Topeka, Kansas
The Topeka Accent
Topeka sits inside the Midland dialect area, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and the US Midland, United States. No other dialect area in the survey comes close to it.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Topeka sound like
- “The car needs washed” — “to be” is dropped.
- “Cot” and “caught” sound the same.
- “Pin” and “pen” stay distinct, unlike Texas and the South.
- Plural “you” is “you guys”, not “y’all”.
These are the markers of the Midland accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Topeka has all of them — the full Midland profile sets out where the region varies.
How Kansas answered the Harvard Dialect Survey
The Harvard Dialect Survey, collected by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder in 2002–2003, recorded how respondents in every US state answered the same questions. These are Kansas’s answers, most common first.
| Question | Answers in Kansas |
|---|---|
| Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink | pop 56% · soda 23% · coke 14% |
| Traffic Circle, Roundabout or Rotary? | roundabout 44% · traffic circle 29% · rotary 3% |
| Water Fountain, Drinking Fountain or Bubbler? | water fountain 55% · drinking fountain 42% · bubbler 1% |
| Lightning Bug or Firefly? | lightning bug 51% · firefly 5% |
| Crawfish, Crawdad or Crayfish? | crawdad 61% · crawfish 28% · crayfish 6% |
| Roly Poly or Potato Bug? | roly poly 89% · potato bug 1% |
| You Guys, Y'all or You All? | you guys 53% · you all 17% · y'all 10% |
| Kitty-Corner or Catty-Corner? | catty-corner 66% · kitty-corner 18% |
| Garage Sale or Yard Sale? | garage sale 83% · yard sale 12% |
| Tennis Shoes or Sneakers? | tennis shoes 74% · sneakers 13% |
| Trash Can or Garbage Can? | trash can 67% · garbage can 6% |
| Frosting or Icing? | frosting 34% · icing 18% |
| Scratch Paper or Scrap Paper? | scratch paper 51% · scrap paper 11% |
| Frontage Road, Service Road or Access Road? | frontage road 61% · access road 12% · service road 9% |
| Does “Route” Rhyme With “Out” or “Hoot”? | rhymes with "out" 34% · rhymes with "hoot" 21% |
| Caramel: Two Syllables or Three? | with 2 syllables ("car-ml") 66% · with 3 syllables ("carra-mel") 15% |
| Mischievous or Mischievious? | mischievious (4 syllables) 40% · mischievous (3 syllables) 32% |
| Rubber Band, Hair Tie or Elastic? | rubber band 38% · hair tie 22% · (hair) elastic 6% |
Data from the Harvard Dialect Survey (Bert Vaux and Scott Golder, 2002–2003), used under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence. A self-selected sample from two decades ago: how people spoke then, not a census.
Is your accent from Topeka?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the Midland American English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.