How come people pronounce Missouri with an A?|103544

I hear on TV so many people pronounce Missouri as Missoura but thats not how its spelled, so why would they put an A at the end when thats not the way it spelled or pronounced? We have someone from this state running for Governor and can_t pronounce the state right. How can he run this state when he cant pronounce it?

Every state has some unique pronunciations of words and accents. Missouri is no different.

Hutch, the governor elect Jay Nixon says Missourah because he was raised in DeSoto Missouri. That is the way they pronounce it there He is hardly _appealing to the masses_ Duh!
My husband campaigned for him and Jay Nixon is hardly a hick! He is more educated than that rotten Matt Blunt was!

Wow I think I_m going to offend people with this, but it_s a rural hick thing. You_ll notice that when candidates running for office come to St. Louis or Kansas City, they pronounce it Missouri, which is the correct pronunciation.

However, the same candidates will say Missoura, to appeal to the masses who apparently can_t spell or pronounce the name of our state in the outlying areas. Because if they pronounced it correctly there, people would think like you and I do that they didn_t know how it was pronounced.

It_s all political pandering to the voters based on region. It annoys me to no end, but there are probably just as many hicks that pronounce it with an A as there are people in the state who know how it should be said. Of course if they didn_t make this distinction by region, they would likely have trouble winning the election, so I wouldn_t expect it to ever change.

At least people in other states know how to pronounce it.

It��s just an issue of dialect. It��s the same reason that in parts of Missouri (including parts of St. Louis) wash is pronounced ��warsh�� and forty is pronounced ��farty.�� Extra sounds just make their way into words sometimes.

Def of ��dialect��
(the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?��


Matt Blunt says ��Missoura�� because that��s common in the area of the state where he��s from. Some political candidates will switch up their pronunciation depending on where they��re currently campaigning.

BTW, why is it that some people say ��how come�� when they really mean ��why?��

Usually, southern Missourians pronounce it _Missour-a_, while northern Missourians pronounce it _Missour-i_. There is more than one way to pronounce certain words you know. Just like _colonel_ is pronounced _kernel_-and _Illinois_ isn_t pronounced with the _s_ on the end. I_m quite surprised that you didn_t know that.

It_s a Missouri / Missoura thing. As long as the people in Missouri understand. That_s all that counts. People their know Missouri is pronounced with an (i) but choose to pronouce it with an (a). Go to Boston, MA and listen to how the people there pronounce words.

When I moved her 10+ years ago, I wondered the same thing - I was told it was an _out state_ (outside of the larger cities St. Louis, Kansas City) thing to pronounce it with an A.

I never hear of that.

hes from the wrong side of missouri. Speak to anyone in stl or kansas city and you_ll know the right way to say it.

I don_t know why some people do that, but I wish they would knock that #^%# off!!!!