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Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
2,709 posts, read 5,098,363 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MoSouthernMan
Well I went into Springfield on my way to Table Rock and did interact with some of the people there. I ran into a number of southern accents, and this wasn't the twang that many in Missouri get and southern parts of northern southern MO, but the hickish Ozark southern accent of the Arkansas and far southern Missouri Ozarks. I was actually kinda suprised at the number of southern accents I ran into in springfield. I did also hear some flat American accents too though.
Springfield MO i would call it a southern city before Midwestern if I only had one choice.
Springfield does however have some midwest influence in it though and even though I'm pro south I will admit that.
Now just outside of the Springfield city limits now that felt really and looked totally southern to me and mostly southern accents that I heard when you get into Nixa, Ozark and really saw no midwestern at all as I was in the area of Table Rock, Branson for a few days.
When you get out of Stl county on I44 it GRADUALLY enters the transition zone from Midwest to southern as you start to see southern influence gradually pickup unlike in SE MO where it's pretty sudden in cape county.
I thought it was sort neat driving I44 southwards to gradually see the changes. Rolla the transition zone starts to pickup a bit more I noticed, but once it seemed I hit Lebanon is when the southern characterstics then started to become more sudden, until when I just left the springfield city limits where I felt it was pretty much totally southern at that point.
Not only that but landscape as well changes. I noticed as I got close to springfield the increased number of pine trees as well that makes it feel more southern. Especially near highway 60 in the Ozarks MO's landscape really takes on a southern look like northern Arkansas.
For anyone on this forum I suggest driving south on I44 through Missouri and then get on highway 65 and take it on down into Harrison, AR.
i44 gives a good example of the transition zone that we talk about here and lets you see it gradually for yourself and is a pretty drive as well. If you want to see Dixie in the MO Ozarks hit just south of Springfield on south, or cities like Cabool, West Plains, Doniphan, Branson, Mountain View.
If you want to see King Cotton, Midsouth type of southern hit Sikeston, Dexter, Kennett, Charleston, Caruthersville, etc.
Stlousian also has posted he thinks Little Dixie area in MO where he currently is is like 40 percent southern 60 percent midwestern. I was shocked when he said that personally, but he knows what he's talking about so I believe him. I always thought it was maybe like 15 percent southern.
You will occasionally hear a Southern accent in the central and even northern parts of the state...it is out of the norm though, hence why the dialect line doesn't extend that far north. Little Dixie was once a Southern stronghold, and you can still see some traces of that Southern influence left over. It is still the Midwest from a modern standpoint.
You will occasionally hear a Southern accent in the central and even northern parts of the state...it is out of the norm though, hence why the dialect line doesn't extend that far north. Little Dixie was once a Southern stronghold, and you can still see some traces of that Southern influence left over. It is still the Midwest from a modern standpoint.
Agree, and I will assume it's mostly an old person you will hear it from too. Heck even in places truely southern alot of the youngsters now have a general American accent.
When I was down there I took note of that too when I was at Silver Dollar city since a lot of children with their parents and grandparents there. The older people would have the accent, but when I heard the kids talk hardly any had the southernish accent.
Same at college the young people from southern Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and other southern states none of them really have accents at all and unless you knew where they were from you wouldn't know if they were from the south or not.
Like at orientation I remember some goth looking kid from New Orleans area sounded as flat as a pancake, but his parents who looked in their mid 50s had a THICK cajun accent! I could hardly even understand the father when he was talking to me. Thicker than any Mississippi delta, Georgia, or bootheel accent I've ever heard.
I'll take your word about Little Dixie. I think South Midland dialect works fine for that area.
That's why I hate the census thing where it lumps entire states into one region. The tiny strip of far northern part of WV for example that jets WAY north into Ohio and PA isn't southern culturally, climate or anything. Northern MD isn't southern as well as a lot of the state isn't southern for a few places on the Eastern Shore. Delaware at the start of the civil war was hardly southern.
And that's the problem with Missouri IMO. Missouri isn't like Southern IL or Southern Indiana that has some southern influences in the southern parts of the state, but Missouri has actually areas that are located geographically and culturally are dixie and southern about 25 percent of it which is a mentionable chunk. Missouri from a rough line from Jackson/Cape Girardeau over to south of Joplin city limits should be thrown in with the South. Springfield is literally right on the line IMO of Dixie as Brad Pitt has even mentioned how Springfield is literally right on the line almost just go a couple miles south outside of town and you're fully southern.
They really should break the states down more. Missouri overall of course is more Midwest than southern, however it's not as lopsided as one would think.
Jay Nixon also mentioned before how due to Missouri's location it contains various cultures.
And I do have to wonder about Springfield also if the college wasn't there if that would literally make the town enough to be considered southern. It's just so close liteally a couple miles but I can't call it fully southern.
