Anyone here speak Minnesotan? Review some dialogue for me.

[joy_of_cooking]

I haveaa character who is now a cosmopolitan woman but grew up in small-town Minnesota (think, single-digit thousands of people, half of them Svensson, all of them Lutheran). Her English is mostly the standard coastal American television dialect, but she sometimes speaks in a more distinctively Minnesotan way.

Here's one where she's making fun of herself. It's okay if this sounds exaggerated. It probably is.

"Duluth was an adjustment, of course. I think I spent all of freshman year like this." She widened her eyes and let her mouth go slack. In English, with her vowels oddly tight, she said, "Ooh, well, that sure is different!"

Here's another one. She's just called him at three in the morning in a panic. She really wants him to look at her son's toe, but she doesn't want to be pushy about it. I wanted this to sound more natural, but I think it just came out not very Minnesotan at all. The idea is she's unconsciously reverting to her childhood dialect under stress.

"Oh, thank goodness!" she exclaimed. I had never heard her so upset. It made her next words all the more comical. "Sean, I'm so sorry to wake you up, but could I possibly ask you to take a quick look at John's foot? I sent you a picture. Two of his toes are swelling up. I have no idea why. They weren't like this when I put him to bed. He says it hurts. The pain woke him up. I didn't know what to do. The ER is always so---"

 

[intim8]

You probably already know this, but have you watched Fargo?

Also, not sure if it carries into Minnesota - I think it does - but make use of "welp" and "ope". The latter often followed by "kscuseme"