Do any parts of Kansas feel southern at all? (Wichita: military, law)

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

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

Nope. It's a very old dialect feature of the English language which changes the final unnaccented syllable in words ending in vowels to a schwa sound. It is likely (though not proven) to have originated in Scots and Irish speech patterns in western New England and the mid-Atlantic Colonies.

Though now disappearing, it was a common dialect variation in many words, like Cincinnati, Miami, Naomi, Hawai'i, Ypsilanti, Okoboji, Mississippi, spaghetti, ravioli, macaroni, and prairie.

Surprisingly to many, it is a feature more common in northern dialects than southern ones.

[thriftylefty]

Quite a bit of Kansas was settled by southerners. Southeast Kansas in particular had people from the upper south settle into Cherokee county,the Katy railroad brought in Texas and Oklahoma people to Labette county to build the railroad, and notwithstanding the fact that the push to settle Kansas was part of an effor to tip the balance into making sure it would be come a slave state.

I think a lot of southern culture was held in check by the towns in Southeast Kansas that were settled by New Yorkers. The Towns of; Erie, Fredonia, Buffalo, Dunkirk and Oswego are some known settlements named after cities in the Northeast. IMO Its not so much the accents in that area that make you think its southern, but its the number of colloquialisms that are southern, yet spoken with just a hint of the drawl of a true southerner.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by luzianne

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!

The people I'm talking about in Florida are old, and black. I don't think it's really a "thing" in Miami, FL to pronounce it that way. They may have more of a southern accent, hence the odd pronunciation.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by s.davis

Nope. It's a very old dialect feature of the English language which changes the final unnaccented syllable in words ending in vowels to a schwa sound. It is likely (though not proven) to have originated in Scots and Irish speech patterns in western New England and the mid-Atlantic Colonies.

Though now disappearing, it was a common dialect variation in many words, like Cincinnati, Miami, Naomi, Hawai'i, Ypsilanti, Okoboji, Mississippi, spaghetti, ravioli, macaroni, and prairie.

Surprisingly to many, it is a feature more common in northern dialects than southern ones.

My grandparents called Hawaii "Huh-wah-yuh", and their roots were in rural Missouri.

[kttam186290]

In my opinion, what makes Kansas feel "different" than Missouri and Oklahoma is the religious aspects of it.

Kansas has a lot more Roman Catholics per capita than most southern states, save for Louisiana and southern Texas. Wichita has a pretty large and historic white Catholic population. I'm guessing that this has to do with the high number of German, Italian and Irish Catholics who settled there. Wichita, culturally, is closer to Columbus, Des Moines and Omaha than it is to Dallas/FW, Oklahoma City or Amarillo even.

You don't see the Catholic influence so much in Oklahoma or western Missouri. There, it's more Baptist and evangelical Protestant. The evangelical influences in Oklahoma and western Missouri make those places feel more "southern".

[mostlysunny1]

No, KS countryside I just think it is staunchly, unapologeticly, very defensively agricultural...Green views live in the city and get to enjoy natural spaces at the state lakes or their own private country lands.

[BKellyS]

Originally Posted by fezzador

Yep. You know you're in the Lower Midwest when folks say things like "warsh". Not truly Southern, but definitely not Upper Midwestern.

It's not "warsh" as people often characterize the pronunciation, it's more like "woish" ... there's no "r" sound. At least in rural Kansas around Kingman and Pretty Prairie near Hutchinson, where my folks grew up. That's how they say it, and how I used to say it and still do when it slips out that way!

[pioneer88]

Woish is how my grandpa cays it. He grew up near OK/KS line in the Gyp Hills ranch land.

[imbored198824]

In southern Missouri some people do say warsh, and there is a hard r in it for sure.

[MOKAN]

My grandma definitely says it like "warsh", and so do others I know. My grandma is from NE Oklahoma and the other person that immediately comes to mind is from south of Warsaw, MO.