Missouri...Southern or Midwestern? (Kansas City, St. Louis: moving to, education, area)

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by RandyD4

I was born and raised in Poplar Bluff. Yep that's in the bootheel. We don't call it Missoura. We call it missoureeeee. By the way...We all are southern down here. My brother in law lives in Kansas City and it seems like people out west call it missoura. Is Missouri a southern state? Well, it came into the union as a "slave" state. It has a star in the Confederate Battle Flag, and it was torn in two during the war of Northern agression, that's why the state motto is "United we stand, divided we fall." If you want to hear southern accents, go to Sikeston and Charleston and listen to the girls talk.

"I guess we all died a little in that damn war"...Josey Wales

oh yea. I agree 100% that Sikeston and Charleston are truly Dixie. Undeniably Southern speech patterns there. And I also agree that the area you are from actually does meet the definition of Southern. Also, Poplar Bluff is not literally in the bootheel per say. But it's near the northwestern-most corner of it so I guess yea you could say it's part of the Bootheel. The Bootheel as far as I'm concerned may as well be Arkansas.

[JohnKing67]

Originally Posted by GSD353

Negitive. The further north is Missoura. I dont know anyone in the south that says it that way, its Missoureeee

You're right, my dad was born and raised in Macon in the northern part of the state and he always says Missoura.

[rollagirl]

Originally Posted by ajf131

Gsd353, I could not possibly agree more with what you've said so far that is EXACTLY my belief about Missouri as well. I always though the SW part was much less Southern than the SE part. SE Missouri to me is where the Southern argument would apply. SE Missouri has a true Southern culture, demeanor, it meets all the qualifications of the South, to me at least. The bootheel especially I think might as well be considered Arkansas.

During the late 1800's and early 20th century, SE Missouri has been the location of sharecroppers. My mother-in-law was born into a sharecropping family and they worked the cotton fields. Left over from the slave days, these fields are still producing cotton along with areas in TN and AR. This area is known as the BOOTHEEL. This area is clearly influenced by the southern speech called the SOUTHERN DRALL. As a truck driver and resident of central Missouri, I found it strange but true. People from other states believe that I, too, am from the south. My accent, though not anything like those living in southeastern mo, seems to give it away. I have been thru out missouri and find this to be true, re: semo southern accent. The Hwy60 and south is the southern portion of MO and just north of this line east and slightly west of I55.

[rollagirl]

Originally Posted by GSD353

Yea, when I first visited MO from NY, I was really thinking it was going to be a big redneck trailer park. I was pleasantly supprised. Missouri is a great state. Given the chance, I would not move back to New York because I have really fallen in love with the midwestern Missouri envirnment. I have been to the bootheel on the way to Memphis. It was totally different than the southwest part of the state. STL reminds me more of NY than KC does but I must say that I like KC more. Seems to me that STL really has more of an eastern attitude than KC does. I do not see MO as a southenr state at all. You can see from my profile I have lived several places while I was in school. I like MO the best, hands down.

At 42 I have lived in Missouri, the Ozarks for the most part, for most my life. Born in IL but moving here at the age of 8 or 9, I have come to some decisions about the whole thing. I don't like it here. Hot, humid, and no jobs. However, I can't say that for the whole state. Living in rural MO has is ups too. The crime here is almost non-existant. There is however, a large meth problem and other drugs. Nothing to do, I guess. Franklin County, MO has the worst meth problem in the US. I don't live there, but live close. The school system is horrible. I'm hoping to move soon somewhere closer to work(st louis), but not too far into the city.

[rollagirl]

Originally Posted by GSD353

Negitive. The further north is Missoura. I dont know anyone in the south that says it that way, its Missoureeee

Actually, I hate when people pronounce it Missoura....that is not the correct way to pronounce it. My mother pronounces Missoura...and I pronounce it Missoureee. We live 20 miles from one another. She lives just slightly north of me, but not by much. It's a mix where I live, on I44, almost exactly southcenteral in the state. I live 100 miles from STL and 100 miles from Springfield....give or take a couple miles on either end.

Just like I hate it when people pronounce IL....with an S on the end. This is a French word and the S is silent. ILL-short I-noy(ILLINOIS)...

The S pronounced it sounds like ILL-short I-noise.

[daisymae19]

Kansas City and Northern Missouri are Midwestern..

The Ozarks, the Bootheel, St. Louis and South of the Missouri River are very Southern.

[rollagirl]

Originally Posted by ajf131

The southern quarter of Southern Missouri. That's much more close to the right answer I was looking for DefaultAtlas, glad we are finally almost on the same page. Taking the whole state into account, the southern quarter of Southern Missouri becomes a very minute portion of the state. For those very reasons I think it is safe to include Missouri in the Midwest. Dixie, while present in some of the state, does not come anywhere close to dominating this state, the Midwest is far more dominant.

Here I go again....As a person who has been raised with highly educated parents(mother RN+ and father was a contractor), I find that education has some to do with it. Since both my parents were born and raised in Illinois, they have called Missouri....Missourah....all my life, and yet, I say Missouree. I wonder why. I am as educated as they are(were). My father just passed away recently. The correct pronunciation of Missouri....has the E on the end....but dont tell anyone that if they say Missourah....that they are wrong. That wouldn't be nice. I think it is clearly location and not education which dictates the pronunciation of this word and others as well. So hands up for those of you in the south who pronounce it correctly......yeah..!!....Of course there's always the Ya'll....too. Can't seem to shake that one. Definately Southern. And yet my mother tries to correct me on the Ya'll....I'll have to correct her on the Missourah issue..hehehehe

[daisymae19]

Originally Posted by rollagirl

Actually, I hate when people pronounce it Missoura....that is not the correct way to pronounce it. My mother pronounces Missoura...and I pronounce it Missoureee. We live 20 miles from one another. She lives just slightly north of me, but not by much. It's a mix where I live, on I44, almost exactly southcenteral in the state. I live 100 miles from STL and 100 miles from Springfield....give or take a couple miles on either end.

Just like I hate it when people pronounce IL....with an S on the end. This is a French word and the S is silent. ILL-short I-noy(ILLINOIS)...

The S pronounced it sounds like ILL-short I-noise.

this article will explain JSTOR: Accessing JSTOR (broken link)

The *native* pronounciation is with an uh, the *outsiders ( or those whose parents came from other states)* is with an *ee*... oh and the ss is pronounced as a Z not an S...(btw I am a born and raised Hillbilly from the Ozarks with my Ozark roots going back to the 1830's..my family was original settlers in Osage, Gasconade, Pulaski, Camden and Laclede counties)

[rollagirl]

I have been in the opposite corner of Missouri...NorthWestern...very different from where I live. The nationality gets whiter as you go north and more blacks live in the south. I'm speaking mostly about rural Missouri. The big cities dont count here. Even where I live, the population is less than 1% black or other nationalities. And I live in a town with a large University.

[rollagirl]

Originally Posted by daisymae19

this article will explain JSTOR: Accessing JSTOR (broken link)

The *native* pronounciation is with an uh, the *outsiders ( or those whose parents came from other states)* is with an *ee*... oh and the ss is pronounced as a Z not an S...(btw I am a born and raised Hillbilly from the Ozarks with my Ozark roots going back to the 1830's..my family was original settlers in Osage, Gasconade, Pulaski, Camden and Laclede counties)

Well somebody misspelled it then.