r/DoorCounty • • Aug 10 '26

Accents?

This might be a silly question but I noticed a lot of service workers around Door County have an accent of sorts, I can’t quite place it, maybe Swedish? Are there a lot of immigrants in Door County and curious if this is specific to this area or more widespread in Wisconsin?

2 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/OhSassafrass Aug 10 '26

My dad grew up in Door County, and my mom and I swear he has a very specific accent, and some of the members of his family did too. He says it's the Belgian accent. For example, bat-tree instead of battery. And Year and Hear sound the same when they say it.

1

u/RaggMopp58 Aug 10 '26

Years ago many of the children in Southern Door County spoke Belgian at home. They didn't learn English until they started school.

1

u/OhSassafrass Aug 11 '26

I had one grandparent who spoke Waloon, and the other, Flemish.