How we spent our Canadian vacation

[Fritz Juengling]

In a message dated 8/12/02 10:07:38 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
flanigan at OHIOU.EDU writes:


> We have "Canadian" raising all through Minnesota, with the /au/ as in
> "about"--> 'aboot' stronger the farther north you go but the /ay/ as in
> "right/night" rhyming with "kite" common throughout the state (and in me).

My impression is that most rural Minnesotans do not have Canadian raising in
'about'.  To my ear the MN version sounded more like 'a boat' than  'aboot'
(which is a stereotypical, but not accurate, spelling of the Canadian
pronunciation.).  Of course, close to the border,  many Minnesotans probably
do have the genuine 'Canadian' pronunciation.
A few years ago I wrote a popular article on Minnesota speech (that's popular
in the sense of non-scholarly--not that it gained widespread popularity).  It
appeared in:
Book of Virtues: The College of Fine Arts and Humanities.  Compendium
1997-98.  St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud MN.  Edited by Sharon
Cogdill.  pp.132-135.

I discuss some grammar and pronunciation, as well as many vocab items,
including hotdish, bars, Uff da, ish(y), borrow, topper, beach, brat, rubber
binder, and sliding.

If anyone is interested, I might be able to find a copy on disk and send it
to them electronically.

Fritz Juengling
A Webfoot who swatted mosquitoes for 8 years.