Well, growing up in St. Charles County, the only person I ever heard say Missour-uh was my 4-6th grade principal. He was from the Bootheel. Then I grew up and went to college in southwest Missouri and the only people that said Missour-ee were transplants from St. Louis. (Same with saying “soda” instead of “pop”.) Believe it or not, this was a subject of discussion at more than one party I attended, and I didn’t start the discussion.
I haven’t really paid attention to how they say it around here in KC. Dey all talk funny to me anyways. (St. Louisans add “s” when it isn’t necessary a lot sometimes while warshing deir hands at the zink. And I can remember scraping up enough corders to take my car to the car warsh. Youz guys know what I’m talking about, right? But, dammit, don’t ever call it Saint Louie!)
Actually, I’ve never heard that accent, but I’ve heard many people talk about it. (ok, I’ve heard people add the ‘r’ in words like wash, but not that often.) I guess that’s the difference between growing up in the city and the county.
I agree whole-heartedly with that last statement though.
Crunchy, my mother is from Arkansas and we were not allowed to talk with a St. Louis accent, but many of my friends whose parents grew up in St. Louis City talked that way. Before I was born, my brother came home from Kindergarten and had picked up the “youz” word. My mother told him, “It’s not “youz”, it’s “y’all”.”
Okay. Not being from Missouri, I picked up the idea that pronouncing it -EE meant you weren’t from there and that natives said -UH.
But why, if the town was in fact founded by French trappers and such, who would never say “Saynt Lew-iss” do y’all have such a problem with “Saw Louie?”
(St. Louisans add “s” when it isn’t necessary a lot sometimes while warshing deir hands at the zink. And I can remember scraping up enough corders to take my car to the car warsh. Youz guys know what I’m talking about, right? But, dammit, don’t ever call it Saint Louie!)