Theres a new accent growing in rural Kansas.
Residents in a southwestern Kansas town have begun developing a new accent, thanks to the citys changing population, according to Kansas.com.
The accent, called a Liberal accent or Liberal sound, derives from Liberal, Kansas, a small town in Seward County that has about 25,000 people. About 59 percent of the towns population is Hispanic (a jump from 20 percent decades ago), according to Kansas.com.
Researcher Mary Kohn, a linguist, and her team at Kent State University recently identified the Liberal accent after years of research.
This doesnt mean the town is using new words or applying specific meanings to certain things. Rather, the phonetics of the speech are different than other areas, Kohn said.
"A lot of these patterns are on the phonetic level, meaning that it deals with sounds," Kohn said in a statement. "So what we are dealing with here is a distinct accent. It's not so much that we have completely radical new ways of speaking in Liberal, as it is there is a distinctive Liberal sound that is emerging."
Kohn told KMUW the new accent has a Latino-English sound and its more popular among young people. It started as the Kansas towns population became a mix of Hispanic and white people.
It dispels the myth of the idea that Kansas in a monolingual state, she said. Thats never been the case."
In fact, Kohn released a video where she demonstrates the new accent, which prominently appears when speaking with aaa or nnn sounds. Most English accents change when pronouncing the aaa sound in hat or hand.
But for this language, the sound doesn't have a distinction in words like hat and hand. That's because the mouth is still in an open-jaw position, according to Kansas.com.
Watch Kohn demonstrate the findings in this video.
Kohns research is a part of the Kansas Speaks Project, which she has used to identify changes in accents across Kansas. She and her team have focused specifically on southwestern Kansas, where there has been a significant amount of population changes, according to the press release.
Kohn said in a press release that changes in accents happen all the time. For example, Minnesota developed after Europeans moved to the region, she said.
"It's something that we see all over the U.S., and it's characteristic of what happens when you have large immigration patterns affect the demographic of the region," Kohn said.
Residents in a southwestern Kansas town have begun developing a new accent, thanks to the citys changing population, according to Kansas.com.
The accent, called a Liberal accent or Liberal sound, derives from Liberal, Kansas, a small town in Seward County that has about 25,000 people. About 59 percent of the towns population is Hispanic (a jump from 20 percent decades ago), according to Kansas.com.
Researcher Mary Kohn, a linguist, and her team at Kent State University recently identified the Liberal accent after years of research.
This doesnt mean the town is using new words or applying specific meanings to certain things. Rather, the phonetics of the speech are different than other areas, Kohn said.
"A lot of these patterns are on the phonetic level, meaning that it deals with sounds," Kohn said in a statement. "So what we are dealing with here is a distinct accent. It's not so much that we have completely radical new ways of speaking in Liberal, as it is there is a distinctive Liberal sound that is emerging."
Kohn told KMUW the new accent has a Latino-English sound and its more popular among young people. It started as the Kansas towns population became a mix of Hispanic and white people.
It dispels the myth of the idea that Kansas in a monolingual state, she said. Thats never been the case."
In fact, Kohn released a video where she demonstrates the new accent, which prominently appears when speaking with aaa or nnn sounds. Most English accents change when pronouncing the aaa sound in hat or hand.
But for this language, the sound doesn't have a distinction in words like hat and hand. That's because the mouth is still in an open-jaw position, according to Kansas.com.
Watch Kohn demonstrate the findings in this video.
Kohns research is a part of the Kansas Speaks Project, which she has used to identify changes in accents across Kansas. She and her team have focused specifically on southwestern Kansas, where there has been a significant amount of population changes, according to the press release.
Kohn said in a press release that changes in accents happen all the time. For example, Minnesota developed after Europeans moved to the region, she said.
"It's something that we see all over the U.S., and it's characteristic of what happens when you have large immigration patterns affect the demographic of the region," Kohn said.
