# Vote here: Is it prounounced 'Missour--EE' or 'Missour-UH'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932 "2000-12-22T23:39:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/1 "2000-12-22T23:39:22Z")
I’m sitting here listening to the evening news in the living room, and Peter Jennings just pronounced it “Missour-uh”, twice. I hollered to the couch potatoes, “Did he just say ‘Missour-uh’, twice?” and the couch potatoes said yes, and The Cat Who Walks Alone added, “He’s from Canada”, as though that explained it. :rolleyes: I’m a Midwesterner born and bred and we always pronounced it “Missour-ee”. What do the Teeming Millions say? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/2 "2000-12-23T00:18:13Z")
-EE. I live in the West. [sub]Of Europe, so what?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/3 "2000-12-23T00:28:49Z")
To quoth Grandpa… semi out of context “It’ll be a cold day in hell before I recognize Missour-uh” ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/4 "2000-12-23T00:32:56Z")
As a kid born in St. Louis, and who often visits his grandmother there, Sani says it’s Missour-EE. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/5 "2000-12-23T00:42:03Z")
I’m from St. Louis and say “Missour-EE”. My grandparents, however, say “Missour-AH”. Strangely enough, they also called the type of dessert called a sundae (“sun-DAY”), a “sun-dah”. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Skelji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/6 "2000-12-23T00:52:55Z")
-EE as long as I remember. I’ll bet Dan Rather had a blast with that one on Election Night. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/7 "2000-12-23T01:54:07Z")
I’ve always pronounced it with a long _e_ sound at the end. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I noticed peopled pronouncing it the other way. I though people from MO pronounced it the other way (ending in an _uh_ sound)… ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/8 "2000-12-23T02:10:11Z")
EE for me! ‘course news people always like to change the way words are pronounced. Remember "hair’-us-ment". Bastards think they know everything! ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/9 "2000-12-23T02:35:24Z")
the cat who walks alone is quite correct. he is from canada, and that does explain it. it took him years to stop saying bean instead of bin (been), and don’t ask him what the last letter of the alphabet is. on the mighty mo question, my dad (from ne) said “uh”, he also said “ill-a-noise” for the land of lincoln. ---
**Author:** ![Tiburon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tiburon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiburon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/10 "2000-12-23T03:22:19Z")
-EE. I’m from Kansas City originally and a lot of people in Missouri do prounce is “-uh” but I think it tends to be the older population. I have no clue why. Tibs ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/11 "2000-12-23T03:40:09Z")
There was an article about it in the Wall Street Journal several years ago. There conclusion is that -ee is wrong. My geographical dictionary has two pronunciations, neither of them -ee. In the first pronunciation, the final syllable is the same as the vowel in **ill**. In the second pronunciation, the final syllable is the same as the first syllable of **abound**. Reading that article made me change my pronunciation from -ee to -ih. After reading the article, I looked up the names of the other 49 states and changed my pronunciation of “Oregon”, “Hawaii” and “Louisiana.” ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/12 "2000-12-23T03:45:52Z")
I should mention that other dictionaries do list the -ee pronunciation first. If I remember the WSJ article right, I think they said the reason behind the -ih or -ah is the French pronunciation of the name. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/13 "2000-12-23T04:04:15Z")
Native of CA, always pronounced it as -EE. Though, if you wanted to be mean, you could say it was -UGH. (But that would be mean, and I’m not mean! Am I? Nope. Not me!) ---
