St Louis accent?
December 21, 2010 2:52 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for evidence of a St Louis accent.

I met a guy a couple years ago who had an interesting accent, which I thought was some kind of speech impediment, but he said it was a St Louis thing (which is where he was from). Can anyone confirm that there is such a distinct accent and provide examples of it? I think I might have described it as a mixture of southern and Californian at the time.
posted by mpls2 to Society & Culture (18 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Wiki.
posted by proj at 2:55 PM on December 21, 2010


From the wiki:

A historical feature of the St. Louis dialect is the merger of the phonemes /ɔɹ/ (as in for) and /ɑɹ/ (as in far), while leaving distinct /oɹ/ (as in four). This merger is less frequently found in younger speakers, and leads to jokes referring to "highway farty-four" and "Farest Park."

I lived in St. Louis for a while and I can vouch for this. To native St. Louisans, my name (Molly) is pronounced Mal-ly, almost like an upstate New York accent.
posted by something something at 3:17 PM on December 21, 2010


I live in St. Louis and I hear "Warshington" vs Washington all the time. Definitely seconding something something with this phonemes merger.
posted by muirne81 at 3:23 PM on December 21, 2010


Also, it's not really dialect, but in St. Louis we love to end our sentences and questions with prepositions:

"Where's my coat at?"
"If you're going over there, I'm going with."
"What does this pipe hook into?"
posted by muirne81 at 3:30 PM on December 21, 2010 [1 favorite]


I always thought "Farty far" was an exaggeration. It's not :-)
posted by ChuraChura at 3:43 PM on December 21, 2010


There may be a thing with "milk," too—I say it "melk," and always have, despite attempted parental intervention. Apparently the only other person my East Coast–raised fiancé ever heard say it that way was his mother, who grew up in St. Louis.

I definitely don't say "Warshington" or "Farty-Four," though. I grew up in North County, and never really heard anyone say it that way until I met people from South City/South County.
posted by limeonaire at 3:52 PM on December 21, 2010


Absolutely. I was a linguistics major in a school in Missouri (not St. Louis) and we spent a considerable amount of time discussing the linguistic oddities of St. Louis. something something is spot-on. But actually, I've noticed that the way STL-ers say "Taco Bell" is the dead give-away to their origins, regardless of race, class, age or what high school they went to *wink*
posted by chara at 3:56 PM on December 21, 2010


If you need more imperial evidence, memail me and I'll happily provide my dear friend and native-STLer's phone number, the moment he picks up the phone you'll be able to hear the unnecessary r's falling out of him.
posted by banannafish at 3:59 PM on December 21, 2010


I lived in STL for about 2 years - not during high school;-) - and for the first few months I didn't notice any particular accent, except a slight Southern edge to everything. So for me, having lived in the Northeast all my life, it was like a generic Northeastern (non-)accent, only dropping the g's from the ends of words, and stretching out the vowels. Then I realized that the "herre" for "here" thing, which I previously thought was invented by Nelly because it sounded distinctive in songs, is totally real. But that's not city-wide; I think only people from certain neighborhoods have that accent.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 4:11 PM on December 21, 2010


Jon Hamm occasionally lets his StL accent roots show
posted by scruss at 4:25 PM on December 21, 2010


Typing from South city...there are a couple of accent "bits" around here. THere's good ol' "warsh" for "wash", "zink" for "sink", and "fahrty-far" - they're present both in my mom (from South City), my mother-in-law (from Edwardsville, IL; across the river) and my boss's wife, from St. Charles.

The worst case of "fahrty far" I've ever heard was my DiffEq teacher. Yikes.

There's also an accent, I"ve never heard anywhere else. By analogy, it is to the "midwest anchorman" as Fran Drescher is to a Noo Yawk accent. It's loud, nasal, but has none of the fucked up vowels. It's dragged out like a Southern belle; but, again, no vowel changes. I've only heard it here in South City...and one lady somewhere out west who was amazed that I knew where she was from.
posted by notsnot at 4:50 PM on December 21, 2010 [1 favorite]


I grew up in St. Louis. Occasionally people have told me they hear a bit of Southernness in how I talk, but I don't think that captures it exactly. I definitely heard "melk" frequently there. The "warsh" and "farty-far" pronunciations I heard almost exclusively from people my grandparents' age.

Speaking of grandparents, one thing I have consistently been made fun of about is how I say "grandma" or "grandpa." When I say it sounds more like "grandpaw," whereas people here in Chicago say it more like "grandpuh." Not sure if that pronunciation is specific to St. Louis, but there you go.

We also say soda, not pop, but that's an entirely different matter.
posted by evisceratordeath at 5:07 PM on December 21, 2010 [1 favorite]


You are missing "darh" (door), "meer" (mirror), and "d'jeet?" (did you eat?)
posted by adipocere at 5:58 PM on December 21, 2010


In Missour-ah, one eats with a fark. And all the other or and ar words mentioned here. And melk and warsh. I also remember hearing Illi-noise quite a bit as a kid.
posted by jeffamaphone at 6:36 PM on December 21, 2010 [1 favorite]


I've never been to Missouri (Californian, born and bred), but I say "warsh" instead of "wahsh", like my mom, who was raised in St. Louis.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 7:14 PM on December 21, 2010


I'll add to this by saying that people from the northern areas of the US will think St. Louisans sound 'Southern', and people from the South will say we sound like 'Yankees'.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 8:31 PM on December 21, 2010


Lived there for many years, married a native, recently moved away.

I give my wife shit for "melk" all the time. There are, though, interesting classed manifestations (and aged- too. I think evisceratordeath is exactly right) where you'll get "melk" right alongside a pronunciation that would make William Labov light right up in certain neighborhoods of the greater metro area (read: the wealthier ones). Possibly related anecdatum: my wife's family grew up pronouncing the word "sundae" as though the vowel sound in the second syllable is a schwa, which utterly bumfuzzles me.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 9:29 PM on December 21, 2010 [1 favorite]


Couple other things that have come to mind:

Even the self- conscious "country boys" I know don't pronounce the name of the state "missou-ruh". It's anything from a short i to a long "ee" at the end. The only people who say "missouruh" are politicians on TV, and a guy I know from Illinois that tries so very hard to be down home.

Also: St. Louis is as far south as you can go and not be guaranteed that grits will be on the menu. Thirty miles south, in Festus? Grits, for shure. (thanks, Mik, rest in peace)
posted by notsnot at 6:26 AM on December 29, 2010


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