EngL 3851 Fall 1998 Minnesota Iron Range Dialect I am a Minnesotan. I have lived here all my life and may continue to do so. Stereotype me: The 10 o'clock news is my window dressing for the 10 o'clock weather (Mohr, 9). You betcha it is. Yah. I wouldn't want you to think that I'm not happy here-it could be worse. Lutefisk. . . umm, my favorite.
Are you close; is this representative of myself and most my fellow Minnesotans? Forgive us, but this is slightly, no this is completely ludicrous. For these and all the numerous other stereotypes alike, whom can we blame? Can the Kohan brothers be blamed for their depiction of Minnesotan's in the movie Fargo? No, it goes much farther back than that. Better yet then, why not blame the Minnesotan of the north-the Iron Rangers. Surely most of them do fit the stereotypes. Most of their speech does indeed portray the above dialect which is a "consistently systematic, regional or social variation of a language" (Shepherd, ix) .
Iron range, Minnesota
Bloody Range Rovers
Iron Range, Minnesota. . where language is the vehicle of our expression, personality and culture. In this paper I intend to examine the dialect of the Minnesota Iron Range. I intend to tell you why I am analyzing this and where the distinct dialect comes from-its' history. As proof of existence I will offer numerous examples from both secondary information and primary observation. What I will attempt to prove is that no amount of education will change the dialect of the range because its development and use is culturally and regionally based, it begins prior to education, and it will continue as long as the speaker is tied to the region.
To begin, I want to express why I chose to focus on the dialect of the Minnesota Iron...