**Author:** ![jaimest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/48db29/32.png) [@jaimest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaimest)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/14 "2000-12-23T04:33:40Z")
It seems anchors, professors, and other such docented dipshits believe that whichever of any two possible pronunciations is less common is somehow more erudite than the flatly homogenized intonations of the American lumpenproletariat. So we end up with sexual “Harris-ment”, an Argentine rhyming with shine, or Missour-uh instead of Misour-ee on the nightly news. Its the same syndrome that causes otherwise WASPy anchors to attempt pneumatically overblown Spanish pronunciations of anything Latin American; even if its a name from Brazil, where they do not speak the Castillian Idiom. See what damage dictionaries do to an impressionable mind. ---
**Author:** ![tygre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@tygre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygre)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/15 "2000-12-23T04:37:44Z")
I’m from IL, about 90 miles from St. Louis, and I say -EE. My dad, born in Oklahoma, says -UH, as do almost all of his relatives. –tygre ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/16 "2000-12-23T04:46:16Z")
got one from NM here and I say it -EE ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/17 "2000-12-23T06:05:24Z")
Missourian with 10 year pedigree. Any of these are fine: Misery Missou-RAY Missou-REE Missou-RUH MIZ-ruh Miz-UR-uh Miz-UR-ee Basically, however the hell you slur it is acceptable. –Tim ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/18 "2000-12-23T14:55:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homer \* > \*\*Any of these are fine: > > Misery > Missou-RAY > Missou-REE > Missou-RUH > MIZ-ruh > Miz-UR-uh > Miz-UR-ee > > Basically, however the hell you slur it is acceptable. > > –Tim \*\* **Homer** , I just may flame you for this, 😉 These are NOT fine. With the exception of the 4 years I was in the Air Force, I’ve lived all 27 years of my life in St Louis, Missour-EE. Misery is just being a smart-ass. Never heard anyone say Missou-RAY, but would have to slap if I did. Miz-ruh hurts my ears just _reading_ it! And on and on. Homer, you are obviously NOT a St Louisan, or you never would have posted that. Pronouncing Missouri any other way than Miz-ur-ee (ok, ok, Missou-ree can be acceptable) is a pet peeve around here, same as calling this city St Louie. Do NOT call it St Louie. Only people from out of town call it St Louie. The only time that pronunciation is acceptable is if you’re singing that stupid song. I find that it’s the urban areas that pronounce the state’s name correctly, and the rural areas that f\*ck it up. And to hopefully educate eveyone on the proper pornuncitaion of my homestate, let’s use another state as an example: Missouri ends in the same letter as Mississippi. I’ve never heard anyone pronounce that state’s name as Mississipp-uh. Sounds stupid when you pronounce it that way, doesn’t it? Same thing when you pronounce Missouri that way, it sounds f\*cking stupid. Sorry to get my panties in a bunch over this, but it really is a pet peeve of mine and I heard them mangling it during the election coverage (I wanted to call that jack-ass and tell him the RIGHT way to say it) and then during 3 MOnday Night Football games, hearing those idiots in the booth mangling both the city and state pronunciations. So I’m all done now. Remember: Pronounce it Missou-ree or Miz-ur-ee and never ever call the city St Louie, or feel the wrath of the Frog. ---
**Author:** ![Anake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/97f17d/32.png) [@Anake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anake)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/19 "2000-12-23T14:58:56Z")
I live in Kansas City and often say “Misery.” But to be serious, I say the -EE as well. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932/20 "2000-12-23T15:04:21Z")
**Bibliophage,** I’ve never heard anybody pronounce it “Missour-ih”. It’s always been either a real sharp “ee” or a sort of dropped syllable, “uh”. (Actually, come to think of it, it’s “ruh”, “MiZUrah”.) Besides, what about the song, “Oh, Shenandoah, I long to see you, way, hey, you rolling river…” with the last line, “Cross the wide Missour-eeeeeeee”. With the other pronunciations, you’d have to sing either, “Cross the wide Missour-uuhhhhh” or “Cross the wide Missour-iiihhhhhh”. “Eee” is much easier for kindergarteners to sing. **Rocking Chair** –you may inform your father (tactfully, out of respect for his gray hairs 😃 ) that it’s “Illinoy”, not “Illinoise”. And BTW, P.J. still says “bean”. :rolleyes: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-here-is-it-prounounced-missour-ee-or-missour-uh/46932.md?page=2)