Thursday, June 18, 2009
Do Minnesotans really talk like that?
Watched a DVD movie recently titled New in Town. It was supposedly taking place in New Ulm, Minnesota (the wife tells me it was filmed in Canada). What I remember most about New Ulm is they have a polka station, KNUJ which is junk spelled backwards. I used to listen it to around Mankato when I would drive up to the Twin Cities to watch the Twins. The plot was interesting although they didn't follow through on some potentially interesting subplots and the editing left a lot to be desired. But the most memorable thing about New in Town is the overuse of the most awful Norwegian brogue since Fargo and anyone who listened to the characters in Fargo still has to be chuckling. After at least 50 "youbetcha's" and "ya sure's", it took an effort to not snicker at their characterization of the speech patterns of the Noregians in New Ulm. I knew they weren't Swedes because they told a couple of Swedish jokes. They use every phrase except "uff da" and "um ya ya" although St. Olaf probably has a copyright on the latter. I give it a 3.5/5 for poor portrayal of Norwegian oratory. Garrison Keiller, who wrote How to Speak Minnesotan must be mortified. Uff da!
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