How do you describe the Utah accent?

[gopher]

I was listening to the audio of the current Come Follow Me lesson and I noticed how unique the male reader's speech is.  I'm not sure how to describe it though.  And, no, I'm not trying to make fun of or mock the way people in Utah talk.  (But I will make fun of the names many of you give your kids).  On the east coast, there are many distinct accents from the New Englanders to those down south in Georgia, for example.  But I've never heard anything like the unique Utah cadence in speech.  Has anyone else noticed this?  If so, how would you describe it?

[Calm]

20 minutes ago, gopher said:

I was listening to the audio of the current Come Follow Me lesson and I noticed how unique the male reader's speech is.  I'm not sure how to describe it though.  And, no, I'm not trying to make fun of or mock the way people in Utah talk.  (But I will make fun of the names many of you give your kids).  On the east coast, there are many distinct accents from the New Englanders to those down south in Georgia, for example.  But I've never heard anything like the unique Utah cadence in speech.  Has anyone else noticed this?  If so, how would you describe it?

The name thing is hilarious, but it is also fun.

i thoroughly approve of slight variations especially if popular names, so as to allow kids to feel not cookie cutter (my name was written as Christine up until high school when I found out my mother wanted Cristine, but the nurse had automatically written it with an ‘h’ and Mom being even more concerned about bothering people than I was when younger, didn’t say anything.  I immediately changed it because there were three Chrises in some of my classes and if I lost the h, it made us all unique (Chris, Kris, Cris).  It just felt right. And I much prefer the look, though it is a bit of a hassle making sure it gets left out legal and medical stuff.

When it’s unusual enough people wonder how to pronounce it, that can be a problem.  If you just loved a really unusual construction, I would ensure there was a common nickname or middle name the kid could choose to use if they wanted to avoid attention if such bothered them as it would have me in my younger days.

As far as the Utah accent, I find it varies depending on where one lives or lived as a kid. My husband was from Orem and I don’t remember him or his siblings or dad with much of one, his mom had a strong accent, but Aussie.

There has been a huge influx of Californias, which is kind of American standard accent now due to Hollywood, so I really don’t hear Fark as much as Fork these days.

Edited August 4, 2025 by Calm

[Calm]

I am bad at spoken language, determining what is different and why, and could only provide online references rather than personal experiences outside the obvious Fark/Fork that people have been mocking around me since I stayed with my grandma in 6th grade for a few months.

So in order to provide some on point discussion, it would be fun if someone could find a full copy of this.

https://www.proquest.com/openview/3b2db4bf62aacbdce4e841251d018ab8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1820945

[bluebell]

In my experience, the Utah accent is the same as the accent for most of the west. I’ve lived in Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. North Dakotans do sometimes have a more Minnesota accent, but otherwise everybody else pretty much talked the same.

Edited August 4, 2025 by bluebell

[blackstrap]

I remember " Darthy in her gargious arunge argundy farmul " 😁

[teddyaware]

On 8/4/2025 at 3:16 PM, gopher said:

I was listening to the audio of the current Come Follow Me lesson and I noticed how unique the male reader's speech is.  I'm not sure how to describe it though.  And, no, I'm not trying to make fun of or mock the way people in Utah talk.  (But I will make fun of the names many of you give your kids).  On the east coast, there are many distinct accents from the New Englanders to those down south in Georgia, for example.  But I've never heard anything like the unique Utah cadence in speech.  Has anyone else noticed this?  If so, how would you describe it?

I live in the New York City area and about 20 years ago I asked a savvy and knowledgable young sister from Utah (at the time she was working out here as a mother’s helper) if she could explain to me why women from Utah often sound like they’re saying “thiinks” when they’re actually saying “thanks,” or why it is that when they say the word “bank” to my ears it sounds like they’re saying “biink?” She was a bit surprised that I was unable to answer my own question. She then said, “do you not realize how many Swedes, Norwegians and Danes moved into the Utah area in the 1800s? It’s little wonder why it sounds like they’re saying “thiinks” when they say “thanks!” True story…

Edited August 6, 2025 by teddyaware

[MustardSeed]

I would describe it as this: (obviously not everyone but when I heard this I know it’s Utah sourced ) 

Mountain: mou’in with a gutteral stop 

Idea:  two syllables instead of three: idih

Lots of enunciation

short a starts with an eee sound :

hat: heee-at

Alphabet: ee-alphabee-at

 

[Tacenda]

Here's a few...

pallow (pillow)

mou'enz (mountains)

fark (fork)

lay'en (Layton) I live in Layton and try to pronounce the "t" now. 

melk (milk)

zy-in's (Zion's)

hurri'ken (Hurricane) a town near St. George

Being a native of Utah, I'm working on my speech and pronouncing the "t" much better. 

Someone mentioned Idahoans may speak similar to Utahans. But I think Boise, Idaho anyway has a unique speech sound. They sound really intelligent, IMO. My daughter in law is a Boise native and funnily I was on a vacation in Hawaii and on a snorkeling boat and one of the employees was a young woman and when she spoke she sounded just like my daughter in law and I had to ask where she was from and she was from Boise! 

My parents grew up in Sanpete County in Utah and they definitely have a different way of speaking than a more urban area like Salt Lake. I found this video that seems informative.

 

 

[webbles]

I came across this - https://aschmann.net/AmEng/ - a while back.  It's got a map of the US broken up into dialect regions.  It has 8 major ones and then a bunch of minor ones.  Utah is part of the West dialect but it groups parts of the state into minor dialects.  On major separation is "pin" vs "pen".  Another is the "fronting" of the long o (not entirely sure what that means).

[The Nehor]

I call it the “Utah accent”.

[Okrahomer]

On 8/4/2025 at 5:22 PM, bluebell said:

In my experience, the Utah accent is the same as the accent for most of the west. I’ve lived in Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. North Dakotans do sometimes have a more Minnesota accent, but otherwise everybody else pretty much talked the same.

My Mom and Dad were born and raised in Northwestern Wyoming, and I think I know what you mean about the general Western accent; however, I think there were a few speech characteristics of both parents’ extended families that were unique; and I can only attribute this to their connection to Utah.  A few examples:  horse = hars, fork = fark, dare not = daresn’t, hurricane = hurricun.  Remembering now the sound of speech at family gatherings, especially the banter between my dad and his brothers, conjures happy feelings.  I loved and still love all of these wonderful people.

[bluebell]

23 minutes ago, Okrahomer said:

My Mom and Dad were born and raised in Northwestern Wyoming, and I think I know what you mean about the general Western accent; however, I think there were a few speech characteristics of both parents’ extended families that were unique; and I can only attribute this to their connection to Utah.  A few examples:  horse = hars, fork = fark, dare not = daresn’t, hurricane = hurricun.  Remembering now the sound of speech at family gatherings, especially the banter between my dad and his brothers, conjures happy feelings.  I loved and still love all of these wonderful people.

My time in Utah was pretty much all in the north. So maybe that made a difference. It could also be the ages of the people involved. 

My mom and dad definitely say crick instead of creek, and my mom even says torlet instead of toilet. 

[Okrahomer]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

My time in Utah was pretty much all in the north. So maybe that made a difference. It could also be the ages of the people involved. 

My mom and dad definitely say crick instead of creek, and my mom even says torlet instead of toilet. 

My oldest brother who was a bit older by the time we left Wyoming for Oklahoma says “crick” to this day!

[ZealouslyStriving]

I would say it's a little bit country, but also a little bit rock n' roll.