Saturday, July 07, 2007

In Minnesota We Say . . .

I know that this is by no means a unique post, but at work we were coming up with a list of things that are uniquely Minnesotan. A lot of things that seem to be strictly Minnesotan are still fairly regional throughout the state or pretty generational. I don't mean the things that we as Minnesotans will make fun of themselves for saying. Take "ya betcha," for instance. These are the things that Minnesotans (or at least me) take very seriously.
  • Hotdish. You can make it in a casserole but the food itself is called a hotdish. That's all there is to it.
  • Duck Duck Gray Duck. Frankly, this game is far more interesting than Duck Duck Goose. Instead of just saying "duck, duck, duck" over and over again, you get to be a little more creative and say "red duck, chartreuse duck, blue duck, cerulean duck, magenta duck" before yelling out "gray duck". You can play tricks on a person by drawing out the "gr-" sound in something like green duck. It is clearly the superior "sit in a circle and say duck a lot" game.
  • Pop. Now, this idea seems to skip from Minnesota over a bunch of Wisconsin and shows up again in the Chicago area, for which I am grateful. I get enough crap from Liam for saying hotdish. Even I'll admit that soda is an acceptable substitute; however, the fact that the following dialog is possible disturbs me:
    • "Want a Coke?"
    • "Sure!"
    • "What kind?"
    • "Diet Pepsi."
  • The Cities. You say it, people know where you're talking about. This one gets use a little more outstate than in the Twin Cities I've found. I may have gotten laughed at for sounding a bit like a hick one day. Maybe.
  • Up North. See above. Yes, it is capitalized.
  • OK, those last two are a bit ridiculous and I get why out-of-state people think they're weird phrases.

2 comments:

Bunny Queen said...

One that has started to phase out recently is "out state" to mean the area of the state that is not The Cities. It confused the heck out of me when I first moved here, since I moved from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where dropping prepositions is common. To me "out state" was "out OF state" or ND, SD, WI, etc. Now you here "greater MN" more often.

Bakker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Powered By Blogger