The Rittenhouse judge's accent

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Le Baron
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The Rittenhouse judge's accent

Postby Le Baron » Tue Nov 16, 2021 5:59 pm

I'm not going to say anything about the trial (but by golly I'd love to). I was struck by the accents of the Judge and some of the counsel and witnesses there in Wisconsin. They seem to have an accent on a continuum with that of Canada, but some subtle differences.

That commentary character on YT David Pakman was playing little snippets of the things they'd said and the judge noticeably pronounced 'food' as 'fudd'. Other words they pronounce in that Canadian manner are: 'round', 'better', 'count'. There are lots of others I can't remember off the top of my head.

Did anyone else watch and notice this? It's actually a very pleasant accent.
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Re: The Rittenhouse judge's accent

Postby AllSubNoDub » Tue Nov 16, 2021 6:20 pm

Yeah, it's a pretty strong accent. There's an Netflix show Making a Murderer, where all the people have the same strong accent. Similar vowel sounds to Minnesotans (listen to some of the sketches from A Prairie Home Companion or the characters from the movie/series Fargo). The latter is acting so it might be a little exaggerated, but pretty close imo. I've heard similar accent characteristics as far south as Iowa (whence I have family by marriage).
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Re: The Rittenhouse judge's accent

Postby AllSubNoDub » Tue Nov 16, 2021 6:22 pm

Here's the wiki page. Also calls out some of the media I mentioned. :P
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Steve
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Re: The Rittenhouse judge's accent

Postby Steve » Tue Nov 16, 2021 7:31 pm

I probably sound much like that. I was born in Wisconsin (with parents, grandparents, and great grandparents from Wisconsin) and raised in west central Wisconsin and have spent much of my adult life here.

When my wife and daughter hiked the Appalachian Trail (starting in Georgia), they were frequently asked if they were from Canada.

Wisconsin has some German and Scandinavian influences on vowels. In addition, I've caught a few voiced/unvoiced quirks on a few consonants which I've heard in some parts of the state. In the northern part of the state, there's also some Finnish influence near the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan). Many Yoopers (various spellings, but people from the U.P.) have a distinct accent (at least to my Wisconsin ear). A typical wisconsinite might mimic yoopers and minnesotans by gliding and extending vowels more as well as adding more tonal variation.

Another observation is that I think the Wisconsin accent is fading over time. Perhaps from much media exposure. To my ear, older people sound a bit different than younger people.

Not sure if this speaks to me needing to get a life, but
Le Baron wrote:It's actually a very pleasant accent.
kind of made my day.
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