Percentage of theU.S. in 2000, by county, with Scandinavian heritage; note Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and eastern North Dakota.Percentage of the U.S. in 2000, by county, with Finnish heritage; note the upper regions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
The appearance ofmonophthongs in this region is sometimes attributed to the high degree ofScandinavian andGerman immigration to these northern states in the late 19th century. The linguist Erik R. Thomas argues that these monophthongs are the product of language contact and notes that other areas in which they occur are places in which speakers of other languages have influenced such as thePennsylvania "Dutch" region.[5] An alternative account posits that the monophthongal variants represent historical retentions sincediphthongization of the mid vowels seems to have been a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of the English language, appeared within the last few centuries, and has not affected all dialects in theUnited Kingdom. The monophthongs heard in this region may stem from the influence ofScots-Irish or other British dialects that maintain such forms. The fact that the monophthongs also appear inCanadian English may lend support to this account since Scots-Irish speech is known as an important influence in Canada.
People living in theUpper Peninsula of Michigan (whosedemonym and sometimes sub-dialect is known as "Yooper," deriving from theacronym "U.P." for "Upper Peninsula"), many northern areas of theLower Peninsula of Michigan, and in NorthernWisconsin are largely ofFinnish, French Canadian, Cornish,Scandinavian,German or Native American descent. The North-Central dialect is so strongly influenced by those areas' languages and by Canada that speakers from other areas may have difficulty understanding it. Almost half the Finnish immigrants to the U.S. settled in the Upper Peninsula, and some joined Scandinavians who moved on to Minnesota. Another sub-dialect is spoken inSouthcentral Alaska'sMatanuska-Susitna Valley because it was settled in the 1930s (during theGreat Depression) by immigrants from the North-Central dialect region.[6][7]
/u/ and/oʊ/ are "conservative" in this region: they do not undergo thefronting that is common in some other regions of the United States. In addition to being conservative,/oʊ/ may have undergonemonophthongization to[o]. The same is true for/eɪ/, which can be realized as[e], but data suggest that monophthongal variants are more common for/oʊ/ than for/eɪ/, and that they are more common incoat than inago orroad, which may indicatephonological conditioning. Regionally, monophthongal mid vowels are more common in the northern tier of states and occur more frequently in Minnesota and the Dakotas but much rarer inIowa andNebraska.[1] The appearance of monophthongs in the region is sometimes explained due to the high degree ofScandinavians andGerman immigration to these northern states in the late nineteenth century. Erik R. Thomas argues that the monophthongs are the product of language contact and notes that other areas in which they occur are places in which speakers of other languages have had an influence, such as thePennsylvania "Dutch" region.[8] An alternative account posits that the monophthongal variants represent historical retentions.Diphthongization of the mid vowels seems to have been a relatively recent phenomenon, appearing within the last few centuries, and did not affect all dialects in theUnited Kingdom. The monophthongs that are heard in this region may stem from the influence ofScots-Irish or other British dialects that maintain such forms.[citation needed] The fact that the monophthongs also appear inCanadian English may lend support to this account since Scots-Irish speech is known as an important influence in Canada.
Some or partial evidence of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, which normally defines neighboringInland Northern American English, exists in North-Central American English. For example,/æ/ may be generally raised and/ɑ/ generally fronted in comparison to other American English accents.[9]
Some speakers exhibit extreme raising of/æ/ before voiced velars (/ɡ/ and/ŋ/), with an up-glide, and sobag sounds close tobeg or is even raised like the first syllable ofbagel. Other examples are the wordsflag andagriculture.[2]
Raising of/aɪ/ is found in the region and occurs before some voiced consonants. For example, many speakers pronouncefire,tiger, andspider with the raised vowel.[10] Some speakers in this region raise/aʊ/ as well.[11]
The onset of/aʊ/ if it is not subject to raising is often quite far back and results in pronunciations like[ɑʊ].
Thecot–caught merger is common throughout the region,[2] and the vowel can be quite forward:[ä].
The wordsroof androot may be variously pronounced with either/ʊ/ or/u/; that is, with the vowel offoot orboot, respectively. That is highly variable, however, and the words are pronounced both ways in other parts of the country.
