Do any parts of Kansas feel southern at all? (Kansas City: baptist, metro)

[UKWildcat1981]

Originally Posted by kanhawk

As someone who grew up in SE Kansas, I can say we sure don't think of ourselves as Southern in any way shape or form. We don't identify ourselves that way. How some others see, I guess there are a variety of opinions.

And as an aside, the Westboro Baptist church doesn't represent Kansas any more than Barack Obama's church run by the bigoted Jeremiah Wright in south central Chicago represents Illinois. You want to start going down the list of kooks in every state?

Westboro Baptist Church is a big stain on your state but that crazy family is from Mississippi so its not all Kansas's fault. The South has a lot of wackadoo right wing nut jobs, of the things I hate the most about the South.

[thriftylefty]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAh-lQGKUfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgOb55NlcMU

[denverian]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

You have an odd idea of Southern. I'm thinking maybe you're actually lacking exposure to the South?

I do know Pittsburg, KS was named after Pittsburgh, PA, but hadn't heard the Italian part. That's interesting, but I'd wonder how much influence that would really have today, if any at all.

I've been to 48/50 states, and lived in TX for a couple years, so I'm familiar with southern accents.

I grew up in Overland Park, but left home at age 18 (30 years ago). I have an odd perspective now, having been away from KS for so long. I do actually hear a different accent when I go to KC, similar to how someone who isn't from there would. I remember in the 90s when I first noticed. I was flying from LA to KC with a layover in Dallas. While waiting on the plane to leave for KC, I was just listening to people and suddenly realized that they had the accent my family has. Of course I was always led to believe that people in KC had no accent. In reality, we all have an accent. I've lived in Denver and LA for the past 21 years, so I have the "western" accent associated with standard US English.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by denverian

so I have the "western" accent associated with standard US English.

If by "standard US English" you mean the accent liguists call "General American", that is not "western". It is geographically (and sociolinguistically) much closer to the accent in KC than in Denver or anywhere in the western United States. Omaha is more or less the center of General American English's regional span, which includes southern Iowa, northern Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and west-central Illinois.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by s.davis

If by "standard US English" you mean the accent liguists call "General American", that is not "western". It is geographically (and sociolinguistically) much closer to the accent in KC than in Denver or anywhere in the western United States. Omaha is more or less the center of General American English's regional span, which includes southern Iowa, northern Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and west-central Illinois.

I've heard that before. Many people in KC definitely have a "twang" in the way they speak, so I'm amused when people there, who've lived there their entire life, insist that they have no accent. Some don't, but many do. I've found that the more working class people in KC have the most obvious accent. (which is usually true of any accent, anywhere)

Accents vary all over the country. But generally, from Denver to San Diego to Seattle, people sound the same to me. I've seen maps that show "the West" as one general accent.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by denverian

I've heard that before. Many people in KC definitely have a "twang" in the way they speak, so I'm amused when people there, who've lived there their entire life, insist that they have no accent. Some don't, but many do. I've found that the more working class people in KC have the most obvious accent. (which is usually true of any accent, anywhere)

Accents vary all over the country. But generally, from Denver to San Diego to Seattle, people sound the same to me. I've seen maps that show "the West" as one general accent.

Are you sure there's not a variable you're not considering here? Denver, San Diego, and Seattle are very urban, large cities with diverse populations, and presumably with far less influence from their rural surroundings. Maybe the experiences you're drawing on that you've had in the West are with a much more urbanized crowd than you realize, and you're actually experiencing and rubbing shoulders with rural people in smaller, far less urban places like Kansas City in a way that's not happening when you're in the West? What I'm getting to is maybe you're confusing an urban/rural divide and pegging rural as Southern.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by Rivertowntalk

Very interesting thread. I am from Kansas and the people in the videos don't really sound southern to me.

In some rural areas of Kansas, you hear "We seen it" a lot and other language variations. Certain rural areas do have fairly pronounced drawls that probably could be considered southern.

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.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

Are you sure there's not a variable you're not considering here? Denver, San Diego, and Seattle are very urban, large cities with diverse populations, and presumably with far less influence from their rural surroundings. Maybe the experiences you're drawing on that you've had in the West are with a much more urbanized crowd than you realize, and you're actually experiencing and rubbing shoulders with rural people in smaller, far less urban places like Kansas City in a way that's not happening when you're in the West? What I'm getting to is maybe you're confusing an urban/rural divide and pegging rural as Southern.

