Blog #126: Kansas Accent

Whenever I tell people I'm from Kansas, there are usually three things that happen. First of all, they make a Wizard of Oz joke (see the title of this entire blog for reference). Second, most people express some disbelief because I "don't seem like [I'm] from Kansas." Third, and going along with number two, I get asked about my accent, or lack thereof. Most people assume that Kansans have some sort of "cowboy accent," as I've often been asked about, or some sort of Kansas twang. And, although I do know some people who have a bit of a twang, I always proudly respond to this by saying that news anchors are trained to speak like Kansans, because our accents are the least accented and the most general/least recognizable as an accent.

I've been telling people this for years, and myself believed that a Kansas accent wasn't a real thing... until today.

Let me paint a mental picture for you; I'm sitting on the tailgate of my dad's truck, waiting for his friend Laird to balance my tires. My hands are black and dirty from changing my tires earlier, and I've got on my 'work jeans.' Along comes Dean, an old friend of my dad's who has been around as long as I can remember, and quite a bit longer than that. He grabs a couple beers for us (Bud Light, to be exact, which seems to be the choice beer in these parts), and hands me one as he sits on the tailgate next to me. We're laughing, we're drinking, we're giving each other crap, and before I know it... I sound different.

My words are being tainted with a touch of twang.

I'm using "ain't," a term I intentionally ridded from my vocabulary when I was probably six years old.

I'm speaking in... a Kansas accent.

Quite honestly, I don't know exactly what the accent was, how or why I started speaking in it, or why I wasn't able to stop. If I tried to do it right now, I wouldn't be able to. It was subtle enough that Dean didn't even notice my transition into it, but it had a little bit of twang and a little bit of running my words together.

Who knows.

Maybe I used to talk like that before moving out of Kansas and I just never realized it.

Maybe it's a Dean-effect from hanging out with him too much.

Maybe it was my brain overcompensating to try and adjust back to Kansas life after being gone for so long!

I honestly have no idea, but it was pretty hilarious. And it definitely didn't stick, so I'm not too worried. Plus, you better believe I will still argue until my dying day that Kansans don't have an accent, because we don't.

A sneak peek of Dean's new man cave he showed me today.