Why Sarah Palin sounds Minnesotan

From a Salon.com article:

"Others have wondered whether her accent hails from Idaho, where her parents are from. But dialect features tend to come from one's peers, not one's parents, and Palin spent her childhood in Alaska's Mat-Su Valley, which is where she got her distinctive manner of speaking. The next town over from Wasilla, Palmer, has a large settlement of Minnesotans—who were moved there by a government relief program in the 1930s—and features of the Minnesotan dialect are thus prominent in the Mat-Su Valley area. Hence the Fargo-like elements in Palin's speech, in particular the sound of her "O" vowel."

Further findings

Coincidentally, mnspeak.com profiled a story done by the Star Tribune about how hard it is for Minnesotans to brag about and brand themselves.

Links: Why don't we ever brag about Minnesota? and the original Star Tribune article.

I say coincidentally because it mentioned that it's difficult for non-natives to break into social circles in MN and I just wrote a blog post about my experience with such phenomena.

Otherwise, it's been above zero degrees and lightly snowing all day, so all is well and it's gorgeous outside.