and Stewie is back in rotation. Is that H heavy pronunciation common anywhere? My husband says it’s an affectation not an accent.</p>
<p>On another note, I am guilty of accusing people of mispronouncing their own names. Like Brett Favre. How is that Farve? Not that I would ever do that to someone in person. And I do realize that you get to pick how your own name is pronounced. Don’t even get me started on Eastern European names!</p>
<p>Another vote for Ant.</p>
<p>Atomom: Northern Minnesota accents cone from Scandinavian and German immigrants. This is especially true of Northeastern Minnesota as most of the immigrants who came to work in the mines where from those areas. As for us speaking really fast, I would have to say that’s true. I was in the south once a few years ago and got really bored listening to someone talk. </p>
<p>Do you guys know what a sauna is? Would you pronounce it saw-na or sou-na with the ou sounding like ouch?</p>
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<p>Well, this isn’t entirely correct. As a percentage of the population, there are fewer Germans in northeastern Minnesota than on other parts of the state. And according to the historian John Sirjamaki, "In the first wave of people to the [Mesabi iron] range in the 1890s were Americans; English from Cornwall; English, Scotch, Irish, and French from Canada; Scandinavians; and Finns, as well as some Slovenes, Italians, Bohemians, Poles, and Lithuanians. After 1900 Slavs and Latins began to arrive in considerable numbers. They included Solvenes, Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins, Italians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Poles, Russians, and others. At the height of the influx of population to the range about 1910, there were at least thirty five minority groups of sufficient size to be identified . . . "</p>
<p>Minnesota’s Iron Range is to this day a diverse ethnic stew, one of the most ethnically diverse rural areas of the country (almost entirely European-American, however). Oh, and there was a substantial Jewish population, too, including the forebears of the region’s most famous native son, Robert Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan. Probably its second-most-famous native son is the former Boston Celtics great Kevin McHale, who of course is of Irish ancestry.</p>
<p>I would know… I live on the iron range… And mostly Scandinavian and German immigrant offspring</p>
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<p>Pretty much everyone knows what a sauna is. And the word “sauna” is one of a very few words that come into the English language from Finnish. And I know how to pronounce it correctly because my college roommate was a Finn (from Finland, not Minnesota). And thanks to him I know most of the Finnish swear words too.</p>
<p>Another Minnesotan here. It wasn’t until I went East to college that I figured out “rubber binder” was exclusively Minnesotan for “rubber band.” That and “Ya” for “Yeah.”</p>
<p>I don’t know about Katie Couric droppin’ her “g’s” but it drives me crazy when Obama does it. Is that Hawaiian, or did he pick that up in Chicago?</p>
<p>People don’t get that its a Finnish word so they pronounce it wrong. It drives me crazy when they don’t get it after I’ve explained it</p>
<p>I think the dropping of the g’s is a Midwestern thing, and Obama was raised by people from Kansas, so it makes sense to me. I don’t here the G drop as much in Chicago, but other Great Lakes places I do (as I have discovered I have most of those bad habits or accent, whichever you prefer). </p>
<p>Speaking of commercials with accents, I will turn of the satellite commercial about the “hopper” but replay the Wheat Thins commercial. Hilarious to me.</p>