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Cellar Scribblings
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 05, 2017, 07:32:51 pm ---I always assumed we talked exactly like newscasters (i.e., accentless) until I moved to New Orleans and people pointed out that I have an unusual way of pronouncing O's. Like, Minnesooohhhta instead of Minneseeuuta, which is the way West and East Coast residents would pronounce it, in my experience.
--- End quote ---
Hunh? ??? Who have you been talking to from "back here" who pronounces it like that? I've never heard anyone "back here" pronounce it any other way than with a long "o." We don't draw out the "o," but we definitely pronounce it to rhyme with the "o" in "soda" or "Coke."
In fact, rather than pronouncing the "o" in a funny way, I know more people who would make the "t" sound like a "d," so that it comes out sounding like "Minnesoda." Actually, that "e" more often than not ends up sounding like an "a," so it comes out sounding like "Minnasoda."
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: CellarDweller on February 05, 2017, 08:09:00 pm ---Ok, and the Swedes don't sound like the Swedish Chef.
:laugh:
Oh, wait....they don't? Ok...nevermind!
--- End quote ---
Euuuf-dah.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on February 05, 2017, 11:26:07 pm ---Hunh? ??? Who have you been talking to from "back here" who pronounces it like that? I've never heard anyone "back here" pronounce it any other way than with a long "o." We don't draw out the "o," but we definitely pronounce it to rhyme with the "o" in "soda" or "Coke."
--- End quote ---
I'm not really spelling it right. The pronunciation eludes spelling.
The people I'm thinking of are primarily editors at East Coast publications and some Californians I've known. Some are probably graduates of fancy schools, which might make a difference.
They don't draw out the O. And it doesn't help to say they pronounce it with a long O -- that's just how they pronounce long O's.
But whereas a Minnesotan would pronounce it with a totally round mouth, the Easterners I'm thinking of say it as if they're putting a little bit of an E into the O, maybe pronouncing the O with slightly more pursed lips, almost putting a a little "eeewww" ino it.
--- Quote ---In fact, rather than pronouncing the "o" in a funny way, I know more people who would make the "t" sound like a "d," so that it comes out sounding like "Minnesoda." Actually, that "e" more often than not ends up sounding like an "a," so it comes out sounding like "Minnasoda."
--- End quote ---
That's just when we have a cold! :laugh: Actually, no, I probably soften the T a little bit myself. I wouldn't say it with a really crisp, audible T. So it probably does sound a little like "soda."
serious crayons:
I did a quick search for examples and found this:
--- Quote ---Upper Midwestern English
This is the dialect that was made famous by the film “Fargo.” It is mostly heard in Minnesota, North Dakota and a few areas in Iowa. It is related to the Great Lakes dialect, although with some substantial differences.
Prominent Features:
The vowel sound in goat is often a strong monopthong, becoming IPA go:t (i.e. “gawwwt”).
The prosody (musicality) of the dialect is often influenced by the various Germanic languages that were spoken in the region well into the Twentieth-Century.
Most other features are fairly similar to Great Lakes English, with some difference depending on the specific region.
Accent Samples:
former Gov. Jesse Ventura:
[youtube=425,350]
&feature=related[/youtube]
--- End quote ---
The YouTube clip is 10 minutes long, but you only have to listen to a minute or two to get the idea. Jesse's accent maybe is a little more extreme than most (I don't think I talk like that, for example), but it's not to Fargo proportions.
Maybe the part about "goat" having a strong monophthong gets at it. The Coastal version I'm thinking of maybe has a very faint subtle dipthong.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 06, 2017, 11:17:07 am ---The people I'm thinking of are primarily editors at East Coast publications and some Californians I've known. Some are probably graduates of fancy schools, which might make a difference.
--- End quote ---
Could be.
--- Quote ---But whereas a Minnesotan would pronounce it with a totally round mouth, the Easterners I'm thinking of say it as if they're putting a little bit of an E into the O, maybe pronouncing the O with slightly more pursed lips, almost putting a a little "eeewww" into it.
--- End quote ---
Well, I think perhaps I'm beginning to get at what you're saying, but when I try to pronounce it "with a totally round mouth" it comes out sounding like what I would say has a bit of an "aw" in it, like Inger Stevens in the Sixties sitcom version of The Farmer's Daughter (I've never seen the Loretta Young movie). (According to Wikipedia, Stevens was born in Stockholm.)
But I'm not getting the "eeewww." I've never heard anybody anywhere say "Minnesewta."
Accents can vary so much. I once heard a docent in Colonial Williamsburg pronounce "house" as "hoose." I later heard someone say that pronunciation was the way they say it in Charles City County, Virginia, which is on the James River between Williamsburg and Richmond.
In GWTW, where there is talk of Scarlett going to stay with her Robillard kin in Charleston, MM writes that in Lowland South Carolina they pronounce "house" as "hoose."
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