Why Palin talks like a Midwesterner

When 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage, there was a lot of talk about her distinctive dialect.

Pundits seemed confused. She grew up in Alaska, but talked with an accent like she was from Wisconsin, Minnesota or Michigan. Now some University of Wisconsin-Madison linguists think they've figured it out.

UW researchers say people now living in the area of Alaska where Palin is from are largely descendants of farmers who moved there in the 1930s from the upper Midwest.