Date:  Mon, 10 Nov 1997 12:54:59 -0500
From:  Beverly Flanigan <FLANIGAN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
Subject: Re: NEW TOPIC: Slang in the Movies!

  Jim, how do you define slang? As a Minnesotan, I found nothing in
  "Fargo" which suggested a distinctive slang (except, perhaps, "you
  bet"). Aren't you talking about dialect--both accent and, to a lesser
  degree, lexicon? Come to think of it, "you bet" has been used as long
  as I can remember (and that's a _long_ time), which suggests it's not
  slang, i.e., it's not ephemeral, age-graded, etc. The same goes for
  "real well," "pretty good," etc. These are indeed part of the regional
  vernacular, i.e., dialect.