Seriously. I am a foreigner and though I must have heard the accents of Utah missionaries, I can't recall what they sounded like.

From what I have been able to glean, the worst Utah accents occur in the middle and southern Utah areas, where the "o" sound, such as in Fork, is pronounced "ar" such as in "Fark". And the town of Hurricane, Utah is not pronounced like one would think, but is pronounced "Hurra-ken". Naked to one with this accent would be rendered "neked".

The Utah accent is a flattened speech with poor letter pronunciation and slurring of syllables.

Anon455 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From what I have been able to glean, the worst
> Utah accents occur in the middle and southern Utah
> areas, where the "o" sound, such as in Fork, is
> pronounced "ar" such as in "Fark". And the town
> of Hurricane, Utah is not pronounced like one
> would think, but is pronounced "Hurra-ken". Naked
> to one with this accent would be rendered
> "neked".
>
> The Utah accent is a flattened speech with poor
> letter pronunciation and slurring of syllables.

Hmmm. Did they taken some Southern speech patterns with them, which then grew in isolation from the rest of the West? Intriguing!

creek-crick

mountain=mou-en

confrence=confurnz

corn=carn

potatoes=spuds (lol)

lunch is called dinner (or once was)

Dinner is supper

The days of the week are Sundee, Mundee, toosdee and so on.

... "worsh" but I've heard folks round the country do the same.

Now, let me do a peench cause I'm fixin' ta go to the Raynch!

Tomothy

Utah speech doesn't sound even remotely 'Southern' to people who have spent time in the South. My in-laws think it does, but they can't hear their own accents well enough to understand how it doesn't fit. A Utah accent sticks out like a sore thumb here. My husband has lived here for over ten years, his accent has probably changed significantly (or I've just gotten better at understanding it). Even still, people still regularly ask him where he's from as soon as they hear him speak. You can pick out a Utah transplant right away. The differences are stark.

There are patterns that seem almost Southern, but it's really just a very foreign, unusual accent. At least to me, and I've lived in ten different U.S. states and two other countries.

I've also noticed that Utah people have no sense of humor about it. I grew up in Indiana which has a redneck-sounding accent, and it's even called the Hoosier state. The way people in Indiana talk is a something that people sit around and laugh about. It the same way with the Minnesota accent and Pittsburgh-ese, which I've also lived around. Not a big deal.

Well, I remember sitting in a class at BYU, and the prof came over and asked if he could borrow a "pin." I looked at him blankly, and I couldn't fathom why he thought I would have a pin on my person. So, I said "A pin?" to be sure I heard right. He got angry at me and snatched the pen out of my hand. Oh, "pen." Filed for future reference.

And yet, I've had Utah people get angry at me for the way I say words, such as "debris." I say "day-bree." I had some guy absolutely throw a fit, because I said it like that. "Where did you learn to talk like that!!"

The Utah accent is subtle, but I think it's the way Utah people take themselves so seriously that makes it stand out to me. Also, it sounds a little bit fake sometimes, like people are being disingenuously soft-spoken.

But no, it's not Southern. Besides, people in the South have manners.

My Utah in-laws have patterns of speech that are very peculiar to my ear (I've lived in the South and Midwest). I have always been respectful about it.

A few years ago, my in-laws came out for a week. During the entire trip, I had to "interpret" because they could make neither heads nor tails of local English. I was very surprised. At dinner one evening, my mother-in-law turned to me and said "I'm sorry, but you have an accent".

I was baffled a.) that she thought this was worth pointing out, and b.) that she thought it was something that needed to be preceded with "I'm sorry, but..." I responded with "Everyone has an accent. I'm not from Utah-- not even remotely near Utah. So it shouldn't be surprising that I don't sound like it".

Then my husband got a little hot about the "I'm sorry, but.." part of it. He suggested that Utah doesn't set the standard for American English. My father-in-law then got offended on my mother-in-law's behalf and let's just say dinner didn't end well.

angsty Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/utah/utah
> 1.mp3
> http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/utah/utah
> 2.mp3
> http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/utah/utah
> 3.mp3

Thanks. That was most interesting.

If you're up to some academic reading, this article has some specific information in it on Wasatch Front English.

http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/eddingtond/baker_eddington_nay.pdf


This variety of English is NOT considered a branch of Southern US dialects.

I am sometimes annoyed by people who speak this variety because I associate it with the oppressive religion I am trying to recover from, but I recognize as a linguist that this is an unacceptably prejudicial and subjective attitude that I need to work on. For linguists, there is no such thing (in a native speaker) as "poor pronunciation." Linguistics is a social science, and although all languages are rule governed, those rules don't come from books or standards -- linguists *observe* the behavior of native speakers and write what they see in order to know what those rules are.

As I've stated in other posts, we all use pronunciation and other language behaviors (like vocabulary choice) as tools to establish and solidify individual and group identities. Wasatch English works perfectly for the kind of communication Wasatch Front residents need to have happen.

I used to have the same problem with "Utahnics". But, yeah, it was all about me.

If you need to let a fart you actually let a fort.
If you travel to American Fork it is actually American Fark.
It is not uncommon to hear "Lard, look at that gargeous carn" when passing by a row of corn.

I especially noticed it in Cache Valley.

