Can Montanans Pronounce These Ten Minnesota Town Names?

We were out to dinner with some of our Scandinavian Montanan friends on Saturday night- which isn't that hard to do given the fact that there are so many Scandinavian Montanans with Minnesota ties.

I think the last time we all got together we started talking about the great hot dish v casserole debate. This time we got to talking about Minnesota town names, and how only someone from Minnesota would know how to pronounce these names.

We all know St. Olaf thanks to the great Betty White and the Golden Girls. But what about Bemidji? I know Bemidji because my wife's grandma came from there before settling in Missoula. My grandma also came to Montana from Minnesota when she was a little girl. A lot of Montanans with Swedish and Norwegian ancestry did the same thing.

Can you pronounce these Minnesota towns?

One of our friends shared this list from Reddit.

-Bemidji

-Mahtomedi

-Aitkin

-Ely

-Wayzata

-Shakopee

-Wabasha

-Faribault

-Waseca

-Otsego

How'd you do? 10 for 10?

That also got me thinking about the Minnesota accent and the Minnesota slang- it's basically very similar our friends in North Dakota, right? Although-  what in the world is with the "Duck, Duck, Gray Duck" thing? Here's a partial list from EnjoyTravel.com:

• Oh, for cute! = Adorable. ...
• Uff-da = Oh! Uff da can be used to express surprise, relief, exhaustion, astonishment, and dismay.
• You betcha = Agreement. ...
• Holy buckets = Jeez Louise. ...
• Budge = Skip the line. ...
• Skol = Cheers!/Game chant. ...
• Duck, Duck, Gray Duck = Duck, Duck, Goose.

If you missed the great hot dish v casserole debate- here it is.