Word-initialth-stopping is possible among speakers of working-class backgrounds, especially with pronouns: 'deez' forthese, 'doze' forthose, 'dem' forthem, etc. In addition, traces of apitch accent as inSwedish andNorwegian persist in some areas of heavy Norwegian or Swedish settlement and among people who grew up in those areas, some of whom are not of Scandinavian descent.
In this dialect, theprepositionwith is used without an object as anadverb in phrases likecome with, as inDo you want to come with? for the standardDo you want to come with me? orwith us? In standard English, other prepositions can be used as adverbs, likego down (down as adverb) forgo down the stairs (down as preposition).With is not typically used in that way in Standard English (particularly inBritish andIrish English), and that feature likely came from languages spoken by some immigrants, such as Scandinavian (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian), German, or Dutch andLuxembourgish, all of which have the construction, like Danish and Swedishkom med or Germankomm mit.[15][16]
The adverb "yet" may be used in a phrase such as "I need to clean this room yet" to mean "still," particularly around Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. "Shut the lights" may mean "shut off the lights," particularly in the same places.[12]
A North-Central "dialect island" exists insouthcentral Alaska'sMatanuska-Susitna Valley, since, in the 1930s, it absorbed large numbers of settlers from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.[6] "Yooper" English spoken in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Iron Range English spoken in Minnesota'sMesabi Iron Range are strong sub-varieties of the North-Central dialect, largely influenced byFenno-Scandinavian immigration to those areas around the beginning of the twentieth century. Iron Range English is sometimes called "Rayncher" English (aneye spelling of "Ranger").[23]
English of theUpper Peninsula of Michigan,[24] plus some bordering areas of northeast Wisconsin,[25] colloquially known as U.P. or "Yooper" English,[26] or rarely Yoopanese,[27] is a North-Central sub-variety with some additional influences fromFinnish-speaking immigrants to the region. However, younger speakers may be starting to align closer to nearbyStandard Canadian English, according to a 2014 study ofMarquette County.[24]
The traditional Yooper accent is associated with certain features: the alveolar stops/d/ and/t/ in place of the English dentalfricatives/ð/ and/θ/ (like in "then" and "thigh", so thatthen (/ðɛn/) becomesden (/dɛn/), etc.); the German/Scandinavian affirmativeja[jä] to mean 'yeah' or 'yes' (often Anglicized in spelling toya); thefiller orquestion tageh orhey at the ends of sentences, as in Canadian English; notably raised nuclei in the vowels/aʊ/ and/aɪ/; the wordyouse as a second-personal plural noun, likeyou guys in neighboring dialects; and a marked deletion ofto the (e.g., "I'm going store," "We went mall," and "We'll goGreen Bay"), influenced by Finnish, which does not have any articles corresponding toa,an, orthe.[citation needed]
Sarah Palin[6] — "Listeners who hear theMinnewegian sounds of the characters fromFargo when they listen to Ms. Palin are on to something: theMatanuska-Susitna Valley in Alaska, where she grew up, was settled by farmers from Minnesota"[7]
^abcPurnell, T.; Raimy, E.; Salmons, J. (2009). "Defining Dialect, Perceiving Dialect, and New Dialect Formation: Sarah Palin's Speech".Journal of English Linguistics.37 (4): 331–355 [346, 349].doi:10.1177/0075424209348685.S2CID144147617.
^Thomas, Erik R. (2001).An Acoustic Analysis of Vowel Variation in New World English. Publication of the American Dialect Society 85. Durham: Duke University Press.ISBN0-8223-6494-8
^Vance, Timothy J. (1987). ""Canadian Raising" in Some Dialects of the Northern United States".American Speech.62 (3). Durham, NC: Duke University Press:195–210.doi:10.2307/454805.JSTOR454805.
^Kurath, Hans; Raven I. McDavid (1961).The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.ISBN0-8173-0129-1.
^Hunter, Marsha; Johnson, Brian K. (2009)."Articulators and Articulation".The Articulate Advocate: New Techniques of Persuasion for Trial Attorneys. Crown King Books. p. 92.ISBN9780979689505.Regional Accents ... A distinguishing characteristic of the Upper Midwestern accent is the tendency to turn the 'ing' sound into 'een,' with a cheerful 'Good morneen!'
