During the recent firestorm over the Michael J. Fox political ads and Rush Limbaugh’s response to them I was quite amazed, when watching the ads, to hear Fox refer to the state in the middle of the USA in which St. Louis is located as “Missouruh.”
This is certainly not a pronounciation Fox would have learned naturally; he was born in Edmonton and grew up on Canadian military bases, and has spent most of his adult life in Los Angeles. His wife is from New York City so he didn’t get it from her. In any of those places the pronounciation is almost universally “Miz-oor- ee.” Fox must have been told to say it that way for the commercial.
I thought little more of it until tonight; watching news channels I’ve now heard two correspondents refer to the state as “Missouruh.” This was not a slight dragging of the last syllable; it was very pronounced.
Is there a movement to have people pronounce it that way, like the move a few years ago to have everyone say “Hawa… EEE!” instead of the way everyone used to say Hawaii?
Not a clue, but my mother in law from Craig MO calls it Missouruh, as does pretty much the whole family on her side. I say Missouruh mainly because they do.
My mother from Iowa says I-o-wa, not I-o-way however…
The name of the state, as defined by the pronounciation espoused by its lifelong residents, is Mihz-zoor’-rah – much as their neighbors to the south live in Arkansaw. The -ree sound is common among non-residents, and IIRC is correct for the Big Muddy as the river name, at least for most of its length.
The 50th state has no “Wye” in it, but is Ha-wah-ee or Ha-vwah-ee-ee if one feels like being precise.
Having grown up in an area with odd place names (“Norfork” for Norfolk, Chaumont – “shuah-MOE” with no French nasal vowel, resembling a slurred “S’more” in a no-terminal-R-sound dialect), I try to learn proper usage. A town near here may have been named after Oliver WEN-dell Holmes, but its name is spoken Wen-DELL. A bit to the northwest, on the other side of the Triangle, is Bahama – which has HAY in the middle.
Well, I’ve only been to Missouri once, and even then not for very long, but I’ve known Missourans who have discoursed on how to pronounce the name of their state. From what I can figure, if you’re from the southern part of the state, you’ll favor Missouruh, while those in the north tend to favor Missouree. It might also be a rural/urban thing; I don’t know. But this guy from somewhere near Joplin told me that it’s always supposed to be pronounced Missouruh no matter what, so I took his provincialism with a grain of salt and went on saying Missouree.
This isn’t like the Hawaii thing, which seems to be more driven by people who like to show others that they know how to pronounce things the way the locals do in the local dialects and languages, so they insist on inserting the glottal stop. I don’t understand this, except as a kind of pretention. I mean, I can do it, too, but I don’t, because I believe in local dialects, which means mine. These people don’t tend to do this with all place names, either, saying Pariss instead of Paree, Myeunik instead of München, Egypt instead of Mishr. They’re curiously selective. But go ahead and say Hawayee; it’s perfectly fine. And people know what you’re talking about when you say it that way.
It’s the local pronounciation–or maybe “a” local pronounciation. My mother always pronounced it “Missouruh” and her family had been in the Kansas City area for a few generations. My father said “Missouree,” but his family (parents, grandparents) were not from that state.
When I lived in Kansas City, it seemed to me it was a rural/urban thing. But they do not like non-natives saying “Missourah”. They seem to take it as a personal affront. (In my experience.)
For what it’s worth, I’ve lived about ten miles outside of St. Louis most of my life, and my friends and family all say ‘ee’, not ‘uh’. Yeah, I live on the Illinois side of the Mississippi but Missouri is still pretty close. I think it is less of a regional thing and more of a family thing. That is, people who live next door to each other say it differently. This is similar to ‘Illinoy’ vs. ‘Illinoyz’, which in my experience has no pattern at all as far as who pronounces it which way. Or rather, the only pattern is family and how you were raised to say it, not regional or otherwise.
I grew up in the St. Louis area and have always said Miz-ur-ee. I’ve always associated the “uh” pronunciation with the southern half of the state, but have never heard that there’s a “correct” pronunciation. (“Miz-ur-uh” sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me, though.)
I’m born and raised in the Kansas City Area and I cringe when I hear people say Missoura or Missouruh. It rings so hick to my ears and I hate that steriotype of Missouri. When I hear MJF use that on the commercial I just grimmace but I know he was told to use it that way, after all most of northern MO is all farm country and most of the south is ozarks where more redneck is prevelent, forgiving jeff city and springfield… lol. That being said I have never heard an older person or a farmer around this area use anything but Missoura.
Maybe its ME that has a problem and not the others… lol.
I am from St. Louis, and most of the people I know look down upon people who call it ‘Missourah’ as hicks. It’s mean but I don’t care. Missourah sounds stupid.
As a Miz-oor-ee-an, my ears hear -uh is much more often in political circles than in normal speech. I think they believe they’re getting the down-home, “aw chucks” vote that way.
I say Or-eh-gone, though I’m well aware of how the locals pronounce it. And to preëmpt the next one: my Midwestern roots demand that I say Neh-va-duh, not Nev-vaw-duh.
I’ve never heard “Arkansas” pronounced any other way except “Arkansaw.”
How do other people pronounce it? I mean, I know what it looks like, but if you say “ArkanSAS”, you’re kind of a dumbshit in my book.