The "you betchas" and "dontcha knows"

[CatWoman]

Is that a northern thing?

My first introduction to those phrases were from Margie in "Fargo".

Or is it a cold climate thing?

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I say "you bet" sometimes,

but I don't ever say "you betcha" or "doncha know". Sarah just does it to sound "folksy," gosh darn it.

[CatWoman]

2. lol

*winks eye*

[DCKit]

7. Carpetbagger. n/t

[lunatica]

3. Darn tootin, ya betcha there alsow

Here in Kalifoonia we talk like dis and tings like dat. We say a'll be beck and asta la vista too

[tridim]

6. Is there a phone down here ya think?

[Wapsie B]

4. Yeah, it's a Scandanavian thing.

Others can explain it better than I can but in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin you'll swear they were all extras in Fargo.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. I've heard speculation

that the reason some folks out in the Mat-Su Valley talk that way is because their parents/grandparents were homesteaders from the Upper Midwest who settled out there in the '40s. While I have heard others from the Mat-Su speak with the accent, I don't think Sarah really qualifies since her family moved to Alaska from Idaho in the '60s. Maybe she picked it up from school mates -- but it is interesting that the accent was so much more pronounced during the campaign than we had ever heard it before. I'm inclined to think it was an affectation.

[Wapsie B]

13. Oh yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that she exaggerated it to come across as more common.

She doesn't have any substance to what she says so it stands to reason campaign handlers would want people focusing on her appearance and mannerisms rather than what she said.

[Jamastiene]

5. They all went to the Ned Flanders School of Folksy Talking. n/t

[CatWoman]

11. Well, Diddly, diddly do!!

:rofl:

[merh]

8. Bless her heart.

:evilgrin:

[uppityperson]

9. ND/MN/WI areas have Norski immigrants and descendents that talk a bit like that.

Ever listen to Prairie Home Companion? Garrison Keillor, like the (misnamed) movie "Fargo" emphasize the slow talking, and "you bets" but no, we don't talk like that there. Unless we are trying to be a doofus or affecting an extreme accent.

I consider it more of just not wanting to take time or effort to talk properly, or else she thinks ignorance and winkies are cutesy.

[KG]

12. jeez, with all the important shit going on, this is something you're losing sleep over?

sheesh! :eyes:

[CatWoman]

14. I am losing sleep

but it is not due to this issue.

[KG]

21. did i need my sarcasm smilie?

:P

[CatWoman]

23. rofl

nope.

I knew you were kidding :)

:hi:

I need to be careful posting while :smoke: and :beer:

:)

[undeterred]

15. I hate that.

People in Wisconsin say it, especially the northern ones. But they're nice people. :shrug:

[Zomby Woof]

16. I wonder what they put...

On their baked potatoes...

[CatWoman]

17. hey Z!!!

:hi:

that's a good looking tater there :P

[Zomby Woof]

22. Only the best for my lil' sis!

:loveya:

[CatWoman]

24. I was telling a friend about you the other day

I was kinda wasted, and she started yelling at me to "put that shit down".

Remember when you said that to me? :rofl:

[Zomby Woof]

26. ROFLMAO!

Yes, I do! LOL

:rofl:

Don't think I've mellowed ONE BIT, either! :P

[aikoaiko]

18. One time when I visiting temporarily related family in Minnesota....

... my ex-wife's mother came in from starting the car to warm it up and said, " Oh gad, i hate tha snoooow."

And I burst out laughing and said they sounded just like the movie Fargo. They all gave me evil looks and then the father said, "ya betchya we do".

[RB TexLa]

19. Doesn't matter where it's from it's not proper or appropriate.

[TZ]

20. I visited Minnesota last spring

and people do talk like that..to my ear it does sound like "Fargo" although in some places stronger than others.
The first time I heard Sarah Palin speak I was like :wtf: she sounds like she's from Minnesota!

[Skittles]

25. no, it's a stupid fucking repuke whore thing

[KamaAina]

27. Oh come now.

It's not like Sarah ever charged for it or anything. :P

[Skittles]

30. naw, she just had her sugar daddies buy her some clothes

:7

[MineralMan]

28. Yah, sure. We Minnesnowtans all talk like that.

Even the transplanted ones like me, you betcha.

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

29. Al Franken

I saw a video clip where Al Franken was introducing himself to voters at the beginning of his campaign. One lady said "Are you really from Minnesota? You don't have a Minnesota accent?" Or something to that effect.

Maybe the vote wouldn't have been so close if he had added a few "you betchas and dontcha knows" to his sentences.

[ogneopasno]

31. Ooh yah, we talk like that up here then, hey.

Ah-hah, yah, OK den.

[TahitiNut]

32. As a grandson of Norwegian immigrants who grew up with "Sons of Norway" weekends ...

... and smörgåsbords and gatherings of my grandparents and grandaunt and granduncle and their friends, all born in Norway, that style of speech is VERY familiar to me, even though the parodies are a bit off-key. Marge Gunderson (in 'Fargo') was VERY accurate ... and her husband's phlegmatic attitude even more so. (The male cultural 'style' is best described as "phlegmatic" ... the meaning of which was easily grasped by me at a very young age even though apparently mysterious to my grade school peers.) Garrison Keillor's soliloquies on "Prairie Home Companion" resurrect memories for me that're quite true and real. Sarah Palin (uffda!) adopts that 'style' based on some second-hand cultural context and NOT based on any direct 'roots' in the Scandinavian-American community.

My grandaunt was, as a teenager, a cook in the kitchens of the King of Norway. All her life, she was the pinnacle of hospitality and good eatin'. I'd spend weeks in the summertime staying in the country with them. My uncle got up at 5am to get ready to drive an hour into the city to a job site ... where he was a skilled carpenter and cabinetmaker. My aunt, therefore, would get up at 4:30am to begin preparing hsi breakfast. Every weekday morning. I'd get up at about 5:30am to see my uncle off and, with my cousin Dan, man the "second shift" at my grandaunt's kitchen table ... eating oatmeal, LOTS of Swedish pancakes, eggs, sausage, toast, and enough calories to fuel an adolescent for a day of work and play. Yum!! She'd put on a smörgåsbord one Sunday each month for a gathering at her house of friends and family ... food fit for a King. From Swedish meatballs to ruhlepulsa ... from flatbrot to fiskerboller ... everything you've probably never eaten unless you're Scandinavian. (No... lutefisk was a Christmas season dish. The 'kids' - my parent's gneration - and grandkids didn't eat it.)

"Ja. Ubetcha."