Having spent time living in Utah the last few years I get so annoyed with the way people talk and especially the Utah/Mormon accent. The farther you get out of the city the stronger it is. My relatives in Logan Utah have the most irritating accent I have ever heard. People don't even realize they talk differently. "Oh my heck" is a classic example. It is very similar to the Idaho accent also.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2012 05:02PM by turnonthelights.

Dang. Freak dude!

I know there are a lot of people from Utah on here, I'm not. But listening to the different accents across the country, I think the region that has the least amount of accent, or twang, in their speech, must be california. New York and New England in general I think often have quite a strong accent. Chicago, also a very distinct accent. South, goes without saying. Savannah, love that accent! I'm not from California, but I must say, I think is the base point for American english, anything varying from that is an accent. It's pretty much the english of most TV broadcasters, radio voices, TV shows, movies etc, no matter where you're from (in most cases).

accent of Iowa and eastern Nebraska. It is very prevalent in California (in large part due to the Dust Bowl) but it's actually "native" to the midwestern U.S.

Perhaps yes, I haven't interacted with many people from that area, but I'd believe that. Iowa or Nebraska don't jump out at me as having thick accents like Arkansas

It's fun when that mid-west accent starts to drift a bit to the Scandanavian accent of North Dakota and Minnesota, doncha know?

What about SNL's skit 'The Californians'? Hahaha! They def have an accent!

What's with the lack of prouncing "T"s?

Moun'in (mountain)
But'in (button)
etc.

Lazy speech, a lack of diction?

I've heard "frack" a couple times on Big Bang Theory so I'm good with it.

Frack is a battlestar galactica reference, perfect for a sci fi nerd. Fetch, on the other hand...

Marman with a scamper?

(a Mormon with a Dodge pickup with a camper shell on it)

lived in the South, but won't try for a truly Southern accent because they know you'd call them on it.

We do that in Idaho too, but it's considered a farmer-ish drawl.

in parts of the South. "Southern accents" vary considerably by region, but the Utah accent doesn't sound like any southern accent I've heard. I'm far from a linguist, though.

pronounce similarly?

My exposure to the south is numerous business trips, television, and a brother-in-law from Tennessee. You say your wife if from Appalachia. That's a big place. What part?

Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas. I lived in Tennessee for two years, and in Virginia for several months. I have a lot of family in northern Georgia, most of whom have heavy accents.

My dad was born and raised in the heart of Utah and has the worst Utahn accent you've ever heard. Here are some good examples:

Sundee, Mondee, etc => Sunday, Monday, etc.
Warsh => Wash (As in, let's go warsh the car)
Mee-yoolk => Milk. This one is hard to spell and still get the sound right :)
Moun'ain => Mountain (as someone else mentioned. My wife also does this one. If I call her on it, she then says mouNN-TIN :D)
Varely => Barely (I varely made it home! We used to make fun of him by saying “Verily, verily I say unto you… I varely made it back!")
Crick => Creek

Here’s some slang, some of which I didn’t realize was Utah specific until I moved to California:

Bullet bike => Sports bike. I used the term in California and all my friends thought I was insane :)
Diggin’ => Off roading
Sluff => to be truant


I was also born and raised in Utah but my mom hated that accent so much that she made sure her kids didn't pick it up. Utah accent is more subtle than say, a southern one but it definitely exists!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2012 04:36PM by cecil0812.

I feel for you. The tweedle-dee-dee Utah accent was very annoying to me when I was there. There didn't seem to be any way to laugh about it without offending people either. I'm from Indiana -- the Hoosier state -- and I've been involved in many riotous discussions of Hoosier speech patterns. Same with Minnesota and Pittsburgh, where I've also lived. I used to have a book about "Pittsburghese." Hilarious. But even hint that Utah has a different accent, and people get pissy. I remember a professor at BYU asking me for a "pin" and it wasn't immediately obvious to me what he meant. So, I said "a pin?" "A pin! A pin!" he said, as he angrily snatched my pen out of my hand. Oh, pen. In fact, they seem to be really intolerant of other accents. I pronounced the word "debris" as "day bree" and made someone angry once.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2012 04:34PM by Makurosu.

who is from Appalachia, can't really distinguish between the words "pin" and "pen". She says "pin" for both.

"Pin" for pen was one of the strangest examples of the Utah accent, unless there are multiple Utah accents. It's that short i turned into an "eeyuh" sound.

Utahns are saying "pen" because I'm used to how they say it. When my wife (and most of her family) say "pen", I hear it as "pin" with an "i" sound as in "if".

Normal English: pen
Utar English: pin

Normal English: pin
Utar English: pee-en

Normal English: orange
Utar English: arnj

Normal English: lord
Utar English: lard

Normal English: didn't
Utar English: di'en'

Normal English: lawyer
Utar English: laaa-yer (at first I thought they were saying liar, LOL!)

They also add syllables to words by adding a "-ye-" after some vowels:

Normal English: testimony
Utar English: tayestimowney

Normal English: pear
Utar English: payer

Normal English: there
Utar English: thayer

I grew up in the Sierra foothills of Cali and moved w/the family to Utahr when I was 18. The thing that bugged me the most (besides nearly everyone in the Elder's quorum asking me if I was a surfer; apparently Seminary classes took up the time normally spent on Geography) was the near constant misuse of the word "ignorant", pronounced "ignernt". As in, "why do you think I'm dumb just acause I don't know geography? That's so ignernt".

This was over 30 years ago, is it still a thing?

I don't think so. It has been along time since I heard "Ignernt" used anywhere. I like to think that the younger generation caught the irony and tossed it on the "rubbish heap".

My TBM mother (Bless her Heart) was raised by a mother that was no stranger to profanity. As such Mom often went out of her way to avoid profanity using all the MO crutch words, Fetch,dang, heck and my personal favorite "SCRUD"!. Unfortunately I took after Grandma at a very early age and had no problem with the "biggies".

As for accents, Utahns do have an accent and it varies within the state. I "usedtacould" (another favorite Utah word I catch myself saying) tell where in Utah someone came from by their accent. Sanpete County folk have a certain twang,rural Washington County folk do and Wasatch County people do. It has changed now and is not so evident.

That is the nature of language, it evolves when isolated from other speakers of the same language. American English is different from Canadian English, Scottish,Irish and Australians vary too.

I did not realize that I had a Utah accent until I tried to buy an ice cream cone at an ice cream stand in rural Maine..Both me and the sales girl had some struggles getting my order right.

Accents are great, they make each part of the country unique. I love'em.