How we spent our Canadian vacation

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 04:47 PM 8/12/2002 -0400, you wrote:

Actually, you're right--'a boat' is closer to what I hear in my Minnesota
nieces than 'aboot', although one niece is moving darn close to
'aboot'.  There's a continuum of vowel shifting there that's hard to
pinpoint, but it's definitely not my 1940s /au/.

'Hotdish', (date etc.) bars, and 'uffda' are still common, but I eschew
'ishy'--when my sister says it I cringe.  But I don't get the point of
'borrow' (= lend? I never heard that usage), 'topper', and 'sliding'--?  I
would very much appreciate a copy of your article!


>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.