Palin's Way On Talkin' Dissected, You Betcha

MADISON, Wis. - When Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage there was a lot of talk about her distinctive way of talkin', you betcha.

Heck, she moved to Alaska when she was too young to speak and grew up in the small town of Wasilla, but doggone it, why did she talk like someone from the movie "Fargo"?

Three University of Wisconsin-Madison linguists tackled the conundrum in a research article to be published in the Journal of English Linguistics next month. The answer lies
in something that happened in the 1930s.

During the presidential campaign, almost every aspect of Palin's life, including how she talked, was dissected by everyone from curious voters to political pundits. Many noted that for someone who grew up in Alaska, she talked a lot like she had been raised in Michigan, Wisconsin or Minnesot