The real “Fargo” accent? (Minneapolis, Mankato: house, public schools, camp)

[Suesbal]

Who remembers people who spoke their English with this accent?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW5m...tOD9NzKxr0atGg

[Lodestar]

I do, Suesbal. I grew up in a town where, if people weren't speaking Norwegian, they were speaking English that sounded like this.

When I moved to Tacoma people kept asking me if I was from Norway!

I know "Fargo" upset some people who didn't think it was accurate and I guess you could say it was exaggerated. But if you're old enough you could call it pretty spot on. Not only the accent but also the flat affect. So humorous and typical of Scandinavian descendants of settlers. Then tended to be stoic, understated, matter of fact folks.

Most of us made somewhat of a joke of it. It isn't exactly the most charming of accents.

A while ago I was at the U of MN medical center and I sat next to a woman who had brought her elderly father there for treatment. They were from the angle and they both sounded like they had just gotten off the boat.

It was around Christmas and I asked them if they were going to have lutefisk for the holiday. They looked surprised. "How did you know that?" Heh.

She was delighted to be in Minneapolis. Said, "This is our third time in the Cities."

Every now and then I'll see a Scandinavian face and comment, "There goes a Norsky." Never fails to get a pleased response.

My mom was a country school teacher during the Armistice Blizzard. Eighteen years old. She said she took everyone's lunch away when it became apparent that they were going to be stranded for a while. Then she doled it out, portion by portion.

When they ran out of wood she was afraid to send anyone out for more. Many a person got lost and froze to death just going out to the barn to do chores in those days. People who were prepared tied a rope between the house and the wood pile but this blizzard came out of nowhere.

So they burned the books. When those were gone they started burning the wooden desks. All she could think was how angry the farmers would be at her when they found out they would need to re-supply the school.

After some days a nearby farmer was finally able to get to them. The only thing that could get through was his manure spreader! Not much of a rescue wagon. His wife had heated bricks and wrapped them in plenty of quilts to keep the kids warm.

Then they stayed at the farmer's home for another several days. Mrs. Farmer made endless stacks of pancakes to feed everyone.

I doubt they had any way to let the parents know they were safe. If they had phones at all there it was common for the lines to freeze and go down during a blizzard.

Hard to imagine.

[CARas2020]

[quote=Lodestar;61157814]I do, Suesbal. I grew up in a town where, if people weren't speaking Norwegian, they were speaking English that sounded like this.

When I moved to Tacoma people kept asking me if I was from Norway!

I know "Fargo" upset some people who didn't think it was accurate and I guess you could say it was exaggerated. But if you're old enough you could call it pretty spot on. Not only the accent but also the flat affect. So humorous and typical of Scandinavian descendants of settlers. Then tended to be stoic, understated, matter of fact folks.

Most of us made somewhat of a joke of it. It isn't exactly the most charming of accents.

A while ago I was at the U of MN medical center and I sat next to a woman who had brought her elderly father there for treatment. They were from the angle and they both sounded like they had just gotten off the boat.

It was around Christmas and I asked them if they were going to have lutefisk for the holiday. They looked surprised. "How did you know that?" Heh.

EWW that stuff is nasty.

Have you eaten Lefsa? I think it is made with potatoes

[tlarnla]

Actually, I noticed two different accents in the movie Fargo.

The salesman and his family had a Norwegian-influenced accent, like I've heard from people who grew up in small towns north of St Paul.

The people from Brainerd had a German-influenced accent, like people around Stearns County used to speak.

I remember that when that movie first came out, my cousins were complaining that "Minnesotans don't talk like that!" even though several of our relatives did. But it occurs to me that they were probably talking about how the car salesman talked. People in Stearns County did NOT talk like that. (Although I have heard them talk like that when telling Sven and Ole jokes.) But many of the people from Stearns County did talk like the Brainerd cop, especially the older people and farmers.

[Lodestar]

Around Mankato and New Ulm you'd hear hear the German accent with the older generation.

They'd say, "Today we are going to go by Grandma's house." I'd say, "As long as you are going by why don't you stop in?" LOL

They also use a lot of "too, yet, even, still, though" at the end of a sentence. "That dress looks nice on you, though."

Always left me wondering what that implied!

My Norwegian immigrant great grandmother couldn't say the letter "Y". Instead she would say something that sounded like a "J." And her "J" sounded like a "Y." Of course all her "Ws" sounded like "Vs."

So we little cousins used to joke about Grandma saying, "Tewday ve are going to eat jello yellow."

Today knowing that her daughter, my grandmother, used to come home from school sobbing because the kids would make fun of her for her poor English I realize that might not have seemed so funny to the older generations.

Uff dah.

