[Coco] talk funny

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

At 04:14 PM 12/23/03 -0600, Steve Ostrom wrote:
>I'm from the upper mid-west so I might be a bit biased, but I seem to 
>remember that many national newscasters in the US need special training 
>to talk "mid-western", which seems to be some sort of standard for 
>broadcasting.  Does this mean that we in Minnesota are sort of a melting 
>pot of accents?

Ooooo, 'fraid not. It's called "Standard American", and it is always
changing. The center point of the accent used to be Omaha, but it has had
even those edges worn off. I've been using Standard American for years on
the radio, and revert to Vermont-filtered-through-New-Jersey in ordinary
conversation.

>How would you non-Minnesotans describe our accent?

Hard. Particularly the s and z sounds. Like most northern US accents, it's
high in the mouth, but the broad swath from Wisconsin to Montana is also
covered. I can generally ID most US accents, but the one that always
flummoxes me is St. Louis.

Dennis