Do any parts of Kansas feel southern at all? (Wichita: live in, agricultural)

[imbored198824]

Originally Posted by luzianne

I agree. They don't seem like they have much of an accent at all to me. Kind of strange because I think the Ozarks in Missouri and south of there to Branson people have an accent and you would think Kansas would be about the same, but it's not. My dad grew up in the Ozarks and my mom in northern Arkansas and different parts of Oklahoma, including Muskogee. I remember her calling Miami "Miama." They both definitely had accents and colloquialisms that you don't hear every day. Even as a kid I used to think to myself how strange some of the things they said sounded. You'd think growing up with them it would just seem normal to me but I definitely noticed it.

Miami Oklahoma is pronounced My-am-uh. That just how I've always know it to be pronounced. Southern Missouri is more baptist than southern Kansas. More american settlement and scots Irish too. Thats why the accent is different overall. Lots of people in southern Missouri actually consider themselves to be southern. I don't think that is the case at all in Kansas.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by imbored198824

Miami Oklahoma is pronounced My-am-uh. That just how I've always know it to be pronounced. Southern Missouri is more baptist than southern Kansas. More american settlement and scots Irish too. Thats why the accent is different overall. Lots of people in southern Missouri actually consider themselves to be southern. I don't think that is the case at all in Kansas.

I could never pronounce it like that Sort of like I feel like a moron pronouncing Louisville, KY as "Loovuhl" lol! Or New Orleans as "Nawlins".

Another one that kills me: Ver-sales, Mizzerah

[MOKAN]

^I've lived and spent a lot of time in the region Miami, OK is in and I would feel like a moron pronouncing it like the city in Florida.

[imbored198824]

Yeah that's just how it is supposed to be pronounced and it's how locals pronounce it as well. It's actually how the native Americans around there proununce it too. How bout bois D'arc Missouri? Everyone pronunces it bo-dark. Berryville Arkansas is pronounced Burvul to most ozarkers lol.

[MOKAN]

^I personally wouldn't go so far as to pronounce Berryville as Burvul. Lol.

[MOKAN]

I don't think it's been mentioned, but I think the parts of Kansas that feel the most Southern could actually be Leavenworth, Atchison, and parts of Kansas City.

At some point I saw somebody say the Quindaro BLVD corridor in Kansas City is like a slice of Mississippi (small, rural, black town) plopped down in the middle of the KC metro. Also, Southwest BLVD in the Rosedale area of Kansas City - which is just southwest and within view of downtown Kansas City, MO - feels like what I'd imagine an old Appalachian town might.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

^I've lived and spent a lot of time in the region Miami, OK is in and I would feel like a moron pronouncing it like the city in Florida.

Moron I have in-laws/family in Miami, FL, and the older ones call it "Miamuh".

[RadioSilence]

Pittsburg, Kansas even had its own Italian-language newspaper in the early 20th century.

I don't think there's much of a southern influence at all, not in the Louisiana-to-Carolinas sense. Twangy accents are a neutralized version of Texas/Oklahoma-speak. Even so, a native Texan or Oklahoman stands out in my mind. I've never heard a native Kansan (for example, my mom, from Sumner County) say they're fixin' to do something, though I hear plenty of "warsh." Northern accents really stand out too, even in Kansas City.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by denverian

Moron I have in-laws/family in Miami, FL, and the older ones call it "Miamuh".

Interesting. I thought that sort of pronunciation was unique to the way Missouri is sometimes pronounced.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by denverian

Moron I have in-laws/family in Miami, FL, and the older ones call it "Miamuh".

That's what I thought was the case with my mom pronouncing Miamuh Oklahoma that way. She had such a weird way of saying things/accent/dialect or whatever, that I just thought that was another thing she was mispronouncing. It never occurred to me that she was pronouncing it correctly!