Minnesota

[vinx]

Bemidji MN

[Furniture]

Maybe someone can explain why people from Minnesota talk like they're retarded

[Izzni]

Perhaps you can explain to me why non Minnesotans actually think we talk like those retards in the movie Fargo.

[godlovesninjas]

Originally Posted by Izzni [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Perhaps you can explain to me why non Minnesotans actually think we talk like those retards in the movie Fargo.

All we have is movies, it's not like there's a legitimate reason for any of us to actually go to Minnesota ever.

[Treefall]

Originally Posted by Furniture [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Maybe someone can explain why people from Minnesota talk like they're retarded

Scandinavian and Germanic influence in speech, but it's not nearly as noticeable as it used to be. In fact, I would argue that the vast majority of Minnesotans speak General American (e.g. movies and news English).

Northern Minnesotans definitely sound a lot like Canadians (from NW Ontario, who have the same Germanic influences in speech).

Some influences on dialect: Scandinavian "hej" which means "hello," is "hey." "Ja" in Scandinavian is "ya" and may be used instead of "yes." These same influences may change words like "bag." Where it may typically be read with the "a" sounding like "apple," Minnesotans would read it like the "e" in "beg." (I should note for the somewhat naive that "Scandinavian" isn't a language, I'm just grouping languages together. It's just the Nordic languages which share a common ancestor like Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Finns actually speak a language that's Slavic. Which is why Scandinavians can pretty much read each other's language (even German and Dutch) with little trouble, but not so much with Finnish.)

There's a lot more to it, but dialects are just typical of the immigrants in the area that formulated the general language.