Pater Familias

Theories, observations, and articles, by Philip Schaefer · All posts · Categories

AN ENGLISH DESCRIPTION OF A MIDWESTERN ACCENT.

May 20, 2012 at 8:56 PM · Journalism

AN ENGLISH DESCRIPTION OF A MIDWESTERN ACCENT. In the Financial Times (May 15), Hal Weitzman says about a Wisconsin politician: “[He] speaks in a heavily nasal Wisconsin accent that resembles a permanent cold.” My first reaction was that some of us Midwesterners do have permanent colds. And then it occurred to me that all Midwesterners learned to speak from people who had permanent colds.