answer:In Minnesota, we emphasize our “o” sounds, like they do in Swedish and Finnish, and we also have long “a” sounds, presumably also similar to the vowel sounds in Northern European languages. In Canada, it’s common to hear “about” pronounced “aboot”, likely because of Scottish influence. Sarah Palin sounds like she’s from Minnesota because of the Minnesotans who relocated to Wasilla somewhere around WWll. The conclusion I would draw from this is that our accents are heavily influenced by who settled where.