+1

...that she had worked hard to get rid of her Utah accent, but two words still gave her trouble: carnstorch and horpsichard.

I agree that the accent is more pronounced in the southern parts. Likely because the Provo and Salt Lake areas have a reasonable turnover of people from all over.

An example I have noticed:

fire becomes far

Those samples weren't very extreme. What I've noticed is that in the last ten-twenty years a lot of the dialect has softened, especially in the younger generation. I could guess why that is, but I'll leave that for another discussion. Search "regional dialect meme" on youtube and google you may find what you're looking for. Oddly, I didn't find any strong examples. Maybe the people posting on youtube are among the technology generation who decided not to speak like their parents. There is a list of words/questions that people pronounce like "wash" and "route". My observations of Utah dialect (and there is crossover into Idaho dialect):

-ing is usually pronounced in' "we're goin' fishin' in the creek"
-"creek" then may be pronounced "crick".
-"crick" rhymes with "frick" - a utah non-swear word. Synonymous with "fetch".
-"oh my heck" is also a good utah non-swear phrase
-Some cities have weird pronunciations. Hurrkin (Hurricane), Spanish Fark (fork) as listed above are great examples.
-There is definitely influence from multiple regions. Many will use "supper" for dinner.
-There is an interesting set of vowels.. sometimes you'll hear a slight W in "utaw". There seems to be a remnant of a midwestern "o" as well.
-There also seems to be a cadence and pitch pattern to the speech. Women speak "sweetly", kind of soft and high. I can't quite articulate how that is different from how the men speak, but there is a difference.

There's a really good description here (by username yayla): http://www.city-data.com/forum/st-george/1173229-southern-utah-accent-2.html

It isn't just Utah....I think its a western US, mountain, rural kind if thing. I heard it on the news the other night when they were doing a bit on the Pendleton OR rodeo....the guy sounded like he was from Utah.

I recall hearing stuff like this....

ME: I'm going to K-mart
Utahn: I'm goin' over't the K-marts (they add the "s" and Marts is pronounced more like "morts".

Me: ignorant
Utahn: ignrit

I hear it in the vowel sounds and they way they pronounce "R" its more like "orr" than "arr".

Just watch Sister Wives on TLC. Very heavy Utah accent.

http://sisterdottie.com/2008/07/

Click on the video.

It's a somewhat exaggerated accent, though I've been around some folks from central Utah who did sound like that. What she says is as good as how she says it.

One more - the Plan of salvation (ad at end is for 2010 performance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwGyvoJj50g



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2011 04:59PM by Brother Of Jerry.

"Brother Neilsen" becomes "Brother NeilTsen" with a T in the middle. Maybe it's just like a glottal stop but it sounds like T's in places they don't belong. I can't think of another added T off the top of my head.

Here's another anecdote.

In SW Utah, there's two towns side by side. One is Hurricane. The other is La Verkin.

The two names rhyme. Herkin and La Verkin. The "r" is given extra time in both.

RG

While investigating, there was one of the guys who is here in MS from Ut. To me, his accent sounded neat. B/c everyone knows for the most part we sound like a bunch of rednecks down here. I have a strong southern accent, myself. I thought it was neat.

deb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While investigating, there was one of the guys who
> is here in MS from Ut. To me, his accent sounded
> neat. B/c everyone knows for the most part we
> sound like a bunch of rednecks down here. I have a
> strong southern accent, myself. I thought it was
> neat.

Deb, do you sound like THIS?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFVlI1_7-s0
Lola Jean Dillon?

If you do, to my British ears Lola Jean sounds as sexy as HELL! ;o))

I had that song on a 45, once.

The older the person, the more likely they are to use /fark/ for fork or /harse/ for horse, etc....

But these differences also seem to decline along a rural/urban line as well. The more remote the Utah town, the thicker the accent. Like you said, Matt, isolation.

The most notorious Utah pronunciation is when the speaker drops the word-medial /nt/ (this t must be proceeded by an /n/, it seems) with a glottal stop. The subsequent syllable is destressed and collapses down to a schwa.

So, mountain --> mou'un, Lay'un, Cli'un...etc...

I used to have link to linguistic surveys of the Utah idiolects and regional variations. I'll see if I can find them.

There are also peculiar pronunciations stemming from the various immigrations periods into Utah. The original Mormons were New England Yankees, so their English had already changed from the English of their English forbears.

They baptized a lot of folks from the South and also lived in Missouri on the frontier. Certainly a different flavor of southernese than what is spoken now, but it still had an impact.

Lastly I'd say the large European migrations that came after 1847 brought a lot of English and Scandinavian converts. And they were all totally isolated.

This is all just a long-winded way to say it's an interesting topic.

Oh: And everyone has an "accent". ;)

"M'heck. I'm gunna go ta tha Dillards. I heard there's a big sell goin' on. Then I'm gonna get ma nells done. Hopefully they'll be dry before I hafta pick up my mell from the post office.Oh, and on Tuesdee night I'm gonna visit with Sister Jen(t)sen. M'heck!"

Has anyone else noticed Sarah Palin sounds like a Utahn?

Something my ex-inlaws said continually was "I done it" the murdered the English language, especially the tenses of the verbs. They are an old Utah family with ties to royalty. It made them sound really ignernt.