Comments on: Removing the Y-bone from a Northern

By: sjburnt

sjburnt — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:48:22 +0000

Whoa, Jeeez, you guys sure do go on about his accent. I didn’t even hear one there, ok? Maybe you need to sit down for a cup a coffee; well, of course, only if the pot is already made up there.This guy is pretty darn good at this. I learned from an Indian guide while I was up north, but my guy used one of them electric fillet knives for everything.When this guy says, “We’ll do ‘er one more time,” and, “This one ain’t goin’ quite as well” He really made my day!I wish I’d a seen this video a long time ago. It woulda saved me lotsa time in the cleaning shack.Oh, yeah, as I was saying, you guys and gals need to lighten up on his accent over there.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:05:55 +0000

Well, the Burr from Stillwater areas (the farmlands, not the town) I know is very very cool. Also got out of there fast, the whole nine yards.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:58:20 +0000

Not as a family. I think I went to school with one, since the name is ringing bells, but the school was huge, it was long ago, I left the area as soon as possible, and I spent much of my time in school in a couple of nests I built for myself. I expect my upcoming reunion to be rather odd. I don’t know that I’d go if it weren’t an excuse to get an old friend or two back in town to really catch up.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:49:50 +0000

Do you know the Burr family?

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:31:47 +0000

Stillwater. The stuff I was talking about is mostly localized in the geek communities in the school–science and drama. Well, it was. Chances are good it didn’t outlast the teachers and the youngest siblings of the kids who featured in the stories. Teens are pretty good about wanting their myths to relate to them directly.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:08:36 +0000

Stephanie: Actually, I was joking about the generational thing, imagining the distanct ancestors of the present plymouthians living in mat huts during the summer and underground houses in the winter and such. But it was kind of a private joke…Plymouth actually does have euro settlement back in the mid-19th century, but almost everyone who lives there is either a displaced TC resident (often from NE Minneapolis) or a recent immigrant to the region.What high school?

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:56:56 +0000

I’m not sure about the generation-to-generation bit. Plymouth is awfully young as communities go. But I do know that there are several phrases (and probably mannerisms, but I notice language more) common among people who went to my high school that can be traced back to a particular story or very clearly mock a particular teacher. Don’t underestimate peer-to-peer transmission.

By: Faithful Reader

Faithful Reader — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:13:49 +0000

The dialect is called wither Upper Midwestern or North Central American. As a MN native who has also lived in both the LP and UP of MI, I can speak both my native dialect and the Inland Northern American dialect which also covers upstate NY as Greg mentions above and is defined by the northern cities vowel shift.See http://www.pbs.org/speak/ about the PBS program “Do You Speak American?” for more info on this accent.Sorry, I was just teaching a unit on this in my grammar class.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 27 May 2008 08:37:21 +0000

It is true that I can’t tell regions in Minnesota (yet in Boston I can tell Medford from Revere!)When I first moved here, I was lucky to gain a wonderful and close friend (who happens to also be named Stephanie) who taught me a great deal about Minnesota and especially Minneapolis. She had (has, actually) certain mannerisms that of course I found endearing, and thought were her own. Some of them wore, of course.Then many years later I met my wife (well, she was not my wife when I met her, of course) and found that she had some of the same mannerisms. Then I noticed her sister had similar mannerisms. Then I realized that Stephanie and Amanda grew up in the same exact sub-suburb. Aha! Yes, it’s true, Plymouth girls have a certain thing going, probably passed on from generation to generation.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Tue, 27 May 2008 08:27:36 +0000

I think the reason we Minnesotans don’t hear the similarities is that we’ve known both accents for so long that we hear the differences instead. It’s like knowing that the people who live in the mostly German-settled areas of the state don’t sound like those from the Norwegian-settled areas. To an outsider like Greg, they all sound very similar. I can tell you whether someone grew up around Princeton or Fairmont.And I don’t deny my French heritage. I am rather miffed at my French great-…-great grandfathers for caving to the idea that my great-…-great grandmothers’ names couldn’t be recorded in the family bible because they were heathens. I’d like to know who they are, since there are huge swaths of Canada they could have come from.