[Suesbal]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

Around Mankato and New Ulm you'd hear hear the German accent with the older generation.

They'd say, "Today we are going to go by Grandma's house." I'd say, "As long as you are going by why don't you stop in?" LOL

They also use a lot of "too, yet, even, still, though" at the end of a sentence. "That dress looks nice on you, though."

Always left me wondering what that implied!

My Norwegian immigrant great grandmother couldn't say the letter "Y". Instead she would say something that sounded like a "J." And her "J" sounded like a "Y." Of course all her "Ws" sounded like "Vs."

So we little cousins used to joke about Grandma saying, "Tewday ve are going to eat jello yellow."

Today knowing that her daughter, my grandmother, used to come home from school sobbing because the kids would make fun of her for her poor English I realize that might not have seemed so funny to the older generations.

Uff dah.

I wonder how many of the kids who made fun of your grandmother were themselves children or grandchildren of immigrants.

[Leo58]

A lot of people still do talk with that accent, or with the German-influenced accent others noted. And not just old folks. My niece has quite a Minnesota accent even though her parents do not - go figure.

What I always found funny was the people that sound, like CarAs 2020 said, like they had just gotten off the boat, are usually at least 3rd generation American. But other people get angry if they hear someone speaking Spanish.

[2x3x29x41]

Originally Posted by Leo58

A lot of people still do talk with that accent, or with the German-influenced accent others noted. And not just old folks. My niece has quite a Minnesota accent even though her parents do not - go figure.

What I always found funny was the people that sound, like CarAs 2020 said, like they had just gotten off the boat, are usually at least 3rd generation American. But other people get angry if they hear someone speaking Spanish.

Some people are terrified of language other than English. These same folks also tend to be ignorant of immigrant languages, thinking that in the past their good (read: white) ancestors immediately learned English.

I've heard German spoken in the street by Amish in Decorah. This is normal. My German ancestors probably came over more recently, yet no one in my family in my lifetime has been fluent in German. Does hearing German (or Spanish) trigger me? Of course not. I'm no self-absorbed snowflake.

During World War II, the POW camp near New Ulm had captured Wehrmacht soldiers working in local farms, and they could often converse in German with American citizens. Before the anti-German hysteria of World War I (that produced such gems as sauerkraut becoming 'liberty cabbage'), the United States population supported several hundred German-language newspapers. In the latter 19th century, hundreds of thousands of American school children went to public schools that offered instruction solely in German. In small towns in Wisconsin in particular, German persisted as the local language of everyday use among 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants.

Yet the usual suspects need a safe space from a bilingual label on their box of Triscuits...

[Suesbal]

Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41

Some people are terrified of language other than English. These same folks also tend to be ignorant of immigrant languages, thinking that in the past their good (read: white) ancestors immediately learned English.

I've heard German spoken in the street by Amish in Decorah. This is normal. My German ancestors probably came over more recently, yet no one in my family in my lifetime has been fluent in German. Does hearing German (or Spanish) trigger me? Of course not. I'm no self-absorbed snowflake.

During World War II, the POW camp near New Ulm had captured Wehrmacht soldiers working in local farms, and they could often converse in German with American citizens. Before the anti-German hysteria of World War I (that produced such gems as sauerkraut becoming 'liberty cabbage'), the United States population supported several hundred German-language newspapers. In the latter 19th century, hundreds of thousands of American school children went to public schools that offered instruction solely in German. In small towns in Wisconsin in particular, German persisted as the local language of everyday use among 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants.

Yet the usual suspects need a safe space from a bilingual label on their box of Triscuits...

Lawrence Welk allegedly learned English from German nuns when he was growing up in North Dakota.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41

Some people are terrified of language other than English. These same folks also tend to be ignorant of immigrant languages, thinking that in the past their good (read: white) ancestors immediately learned English.

I've heard German spoken in the street by Amish in Decorah. This is normal. My German ancestors probably came over more recently, yet no one in my family in my lifetime has been fluent in German. Does hearing German (or Spanish) trigger me? Of course not. I'm no self-absorbed snowflake.

During World War II, the POW camp near New Ulm had captured Wehrmacht soldiers working in local farms, and they could often converse in German with American citizens. Before the anti-German hysteria of World War I (that produced such gems as sauerkraut becoming 'liberty cabbage'), the United States population supported several hundred German-language newspapers. In the latter 19th century, hundreds of thousands of American school children went to public schools that offered instruction solely in German. In small towns in Wisconsin in particular, German persisted as the local language of everyday use among 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants.

Yet the usual suspects need a safe space from a bilingual label on their box of Triscuits...

Having lived in Northern Minnesota my entire life, over 55 years now, I hear the accent all the time.
Good luck,