My Accent

A couple weeks ago I was having a conversation with someone at work. She told me, after a little while, that I had an accent and she could tell I wasn't from Kansas. She said certain intonations of mine were different than what it used here. I have always wanted to have an accent, so this was a pretty cool moment. But I wondered what kind of accent I had. Idaho? Utah? Intermountain West?

Then, last week I was having a conversation with someone from Idaho. And I noticed that certain words they said were in a similar way I or someone from Idaho would say it--just in the enunciation of a vowel in a word.

When I visited my friend Pam in PA once I noticed how the radio DJs pronounced Allegheny and Carnegie much differently than I did, putting their emphasis in different places. I think people in Kansas definitely have an accent. Or at least a regional way of speaking, such as adding 'r's to their words (warsh, instead of wash) or saying catty-corner instead of kitty-corner.  And we all know that people from Idaho call it pop instead of soda.