Do any parts of Kansas feel southern at all? (Overland Park: high school, live)

[Mattks]

I would say people with that accent are a small minority, but they do exist. I personally would say Kansas has 3 accent groups, the one in this video, and that's probably as strong as it gets. Western ks is high plains/western accent and NE is Midwestern. The rest are transitions from one accent to another. I'd also say there is a rural vs urban accent difference. None of these accents are very strong compared to say a quintessential Boston or New York accent. People not from this region might not notice as many differences.

[UKWildcat1981]

Kansas is home of the Westboro Baptist Church, those wackadoos remind of my many rednecks and hillbillies we have in the South.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by UKWildcat1981

Kansas is home of the Westboro Baptist Church, those wackadoos remind of my many rednecks and hillbillies we have in the South.

They should, the founder was a transplant from Mississippi that chose Topeka because of their 666xx zip code.

He was also an Al Gore fundraiser up until Al decided that being pro-gay would be a good move for his presidential campaign. They protested at AL's fathers funeral because of that.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

They should, the founder was a transplant from Mississippi that chose Topeka because of their 666xx zip code.

He was also an Al Gore fundraiser up until Al decided that being pro-gay would be a good move for his presidential campaign. They protested at AL's fathers funeral because of that.

Satan has his grip on Topeka lol!

I've been down to Pittsburg, KS once and thought they sounded quite southern. Kind of odd, considering there's a strong Italian influence there. IIRC, it was primarily Italians emigrating to the U.S. at the time they were recruiting miners to that area of SE KS, so that's who they hauled to the area via the railroad for work.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by denverian

Satan has his grip on Topeka lol!

I've been down to Pittsburg, KS once and thought they sounded quite southern. Kind of odd, considering there's a strong Italian influence there. IIRC, it was primarily Italians emigrating to the U.S. at the time they were recruiting miners to that area of SE KS, so that's who they hauled to the area via the railroad for work.

That should read "immigrating". Shame on me!

[Rivertowntalk]

Very interesting thread. I am from Kansas and the people in the videos don't really sound southern to me. I think they have very mild accents. There are some stronger accents in Kansas than those in the videos and there are many local (usually rural) accents that are quite different. Topeka and rural Topeka is fairly distinct to me. Although, when traveling in other parts of the county, I have been asked a couple of times if I was from the south. This happen in the northeast and out west. Had difficult time understanding some of the folks in the northeast. I remember hearing the term "Aye-ya", which means "hi." The Tulsa accent sounds quite different from the gal in Baxter Springs. I heard a lady in Tulsa say, "I'm witchuall", which means "I'm with you." Had no idea what she was saying.

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.

[UKWildcat1981]

Originally Posted by Rivertowntalk

Very interesting thread. I am from Kansas and the people in the videos don't really sound southern to me. I think they have very mild accents. There are some stronger accents in Kansas than those in the videos and there are many local (usually rural) accents that are quite different. Topeka and rural Topeka is fairly distinct to me. Although, when traveling in other parts of the county, I have been asked a couple of times if I was from the south. This happen in the northeast and out west. Had difficult time understanding some of the folks in the northeast. I remember hearing the term "Aye-ya", which means "hi." The Tulsa accent sounds quite different from the gal in Baxter Springs. I heard a lady in Tulsa say, "I'm witchuall", which means "I'm with you." Had no idea what she was saying.

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.

Kansas is really rural in some areas but its really flat and its easy to get around, isolated parts of Kentucky you can't even find with a GPS. Kansas is a very nice state overall I love driving through it was driving fast.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

The western 1/3 of the state is solidly western, having very little in common with the majority of the Midwest. The rest of the state is similar to the lower Midwest with some southern influences. Kansas lacks the northern influences found in many other areas of the Midwest, areas along and north of the I-80 boundary in particular.

What northern influences might those be? Can you explain?

Originally Posted by imbored198824

I'm pretty sure the lady in the video I put up is from southeast Kansas. I have met tons of people from rural southeast Kansas and she sounds exactly like them. The fist video the other poster put up only included one local. The other people in that video are not natives to se kansas.

I went to high school in southeast Kansas and spent time in Pittsburg and at Pittsburg State University. I wouldn't say the most Southern-like accents you can find examples of are typical of southeast Kansas. There's a bit of influence from Oklahoma and transplants from Oklahoma. There's also an urban-rural divide regarding accents, of course.

Southeast Kansas's larger towns are actually fairly "urban" and were largely industrial, so they probably drew some Southerners from the nearby South just like major cities did in that regard (industrial jobs). The far southeast had mining operations. The extreme southeast tip is technically part of the Ozarks.

Originally Posted by eddie gein

Historically, there was a large southern migration to Kansas in the 1850s in an attempt to get the state admitted as a slave state.

I believe that there was a large southern contingent who settled around Atchison, Ks and ended up organizing the state constitution called the Lecompton, KS

Your first sentence is definitely true. Your second is something that would be interesting to look into. Atchison and Leavenworth are the two oldest cities in Kansas. There was actually slavery in Kansas too, and that history would be interesting. I hadn't thought of that until at some point I read that Reverend Johnson (I forget his first name), the guy Johnson County was named after, had gone to Westport (Kansas City, MO) to buy slaves to take back to Kansas Territory.

Along these same lines, it would be interesting to know how many of the countering New England families remained in Kansas too. And how many of the Southern families who settled most of Missouri and established the slave plantation culture along the Missouri River in Missouri stayed.

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.

I believe that's Appalachian, and while they filled out the South, they also went all over the place.

Originally Posted by UKWildcat1981

Kansas is home of the Westboro Baptist Church, those wackadoos remind of my many rednecks and hillbillies we have in the South.

They trace to Mississippi.

Originally Posted by denverian

Satan has his grip on Topeka lol!

I've been down to Pittsburg, KS once and thought they sounded quite southern. Kind of odd, considering there's a strong Italian influence there. IIRC, it was primarily Italians emigrating to the U.S. at the time they were recruiting miners to that area of SE KS, so that's who they hauled to the area via the railroad for work.

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.

[Rivertowntalk]

The town of Lecompton, KS was established as a pro slavery territorial capitol. There was a free state capitol location north of Lawrence and the first Kansas Governor, Robinson, had a farm not far from there. Fort Riley also had a territorial capitol. Fairly sure both Lawrence and Manhattan were founded by New Englanders. One, perhaps Manhattan, was nearly named "New Boston."

There were Kanza Indian settlements near Manhattan and Atchison. The Kanza location, north of what later became Atchison, was a fairly large encampment and was a capitol of sorts for the Kanza. Lewis and Clark camped at the Kanza location north of Atchison.

I had not heard about the Italian influence in Pittsburg. I wonder if the chicken house restaurants are still going near Pittsburg.

[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?