SPeaking of Southern MO, I just saw this. I can't remember last year if it was Republic or Nixa that a student was not allowed to park his truck at school because he had a Confederate flag in the back of it I remember seeing it on the local news sites from down there.
SPeaking of Southern MO, I just saw this. I can't remember last year if it was Republic or Nixa that a student was not allowed to park his truck at school because he had a Confederate flag in the back of it I remember seeing it on the local news sites from down there.
It has been an issue lately. When I went to high school there were actually several trucks that parked in Branson parking lot and had confederate flags on them(usually around 10). They would park in a line right next to each other, so it was kinda hard to miss. Since then I don't know what the rules on having the flag on your vehicle are. I do know that several students were suspended from Branson this year because they wouldn't take off their confederate flag memorial tshirts. A student died in a car crash a year or two ago, and they were wearing the shirts to remember him. Branson students sent home over Confederate memorial shirts - KSPR 33
It has been an issue lately. When I went to high school there were actually several trucks that parked in Branson parking lot and had confederate flags on them(usually around 10). They would park in a line right next to each other, so it was kinda hard to miss. Since then I don't know what the rules on having the flag on your vehicle are. I do know that several students were suspended from Branson this year because they wouldn't take off their confederate flag memorial tshirts. A student died in a car crash a year or two ago, and they were wearing the shirts to remember him. Branson students sent home over Confederate memorial shirts - KSPR 33
Wow, things are really different in Southern Missouri than up here.
Really it's like a totally different world I felt in! It was refreshing. Its been years since I been down there. I mean of course I knew the northern Arkansas Ozarks, and far southern Missouri was southern, but I didn't think it was going to be that bold until I was down there this week. It was more southern than I thought.
Stlouisan since you said parts of the Little Dixie area still had noticeable southern influences, how would you mark the transition zone boundaries on that map I made last year for the Little Dixie area then? I just had traces left but according to you you said it's like 40 percent southern and 60 percent midwestern. I never traveled that part of central, north central MO so I'll let you remark about that.
Stlouisan would you still say MO is 25 percent Dixie, 25 percent transition mix of midwest/south and 50 percent midwestern after you have now lived in the Little Dixie area, or would you still say the numbers are about the same as we agreed to before you moved to that region and saw the cultural differences?
I'm originally from the Nashville, TN area but just spent two years living in South Missouri. In MANY ways most places are not any different what so ever from back in Middle Tennessee. Southeast Missouri Feels nothing like Mid Tenn and more like the delta to me but Southwest Missouri from like Branson on up north past Stockton feels 100% like the south I was born and raised in from every angle. The entire region across South MO is pretty well documented to historically and presently be heavily tied to the south and the last time I checked MO had a star on the southern cross.... Look, the south is a HUGE region with many different types of geography and sub cultures. I still to this day have no clue what "true southern means"??? You can't paint it with a broad brush. I can tell you one thing with certainty that I've seen from my travels around the south and Midwest and that is that South Missouri is southern through and through. I see absolutely ZERO similarities between it and Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, ect in that region and whole lot of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Carolina. Truth be told, I don't see much of connection between it and the rest of the state of Missouri. It is so drastically different from St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and most places north of the MO River. I've never seen another state like Missouri in my life. It's a pretty confused place that struggles with a united identity. Another observation I noticed while there was that it seemed like there were more Arkansas Razorback fans than Mizzou by a long shot. It's southern to me with ZERO astricts
I'm originally from the Nashville, TN area but just spent two years living in South Missouri. In MANY ways most places are not any different what so ever from back in Middle Tennessee. Southeast Missouri Feels nothing like Mid Tenn and more like the delta to me but Southwest Missouri from like Branson on up north past Stockton feels 100% like the south I was born and raised in from every angle. The entire region across South MO is pretty well documented to historically and presently be heavily tied to the south and the last time I checked MO had a star on the southern cross.... Look, the south is a HUGE region with many different types of geography and sub cultures. I still to this day have no clue what "true southern means"??? You can't paint it with a broad brush. I can tell you one thing with certainty that I've seen from my travels around the south and Midwest and that is that South Missouri is southern through and through. I see absolutely ZERO similarities between it and Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, ect in that region and whole lot of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Carolina. Truth be told, I don't see much of connection between it and the rest of the state of Missouri. It is so drastically different from St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and most places north of the MO River. I've never seen another state like Missouri in my life. It's a pretty confused place that struggles with a united identity. Another observation I noticed while there was that it seemed like there were more Arkansas Razorback fans than Mizzou by a long shot. It's southern to me with ZERO astricts
If you think it's confused now, imagine what it was like during the Civil War.
Was just in Stl. They had sweet tea and mustard greens, fried chicken, Mac n cheese ect. at the buffet I ate at
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