Well, rural people anywhere tend to have more of an accent for whatever reason. But I hear an accent in life-long residents of metro KC. It's not horribly obvious, but it's there. Not everyone has it, but there is an accent. If you grew up there, you'd have to move away for a long time and come back to understand. It's more in the way people will say their vowels and draw words out a bit, speaking a bit more slowly than I'm used to. Or how they tend to drop the "sas" from Kan"sas" City. I remember in high school going to Rhode Island and they all thought I had a "wicked southern accent" lol! (As if they had no accent)

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by denverian

Well, rural people anywhere tend to have more of an accent for whatever reason. But I hear an accent in life-long residents of metro KC. It's not horribly obvious, but it's there. Not everyone has it, but there is an accent. If you grew up there, you'd have to move away for a long time and come back to understand. It's more in the way people will say their vowels and draw words out a bit, speaking a bit more slowly than I'm used to. Or how they tend to drop the "sas" from Kan"sas" City. I remember in high school going to Rhode Island and they all thought I had a "wicked southern accent" lol! (As if they had no accent)

It's because they're isolated and amongst each other as a group with out neutralizing influences, I'd assume. I haven't ever moved away for a long time, but I understand what you're saying. The people in KC are just not very urban, so many aren't many generations removed from their rural past and even many new residents are from small towns and rural areas all around. I would guess the former is true of the lifelong friends you speak of. Even KC's long-time urban population might be influenced by the large proportion of people with more recent ties. I still think you might be confusing a rural influence as Southern, but then again KC is close to Arkansas and Oklahoma, and the city proper is in Missouri, and a lot of people have come here from those states. Either way, in large urban cities (like Denver, San Diego, Seattle), I think with the massive surge of populations from all over the place, and the presumably more urbanized nature of that population, I think you would be less likely to hear accents or influence from the surrounding rural areas or that are more native to that area. I think that may be the difference between KC and those cities. You have a point. I'm just not sure it's really a Southern accent. Are you familiar with rural accents elsewhere, like Colorado, California, or Washington? I'd wonder if they (or rural accents anywhere) sound Southern to you. Colorado, Washington, and California might be faulty examples though, because it wouldn't surprise me if Southern-derived accents still exist in those places. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I know the difference between general rural and Southern accents. Maybe they're similar and the Southern accent is just largely rooted in the fact the South has stayed rural for so long.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

It's because they're isolated and amongst each other as a group with out neutralizing influences, I'd assume. I haven't ever moved away for a long time, but I understand what you're saying. The people in KC are just not very urban, so many aren't many generations removed from their rural past and even many new residents are from small towns and rural areas all around. I would guess the former is true of the lifelong friends you speak of. Even KC's long-time urban population might be influenced by the large proportion of people with more recent ties. I still think you might be confusing a rural influence as Southern, but then again KC is close to Arkansas and Oklahoma, and the city proper is in Missouri, and a lot of people have come here from those states. Either way, in large urban cities (like Denver, San Diego, Seattle), I think with the massive surge of populations from all over the place, and the presumably more urbanized nature of that population, I think you would be less likely to hear accents or influence from the surrounding rural areas or that are more native to that area. I think that may be the difference between KC and those cities. You have a point. I'm just not sure it's really a Southern accent. Are you familiar with rural accents elsewhere, like Colorado, California, or Washington? I'd wonder if they (or rural accents anywhere) sound Southern to you. Colorado, Washington, and California might be faulty examples though, because it wouldn't surprise me if Southern-derived accents still exist in those places. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I know the difference between general rural and Southern accents. Maybe they're similar and the Southern accent is just largely rooted in the fact the South has stayed rural for so long.

Oh, I wasn't saying KC has a southern accent, but rather a slight accent I would call Midwestern. I had heard a "more southern" sound in far SE Kansas.

I've never spent a lot of time in the rural West, so I can't really say. A lot of rural Californians, if they've been there for generations, had roots in the South and Midwest, so there could be accents. In Colorado, there are many Hispanic people who have a particular accent that goes back for generations in Colorado.

With everyone moving everywhere, eventually, there will be mostly just one standard U.S. accent, not accounting for immigrant accents. I've noticed on some reality TV shows where people in the South now don't have much of an accent (usually younger people, and no one on Honey Boo Boo lol!)