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UW linguists analyze Palin’s accent
Study looks at former Alaskan governor’s ‘g-dropping,’ use of colloquial phrases
JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald file photo
Former Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Green Bay in 2008 using her well-known vernacular.
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University of Wisconsin researchers recently evaluated former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech patterns in an attempt to study the doggone reaction to her home-baked vernacular in a formal setting.
Joe Salmons, UW professor of linguistics and one of the study’s authors, said he and his colleagues Thomas Purnell and Eric Raimy, UW professors of linguistics and English, respectively, examined how Palin’s speech relates to American ideas of language.
“What we’re interested in is what [Palin’s speech pattern] tells us about how Americans think about regional and social language variation, and what it means to sound too informal for some people,” Salmons said.
According to the study, the researchers used audio clips and transcripts obtained via The New York Times website from the vice presidential debate of October 2008 to accomplish their task.
The study specifically analyzed Palin’s use of colloquial words and phrases, which were perceived as informal by many. The study also compared her use of “g-dropping” to that of her then-opponent, current Vice President Joe Biden.
In regard to g-dropping, Salmons said it’s something everyone does, but when it occurs more than 10 percent of the time, people start to notice.
“We looked at all instances of [g-dropping] … and found that she does it not quite 12 percent of the time,” Salmons said. “That’s not a very high percentage, but it’s high enough that people notice it.”
In comparison, Biden only employed the technique of g-dropping when he referred to his hometown in an attempt to seem more accessible, according to the study.
G-dropping on words such as “talking,” “bringing” and “going” caused much debate as to whether or not the Alaska governor actually dropped her g’s or was simply doing so to appeal to a certain demographic.
“She [g-drops] only on very common words, like to talk and to bring. … She doesn’t do it with educated vocabulary,” Salmons said. “That sounds like it’s probably a real pattern.”
As for “heck,” “darn” and “you betcha,” Salmons said the evidence points to exaggeration by Palin, but there is no way to know for sure.
Ken Goldstein, UW professor of political science, said he does not believe the way Palin talks affects the outcome of her political endeavors.
“Sarah Palin is a complex character, and I think her actual speech patterns have very little to do with her success or failure,” Goldstein said.
Another aspect of the study was focused on the origin of Palin’s speech patterns, particularly the upper-Midwestern undertones in her speech.
Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, was settled during the Great Depression by families from northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Palin’s family moving from Idaho to Alaska when she was young is also a potential cause of her accent when coupled with the upper-Midwesterners in Wasilla.
Despite the fact that people speak differently no matter where they are from, Salmons said they contacted people from Alaska who confirmed Palin speaks similarly to others from her community.
“People do have idiosyncratic ways of speaking, but clearly her speech looks like part of a broader community,” Salmons said.
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I was not aware that vacuous was an accent
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It would seem that the unstated conclusion of this study is that former Alaska Governor Palin’s accent is typical of her hometown. I wonder if this is also true for her seemingly unique speaking style. I suspect that the remoteness of that state is sufficient for the development of home-grown speech patterns unique to the region.
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10:01, Don’t even give her that much credit.
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I think when SNL does parodies of your voice, it is affecting your political stand point.
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This is what passes for scholarly “research” these days?
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And this is what passes for an inciteful comment? Of course this is scholarly research and Professor Salmons is highly regarded in his field.
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Just amoung the wackadoodle liberals, who believe that they know better than the poor dumb proles.
Bernie Goldberg: “When she was still on the ticket a disease broke out in liberal America- Palin Derangement Syndrome. But I don’t think Bill that they detest her simply because she’s a conservative woman, a pro-Life, pro-gun conservative woman. I think there’s something else that’s working here. Here’s a woman that didn’t go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton. She bounced around at a bunch of colleges before she wound up at the University of Idaho which is practically a crime against humanity among liberal elites. She has 5 kids. Liberals don’t have 5 kids. One of them has Down Syndrome, liberals certainly don’t allow that to happen… They detested her Bill, they detested her because she was so ordinary. Because she was like a Middle America. And you know what? The liberals and the lamestream media, that’s who they really detest.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOrj2UuIVv0
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Are you serious?
IP hash: 83889210
You want an average American to be president, vice-president, or even a Governor?
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Yeah, having Barry HO the smarty is really turning out great!
Obama was the subject of many a pundit’s admiration. So smart! So worldly! Harvard Law Review. And so eloquent. That his speeches upon further reflection were practically unintelligible or self-parodies (are we the ones we have been waiting for? are the oceans really going to recede?) didn’t much matter. He was so smart.
So why isn’t his presidency going better than it is? Seriously, if he’s so smart and well-educated, shouldn’t he have come up with something better than the stimulus boondoggle? Shouldn’t he have gotten sanctions passed on Iran or figured out how not to offend both sides in the Middle East non-peace process? As Bret Stephens points out, we have gotten “bloated government, deficits and health-care bills; paralysis over Afghanistan and Iran; the convulsions over Gitmo and the CIA torture memos.” And then the mind-numbingly idiotic decision to put KSM in a Manhattan courtroom to preach the wonders of jihad and go after his captors. None of this seems very smart.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/169752
Generally, our smartest presidents — Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, for example — have been disappointments in office, haven’t they?
College graduates (many with advanced degrees in law or economics) have put us in the fix we are in today.
But maybe it also has to do with politics too. Things were going a lot better, at least for me, before the Democrats took over Congress in 2006.
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You are right, being smart is not a good thing, especially if you are the president.
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Yes, an average American is preferable to a narcissistic megalomaniac whose only claim to fame is being able to read a Teleprompter. And, amazingly, with those stellar qualifications, his first real job turned out to be president of the United States. What a country!
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It’d be nice to be able to spell correctly…… amoUng?
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uh oh, spelling Nazi alert!
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God, your an idiot.
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no one cares…
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I hope to god that there was no money spent on this
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EARTH’S CORE AT “MILLIONS OF DEGREES.” If Sarah Palin said it, it would be proof of impenetrable ignorance. But since Al Gore said it … it’s proof of impenetrable ignorance!
“On the other hand, he’s gotten rich, so I guess the joke is on us.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/88575/
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I’m from Wasilla, born and raised. Sarah Palin is most definitely NOT representative of a Wasilla or Matanuska Valley accent. I rarely hear anyone else sound as odd or talk as strangely as she does. Do these people who do these language studies that keep falling back on the old “the area was settled by Wisconsinites and Minnesotans” ever actually come here and see for themselves? If they did they’d see that there are no other people who talk like crazy Sarah. Her accent is a “Sarah Palin” accent, and not a Wasilla accent.