Do Kansans have accents?
I’ve long pondered this question, both as a Kansan, and an accent-obsessed individual.
I definitely didn’t spend time this week researching all the different variations of British accents and watching Beatles interviews from 1963 just to hear Paul McCartney’s Liverpool accent. (: Why would I do that?
I’m sure you’ve wondered about this, too. Kansas accents are probably one of the deep questions that keeps you up at night. You know, up there along with questions like,
“What is the meaning of life?”
And,
“Does free will exist?”
The debate of Kansas accents is definitely up there on the list of deep philosophical mysteries. There’s a reason why Plato and Aristotle never talked about the deep wonders of the Midwestern accent. It’s because they simply didn’t have an answer.
Well, today is your lucky day. I have an answer.
Short answer: yes. We do. Kansans have accents.
People will try to tell you otherwise, but that’s a myth. We do.
For the longest time I refused to believe it. We just have plain, flat Midwestern voices, right? We just say everything the way it’s spelled, right?
Apparently not. Kansans have what is called a “Midwestern American English dialect”. We’re known for have a slightly more nasal tone when we pronounce some words. Kansas is even known for having it’s own slang. Words like, “Nader” (tornado) and “Crick” (creek) are some of the most popular, among many others.
I can remember going to a friend’s house and walking down with her to their creek. When we got back to the house, her dad said,
“You guys take a walk down to the crick?”
I was like, “Dude. What the heck is the crick?”
Crick is another word for creek. Although I had never heard it used before then, being a Kansas kid who resides in the city (though a city by Kansas’ standards isn’t much of a city), I’ve met more and more people who say crick instead of creek over the years.
As I started thinking about our accents, I also realized that we shorten sentences down—considerably.
“Can I come with?”
“Real bad.”
“Yeh.”
“I’m goin’.”
“Howdy!” Texans aren’t the only ones who say this one.
We do small things like dropping a ‘y’ or replacing an “ing” for an “in’ “. We even sometimes drop the words at the beginning of sentences. Instead of saying, “Did you do this?” we’ll say, “You do this?” Even I, who am supposed to be a polished writer, can downright drawl this “Kansas accent” when I’m in a relaxed setting.
“You go to the store? Dang, okay. Yeh, I’m goin’. You can come with.”
Maybe I always thought that the general Midwestern accent was the normal way because that’s what we’re used to hearing in the movies and media, but that’s not true. At the end of the day, there is no “normal” way to pronounce the English language. Whether you’re a Southerner, a Northerner, a Brit or a Kansan, we all use the same words—we just say them differently. No way is the “simple” or “right” way.
So yeah. Kansans have accents.
How about you? What kind of accent do you have?
Ope! Emma, can you get more relatable🤣? I truly do ponder accents, and it's hilarious that you posted this today because I spent almost the entirety of my 8-hour shift giggling to myself and letting my Midwest accent completely take over. It really is noticeable when I say the words great and day. I say gr-eyy-t and d-eyy. "Eh" is just a part of the vocab and I cannot escape it.
It doesn't help that I tell every customer to "Have a gr-eyy-t rest of yer d-eyy!" 😝
As a Kansan who has spent many a sleepless night pondering this question, I am very glad you addressed it.
I would also like to add the "crayon" pronounced as "crown" to the mix. It may not be something all Kansas participate in, but research shows that it is common among the people of this fine state.
Also, there is a very soft (*extremely* soft) southern accent that I myself have on occasion.