I've lived in Wisconsin all of my life, so I don't naturally perceive myself as having an "accent". So, when I go away for a week or so, I listen carefully when I come home. Think Midwestern twang, with a bit (or in some places, more than a bit) of German accent. It's not easy being us - in order to speak you simultaneously emit air through your nose (for the twang) and through the the back of your throat by way of your diaphragm (for the gutteral German thing). Here's an example of what you might hear when you order a brat - "Onion und kraut wit dat eh?" (You would like to have onion and saurkraut on your bratwurst sandwich, isn't that correct?). The "eh" comes, I suppose, as a result of Wisconsin being relatively close to Canada. It seems that the farther north you go, the more often you hear "eh" to signify a period or question mark at the end of a sentence. Notice that in the preceding example, there's no comma, and therefore no pause, between "dat" and "eh". "Dat eh" is nearly run together in everyday speech.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
Last edited by MrKhay; 12-21-2007 at 03:37 PM..
Reason: font change
Didn't notice this as being "different" or so pronounced until I saw Fargo, the movie. My German Mom and Danish Dad always said Yah to everything, and my kids pick on me for it now.
In 1912, Simon Benson, lumberman and civic leader, commissioned 20 drinking fountains with a $10,000 gift. He wanted to offer loggers something cold on the streets to quench their thirst. Benson once said that after the fountains were installed, saloon sales decreased 40%. The first Benson was installed at SW Fifth and Washington.
In 1896 the Portland Water Committee began a tradition of providing free water for public drinking fountains. For decades travel writers called Portland's free flowing fountains symbols of hospitality and abundance. Western droughts and the 1992 water shortage changed the thinking of many people.
Most of the drinking fountains have timers so they flow freely from 5 am to 10 pm daily. The 128 drinking fountains throughout Portland include 76 single-bowl variations of the four-bowl Benson Bubblers.
There are 3 four-bowl fountains in front of Civic Auditorium on SW Third and at SW Front and Ankeny which are similar to the Benson Bubblers but of slightly different design. These are called Nellie Robinson's after the donor who gave $2,000 for these fountains when she died in 1921.
The Portland Water Bureau maintains a two-bowl brass fountain at NE 57th Avenue and Sandy Boulevard and a cement fountain at NW 31st and Thurman.
When I moved away from WI in the 80's to Nashville, TN, and even later to NW FL., I learned quickly not to ask "Where is the Bubbler?" All I got were blank stares........and then maybe a "What's a Bubbler?"
Oh yeah, WATER FOUNTAIN!!! It's so NOT in my vocab now, that it's sounds funny when WI friends come visit me! I actually also pick up that Wisconsin/Cheesehead accent when friends visit as well. They say I have a "suthin" accent now. Oh well!
Well, I best get fixin to git to work ya'll!
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.....just another day in Paradise
I've traveled to a number of other states and usually don't notice a difference in our "accent" compared to others unless I'm down south. I really don't we are that different. I do remember the last time I went to the panhandle of Florida and they looked at us funny for talking too fast.
What's up with the boiled peanuts down there....yuck!
I recently saw a site that detailed the popularity of speech patterns across the US. If I can relocate the link I'll post it here.
Comparing myself to most of the phrases and the locations where they are most popular, I find that even tho I was born in the South, most of my speech patterns are from the North East.
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