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Absolutely 100% correct. Many people miss this. Missouri is a midwestern state, but a few sections of it are 100% part of the south.
Yep. I've always said that Kentucky is the inverse of Missouri. Kentucky is a southern state, but a section of it is 100% part of the midwest.
I wouldn't say any area of KY or MO is 100% like the Midwest, both tend to be too far south for that. Iowa would be a state that most would agree is 100% like the Midwest. The northern portions of KY have a cultural mixture of the South, Appalachia, and the Midwest. The phrase "Greater Appalachia" is often used for the outlying counties of the Cincinnati metro area since some of those are part of the Appalachian Regional Commission, or ARC. One county in Indiana that is quite similar to the ARC area of SE Ohio would be Switzerland county. It is the only county in the state that never had a railroad run through it due to rough topography, meaning it was prohibitively expensive to build in the 1800s. It is much more Appalachian than anything like the Midwest with most road names ending in "ridge" or "creek" with steep bluff topography. The only area in the Midwest that is an anomaly pertaining to having many "ridge, hollow, and creek roads" is the Driftless region along the Mississippi River in WI, MN, and IA.
KC is a mixture of southern, somewhat netural, and western sounding accents. It has zero evidence of NCVS accent that is somewhat commonly found in STL.
"somewhat neutral": Back in the Golden Age of Radio, the CBS network described the accent it wanted for its news announcers as "Kansas City American." It's no accident that Walter Cronkite hailed from the region (born in St. Joseph, attended grade school in KC) and other well-known radio and TV news reporters came from the area around where Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri all meet.
I was referring to culture more than linguistics, but yes, your statement is correct.
The Central Plains accent, it seems to me, is the one that's the least objectionable to American English speakers who have other accents.
"somewhat neutral": Back in the Golden Age of Radio, the CBS network described the accent it wanted for its news announcers as "Kansas City American." It's no accident that Walter Cronkite hailed from the region (born in St. Joseph, attended grade school in KC) and other well-known radio and TV news reporters came from the area around where Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri all meet.
I was referring to culture more than linguistics, but yes, your statement is correct.
The Central Plains accent, it seems to me, is the one that's the least objectionable to American English speakers who have other accents.
It's interesting how quite pronounced the southern accents were in the KC area in the early 1980s based on this documentary of the Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, KS, though.
I consider Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota to be the Midwest (maybe Iowa). To me, as a New Yorker, the dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, etc have always been considered plains states, not the Midwest. The Midwest has always been anchored around Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. Kentucky has always been considered the south/Appalachia, same with West Virginia. Pennsylvania is always considered the northeast. The kid-Atlantic is New York, Nj, pa, de and md and D.C for that matter. Iowa was always a border state and The St. Louis area has always felt midwestern to me versus the Ozarks which are certainly southern. Also Kansas City is not midwestern. It is plains/frontier west almost. It is interesting how different people have different perspectives on this. The heart of the Midwest has always been Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to me. Even Minnesota is debatable. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the up of Michigan have always been called Midwest or Great Lakes. This is all coming from a New Yorker so feel free to disagree.
Ive always found it amusing how Kansas Citians on City-Data have either railed against its southernisms or avoided acknowledging it. Kansas City, while clearly a Midwest city, without question very noticeably has southern characteristics...
I consider Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota to be the Midwest (maybe Iowa). To me, as a New Yorker, the dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, etc have always been considered plains states, not the Midwest. The Midwest has always been anchored around Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. Kentucky has always been considered the south/Appalachia, same with West Virginia. Pennsylvania is always considered the northeast. The kid-Atlantic is New York, Nj, pa, de and md and D.C for that matter. Iowa was always a border state and The St. Louis area has always felt midwestern to me versus the Ozarks which are certainly southern. Also Kansas City is not midwestern. It is plains/frontier west almost. It is interesting how different people have different perspectives on this. The heart of the Midwest has always been Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to me. Even Minnesota is debatable. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the up of Michigan have always been called Midwest or Great Lakes. This is all coming from a New Yorker so feel free to disagree.
I am disagreeing. Iowa is NOT a border state. It is the opposite. It is the most centrally located Midwestern state. It borders nothing but Midwestern states. No Great Lakes, no Canada, no state belonging to another region. Iowa defines the Midwest in stereotype. Nothing eastern, western of southern about it. Its northern and central, which is the geographic basis of the region. It's full of oceans of corn to boot.
BTW "frontier western" is not an antonym to the Midwest. Dallas-Fort Worth has that same vibe but even more intensified (Kansas City isn't really in the Great Plains, and it actually has a lot of trees) but that doesn't mean that DFW isn't in the South. The Midwest is a region that straddles the east AND west. Kansas City is extremely centralised. It looks to the west just like St. Louis looks to the east but it's 100% Midwestern (If you could even quantify it)
It's interesting how quite pronounced the southern accents were in the KC area in the early 1980s based on this documentary of the Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, KS, though.
There are a couple different accents in that feature, but the only speakers that are definitely identified as Kansas City and northeast Kansas natives have “neutral” accents.
. The Midwest has always been anchored around Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.
Incorrect. The word Midwest was invented to describe Kansas and Nebraska, two Great Plains states, then later expanded to include/adopted by the former Northwest Territories. Kansas City is Midwestern, ne plus ultra.
Ive always found it amusing how Kansas Citians on City-Data have either railed against its southernisms or avoided acknowledging it. Kansas City, while clearly a Midwest city, without question very noticeably has southern characteristics...
I'm one of those, and yes, I do know of many Kansas City-area residents whose accents sound mid-Southern or even Deep Southern, and yes, Missouri was a slave state and Kansas City (like St. Louis) had legal segregation - though blacks weren't required to ride in the back of the buses and streetcars or give up their seats to white patrons.
Nor were they disenfranchised the way blacks in the Deep South were. The Pendergast machine courted them much as it did any other ethnic group - it just didn't promote black candidates for elected office.
I'd say some of those attributes as well as the dominant local accent - which isn't Southern, as I noted above - blunt the city's Southernness.
It's one thing to say that Kansas City and Missouri have some Southern characteristics. It's another thing altogether to call either of them Southern. The only part of Missouri that truly merits that moniker is the state's southeastern quarter and the area along the Arkansas border in the Ozarks, and Kansas City deserves that label not at all.
There are a couple different accents in that feature, but the only speakers that are definitely identified as Kansas City and northeast Kansas natives have “neutral” accents.
Kansas was the first northern state I had ever been to. The first town we stopped in was Florence and I heard absolutely no drawl or twang from anyone there. Total opposite of Oklahoma and Texas. Haven't heard a drawl or twang in Wichita or Wellington either or in El Dorado. They all sounded Midwestern. Not Upper Midwestern like in Minnesota but lower Midwestern. I am sure there's folks who sound twangier but I doubt they represent most of Kansas. Kansas does have a similar vibe to Oklahoma and north Texas but it's Midwestern through and through especially in accent.
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