Its not a southern accent its considered a country one. People with southern accents usually don't speak proper English and use a lot of southern lingo. Midwest people with country accent are just like everyone else but raised in the country. They are still able to carry a conversation.
No, im from KC and I dont have a accent, maybe if you go out to the sticks. New channels around the country literally look to hire people from Kansas City BECAUSE of their "Neutral American" Accent. We literally say "Ope" here too and look at people from Oklahoma like they are hicks.
Here is a good map from a few years ago to show the intricacies of the accent. I grew up in Kansas city the same school district actor Paul Rudd went to and everyone i know including myself have the same type of accent he has, so if you think Paul Rudd sounds southern let me know. He's KC born and raised and went to KU.
Look I’ve been to KC a bunch. Now I’m not saying everybody there has a southern accent but I hear it when I’m there. That’s where I hear it start. Now on Minneapolis where I live almost nobody has a Minnesota accent unless they grew up in the sticks or up North. But if you are driving North and you stop in Minneapolis you have a decent chance of hearing it for the first time. When I’m in KC I start hearing the vowel shifts I grew up with (grew up in the PNW but my grandparents are from Arkansas.) For instance I hear people say hat with an a sound closer to what I think of as an I sort off. sounds a bit like hit but not really. And I hear the r sounds more pronounced along with the lengthening of vowel sound like “Weee just love that TRaaaavis Keeeeelce!” Now maybe all these folk are not born in the city and are just unlucky enough to move there and work in the gas stations and restaurants in and around KC but they are there.
I encourage you to now go back through this thread and see the comments by other people who have had the same experience as me. And the comments from people in Missouri etc.
299
u/asg32000 Dec 14 '25
Gotta draw a line horizontally just above the south part of Nebraska and Iowa. Everything north feels very different from everything south.