Change spelling to Mizzuruh

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by ozarksboy

Ladue? And you claim to be a hillbilly? Now, that's a good'n.

My mothers people came down the Mississippi from Quebec in 1699 and settled in the Kaskaskia/ Ste Genevieve region, and are still there, minus 1 branch that moved to Poplar Bluff in the mid 1800's. I know its on the eastern side of the state, but its still the Ozarks, and just as rural as you can get, we moved back there when I was 10. My daddys people came from Germany in the 1840's and settled in South STL.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by Northwoods Voyager

Hi Lady, my paternal family came from Kentucky and Tennessee, while my maternal family came from Germany and settled in Iowa prior to moving to St. Louis. My parents settled in the Central West End. I used to love to drive through Ladue and T & C and admire the beautiful estates.

I love that part of the city as well, every time I come home, I make it a point to take a drive through the area!

[Nu2pomona]

I was born in a little city called Port Washington. Natives pronounce it "Poured Warshington." It's in Wisconsin, commonly pronounced S'consin.

Lots of folks back there said "warsh" instead of wash. I have no idea why. They also say "down by" as in "we're going down by the lake" rather than down to the lake.

The word, "once" often ends a sentence ie: "Come here once" or "Pass the chicken once." Again, I don't know why.

[joetownmom]

Originally Posted by northbayeric

Many politicians pronounce it "Mizzuruh" too! But among everyone I grew up with in the St. Louis area, it was "Mizzouree" all the way.

That's because Missouree is the French style prono. I'm a lifelong Missourian, born in St. Joe, have always lived in the western portion of the state in different areas from almost Iowa to nearly Arkansas and I have always correctly pronounced the name of our state as Missourah. I also spent more than a decade in broadcast media in Missourah!!!!

[kshe95girl]

pronunciation according to wiki; /mɨˈzɜri/ (help·info))

more data;THE PRONOUCIATION OF MISSOURI:

inogolo - Pronunciation of Missouri : How to pronounce Missouri

And we all know that news broadcasters NEVER mispronounce anything, right?

[aragx6]

Actually there's no large Missouri media market where the broadcasters pronounce it -uh. Broadcast is very persnickety about how you say your words, which actually gives Midwesterners an advantage.

I knew several broadcast j majors at MU and the in-staters had a much easier time getting the broadcast dialect correct than did others.

Many St. Louisans have very little or none of the sterotypical accent left -- years of going out of the area for school or marrying folks from outside the area has sufficiently watered it down.

I find that the ones who say "farty far" as well as "melk" instead of milk tend to be the folks a lot of St. Louisans would describe as hoosiers. As a kid I thought the whole accent was an urban legend or something until I turned 10 and my dad remarried into an old blue collar St. Louis family and they ALL talk like that.

If you think about who still talks in that old school Chicago accent or New York accent you'll also find it's usually those with solidly blue collar roots.

[kshe95girl]

aragx6, I minored in journalism @ Mizzou, I knew a LOT of folks that were going for broadcast journalism from the STL area, they got snapped up by stations throughout the US for lack of accent!
You and I are totally on the same page about the "hoosier" thing, I posted earlier theorizing about where that accent came from, thank you for supporting my theory.