Posted on 10/01/2008 11:38:12 AM PDT by T-Bird45
Since Sarah Palin was selected as the Republican candidate for vice president, many people have made comments about her unusual speech, comparing it to accents heard in the movie Fargo, in the states of Wisconsin and Idaho, and in Canada. Some have even attributed her manner of speaking to her supposed stupidity. But Palin actually has an Alaskan accent, one from the Matnuska and Susitna Valley region, where Palin's hometown, Wasilla, is located.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Thanks, saw that article earlier on FR, first part is a bit snarky (IMO) but improves further into the article.
You'all got an accent ~ heavy one too ~ and not Scanderhoovian at all ~ more specific, like Finnish, Latvian, Estonian, Coastal Polish or Far Western Russian, AND, thanks to a 1930s program for shipping poor people from South Central Indiana to Alaska to grow giant cabbages and pigs, Southern Indiana "German".
If they'd waited a few years those guys'd all been speaking English and there wouldn't be a problem.
We got a call from a young lady in Anchorage recently and she sounded exactly like Sarah. Of course it was something about the Tesoro Oil Iron Dog Racing Team ~ 'at's where Todd does his thing.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/palin.htm
The Fargo twang is common (in several flavors) in the upper Midwest. Its lilt comes from a strong Scandinavian influence. I can hear some Midwest influence in her accent, but it's not a pure Midwestern accent.
Can you tell me the difference between Lace Curtain and Shanty ?
Once met a very cute girl and from her accent I asked her if she was from Brooklyn, The Bronx or somewhere. She said she was from New Orleans. As if she wasn’t cute enough, that voice made my heart skip a few beats!
I just returned from a trip to Alaska. One of the meetings I attended was led by a couple of native-born Alaska women. They sounded just like Sarah Palin. One of them joked that she was often mistaken for Sarah. She had long hair like her and when she piled it up on her head, there was a real resemblance. Whether that is a common accent or not I don’t know.
You remind me of my mom. She lives in Alabama and believes she doesn’t have an accent.
Interesting. I can detect accents, but I was born, raised and reside in AZ. I don’t think that I have an accent, but who knows?
Yahoooo, brother, she's on fire wherever she is!!
Her power is just winding up!
I'm attending seminary in the Southeast. Before starting here, when visiting various seminaries deciding where to go, I heard a lecture by a professor with a very distinct, almost hick-like southern accent--that had my mid-Atlantic (northern) prejudices alarmed.
Then the content of what the man was saying got through--and I soon believed he was one of the very best educated, most widely read, and wisest professors I've had the privilege to sit under.
Needless to say, I attended his seminary--and my positive opinion of the good Dr. has been affirmed time and again.
I'm totally convinced, provided good grammar and vocabulary are there, accents don't mean a thing.
I'd say the typical Anglo Californian accent, btw, would be former governor Pete Wilson.
Reagan never completely lost his downstate Illinois inflections.
Sarah Palin was born in Idaho. So, her parents’ being from there, and that being the talk she most heard in her fomrative years, it would be logical there would be some of that particular accent in her speech. I’m going to assume, also, that many of the settlers in the Wasilla area are from that part of the “Lower 48.”
Walk into a casino in Las Vegas & look for the oldest dealer in the place. Talk to them for about 5 minutes & then ask them to guess where you’re from. They’ll probably say you’re a local.
My DIL speaks exactly like Sarah. She is from Wisconsin.
Considering the fact the Da Yoopers made themselves famous by singing and acting stupid, it's really sad that most of the country can only associate references to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with such nonsense. Similar to the rest of the country associating everyone in Ohio with a football team that can't win the big game :) M GO BLUE!
South Jersey and metro Philly in general speak in the generic mid-Atlantic accent that you hear from New Brunswick, NJ to Baltimore, MD. My Philly-area cousins have a drink of "werter" after having ice cream with "jimmies" on top. They also "ewpen" the "drew-wer" for their socks, just as their cousin Clemenza opens the "draw" to get his socks.
Not too fond of their use of the woodchipper, I take it?
New Orleans saw a huge wave of Italian, Irish, and German immigration in the 19th/early 20th century, so the accent does have a similar influence to the old outer-borough New York accent. The biggest difference is that I’ve never heard anyone from Bensonhurst or Morris Park say “where y’at” like they do in NOLA.
There is only one big game. Anything after that is some type of postseason exhibition game.
Patricians.
Lace curtain Irish move the dishes out of the way when they pee in the sink...
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