http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105134163&sc=emaf

An interesting story on regional variations in colloquialisms and turns of phrase specific to certain areas. A lot of them I've never heard of before.

What terms or phrases do you think are specific to Minnesota? The first that comes to my mind is "Duck duck grey duck," the children's game. Everywhere else it's "duck duck goose."

Any others?

I can think of a few, Dora, but one style in particular stands out to me.

I grew up around Detroit, only about 100 miles east of what is considered to be the geographical middle of US linguistic styles. I take that to mean that around Kalamazoo, MI is considered to be a "neutral" accent.

What I see here a lot is the emphasis or rising intonation on the second word of two-word nouns.

I say "hot dish". MN says "hot DISH". I say NWA "Worldperks". MN says "world PERKS". I say "hand saw". MN says "hand SAW".

I lived in Michigan until moving to Minnesota as a new bride in 1971. The Minnesota lingo that I had to learn included calling casserole, hotdish; expressway, freeway; and pop, soda. I have never accepted the phrase "go with" that is used every day here.

I've always like the Detroit phrase"
Screw him before he screws you.

My wife and her family give me this one all the time.

"Do you have anything else that needs washed?"