How This Small Town In Kansas Quietly Became One Of The Most Unique Places In The U.S.

There’s something special about this Kansas town, and you probably won’t guess it unless you already knew. It’s not so much something you see, as it is something you hear in one of the most unique places in Kansas.

For this town, there’s a lot to be proud of. They have great local businesses, friendly residents, and plenty to do and eat while you’re here. But what makes them so special?

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According to research done by linguists at KSU, Liberal is slowly developing its own accent, apart from the rest of Kansas. In the '80s, around 20% of the population was Hispanic, and it has slowly risen since then to around 60%. Over the years, the town has slowly added Spanish inflections into their speech, changing their sentence structure and the way they pronounce some words.

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But people who have never spoken Spanish before are also beginning to speak differently than other Kansans. Cross-checking between different school sports teams in town found that they still all speak the same way, no matter who the teams are made of. Both Anglo and Latinx kids spoke with this dialect, even during times without anyone around to "influence" them.

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A good example given by the study is how the word "hand" is pronounced with the tongue higher in the mouth, to get the vowel sound that rhymes with band, sand, and grand. However, many of the white kids in Liberal are pronouncing it with a sound similar to "hat" with the tongue lower in the mouth. The research done has also found that the timing or meter of speech is also different, becoming more even tempo like the Spanish language.

Isn’t this kind of awesome? Let us know in the comments below what you think of this and whether you’ve noticed any changes over the years if you live in Liberal. To read more about the study itself and watch a video explaining the vowel sound changes, check out this Atlas Obscura article by Trevin Garcia.

Otherwise, check out this list of unique experiences that unite all Kansans. We’ve all been there one time or another!