Do Texas natives consider Texas the South or Midwest (Houston: school, live in)

[Spade]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I am not sure it has to do with what they look like, as much as attitude, no place in Texas do they think mid-west. The southwestern part of the state like El Paso may be Southwestern as well as some other parts of the state might seem so-western, but never, never, mid west. Anyone who thinks that is smoking something other than basic tobacco or drinking more than an occassional beer.

Nita

Again, I'm talking about the far panhandle of Texas. There isn't a difference in mannerisms, dialect, and way of life between the Northern Panhandle and Southwestern and Western Kansas. Again, I will say there are two Midwest regions. The Great Plains Midwest and the Great Lakes Midwest. There are some parts in the Panhandle of Texas that are very similar to that of the Great Plains Midwest. Keep in mind that this is the only area that has more similarities to any other region if you need to put Texas into a region.

Basically, the Panhandle of Texas is more similar to the Great Plains Midwest nowadays than it is to the South and I think many Southerners would probably agree with that. Now as far as the rest of the state, I think the DFW area as wel as Northern Texas has some Midwestern characteristics but not enough to call it Midwestern. If I was to give it a percentage, I would say 85% Southern, 15% Midwestern. Now for me, I would say 100% Texan, 0% anything else.

[gy2020]

Texas is its own state of mind and is not well received when placed in a box.

[txstate]

Its Texas we will eat 5 states up <<<<<

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Spade

Again, I'm talking about the far panhandle of Texas. There isn't a difference in mannerisms, dialect, and way of life between the Northern Panhandle and Southwestern and Western Kansas. Again, I will say there are two Midwest regions. The Great Plains Midwest and the Great Lakes Midwest. There are some parts in the Panhandle of Texas that are very similar to that of the Great Plains Midwest. Keep in mind that this is the only area that has more similarities to any other region if you need to put Texas into a region.

Basically, the Panhandle of Texas is more similar to the Great Plains Midwest nowadays than it is to the South and I think many Southerners would probably agree with that. Now as far as the rest of the state, I think the DFW area as wel as Northern Texas has some Midwestern characteristics but not enough to call it Midwestern. If I was to give it a percentage, I would say 85% Southern, 15% Midwestern. Now for me, I would say 100% Texan, 0% anything else.

I am thinking you are talking about places like Amarillo, right? That is about as panhandle as you can get or maybe you are talking about a few small towns near the OK border. of course there is some over-lap, you don't just cross the state line and have everything change, but even Amarillo isn't much like Kansas. We are not talking tapolgraphy or i don't think that is what the OP meant. As for DFW area, give me a break, most people in the area would certainly disagree with you on that. Again, most of this is generalizing, there are exceptions to every rule and statement. NWA is more midwestern than southern as well, but certainly the state of AR isn't midwestern in nature of geographically.

Nita

[Frodo2008]

Originally Posted by Spade

Again, I'm talking about the far panhandle of Texas. There isn't a difference in mannerisms, dialect, and way of life between the Northern Panhandle and Southwestern and Western Kansas. Again, I will say there are two Midwest regions. The Great Plains Midwest and the Great Lakes Midwest. There are some parts in the Panhandle of Texas that are very similar to that of the Great Plains Midwest. Keep in mind that this is the only area that has more similarities to any other region if you need to put Texas into a region.

Basically, the Panhandle of Texas is more similar to the Great Plains Midwest nowadays than it is to the South and I think many Southerners would probably agree with that. Now as far as the rest of the state, I think the DFW area as wel as Northern Texas has some Midwestern characteristics but not enough to call it Midwestern. If I was to give it a percentage, I would say 85% Southern, 15% Midwestern. Now for me, I would say 100% Texan, 0% anything else.

Yes you're right the northern panhandle is like the Kansas portion of the midwest. In the northern panhandle people have midwestern accents. It's also the great plains like KS and NE are.

[Frodo2008]

Texas is a southern state. These are the things Texas has in common with the other southern states:

1. It has a lot of southern Baptists
2. It's pretty conservative
3. The people have southern accents

[doctorjef]

Oh dear, another one of these threads. I already did the one on whether Austin is in the South or the Southwest (I voted with a slight majority of people for Southwest). IMO Texas transcends any single region while covering several. East Texas is geographically and culturally part of the South. The Panhandle has a lot in common culturally and geographically with the Plains States part of the Midwest (understanding that "Midwest" is an overly general term that is used to cover states as different as Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska). Even the North Texas DFW Metroplex (esp Fort Worth) have Prairie-Plains States aspects. Austin, San Antonio, San Angelo, and the Trans-Pecos are more Southwestern than anything else. However, demographics in Texas have changed considerably in the past 70 years and formerly most of the state could have been more fairly classified as culturally and conceptually part of the South. It's just not that simple now. I'm a native Texan BTW, so these aren't the opinions of someone writing in the dark from Delaware. However, it might surprise some here to learn that we had an endless thread on the DE forum as to whether or not DE is in the South. Most people agreed that the state is best classified as Mid-Atlantic, and neither strictly Northern nor Southern. Yet, the more I learn about the way DE was perceived in the early 20th Century and its overall culture and geography, it's clear to me that the little state was definitely considered part of the South less than 100 years ago, and that culturally and geographically most of the Delmarva pennisula (eastern shore of MD, penninsular bit of VA, and at least most of DE) are part of the Upper South. I'm just bringing this up to illustrate the complexities involved in such classifications, the fact that both perceptions and cultural realities change over time, and that the realities are sometimes surprising and different from the generalisations and stereotypes.

Having said all this, I would agree that there are still aspects of speech, manners and folkways throughout most of Texas that are essentially Southern. It's part of the shared cultural heritage; yet Texas is Texas and not really part of the South in the same way that the other states historically associated with the CSA are, nor certainly in the way that the states of the Lower South are.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by Frodo2008

Yes you're right the northern panhandle is like the Kansas portion of the midwest. In the northern panhandle people have midwestern accents. It's also the great plains like KS and NE are.

Sorry, but the people in the Northern Panhandle do not have Midwestern accents. Much of my family is from that area, and if anything, the people in SW Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle have slight Texan accents. Geographically speaking, it is like the Midwest, but the culture is distinctly Texan with slight Midwest influences.

[doctorjef]

Well, at least around Lubbock/the South Plains part of the lower Panhandle, there is a distinct accent that is more related to general Texas and Southern speech patterns than to the Plains States north of OK (Oklahomans to a great extent tend to sound much like the people in North and Northwest Texas). I don't claim to know if there's any significant accent change when you get north of Amarillo -- I doubt it, and you'd be talking about a relatively small population anyway. ISTM that the Panhandle is at sort of a crossroads between the South, Prairie-Plains Midwest, and the Plains West (like eastern Colo. and western Nebraska). The South Plains are more Southern and slightly Midwestern. The High Plains are more Midwestern and Plains Western.

All very complicated.

[Lovely95]

It's not that hard people. Half of Texas is Southwestern and half of Texas is Southeastern. No matter how much people say Texas is not southern, places in the east just take on those characteristics.