Do people in St. Louis have accents?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:51pm

Character study for a play - do people in St. Louis have any type of accent?

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:55pm

from my experience there, it depends on the type of person... are you talking about the inner city of St. Louis, or more suburbia?

I have found people with a thick midwestern accent, to a moderate almost Chicago midwestern accent, to a more Atlanta, Georgia accent

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:58pm

oh! i forgot to add, i also know a person from just outside of St. Louis who has no perceptible accent at all... he just enunciates very well... but i don't know if that is the standard or an exception

[The Grovers Corners Yenta]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:59pm

I used to live there and all I can say it is a mix of accents. There is a slight southern drawal combined with a little Chicago midwest twang. Also, some in St. Louis tend to replace their o's with a's. For instance , the local weatherman used to say "It will be in the farties tonight." { forties}

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 8:00pm

It depends on who you are asking.

People in St. Louis are obviously going to say they have no accent. I think people in Texas have an accent but the people in Arizona may not think Texans have an accent. It depends who you ask and where they are living.

[Glebb]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 8:03pm

They don't have a strange accent.
But I'm sure they Tootie.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 8:05pm

The couple of people I've known from St. Louis didn't have much of an accent at all.

I can remember seeing interviews with Tennessee Williams (who grew up in St. Louis) in which he had a pronounced lilting southern drawl, but that may have been due in part to his family's -- especially his mother's -- ties to Mississippi and Tennessee.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 8:07pm

I knew this one guy from Missouri and he had a Southern drawl. I don't remember where he was from, though.

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 8:08pm

i've found, thought, that most of the people I know in Missouri are from other places, or have families from other places... so my response may be a little skewed

[theatrebabe]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 9:12pm

What exactly is a midwestern accent? I live right in the middle and the only thing I've ever been told about my accent is that I sometimes pronounce 'a' like 'eea'. For instance, when I'm talking fast and not paying attention, I say dEEad, instead of dad. I always thought that was just because both my parents are from the Chicago area.

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 9:15pm

i usually use the example of the words "root" and "roof"

but i really don't know how to phonetically spell it out without saying it..

[StageManager2]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 9:18pm

Technically, it's a dialect, not an accent.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 10:03pm

say: git when you mean get
say: donshoe when you mean don't you
say: canshoe when you mean can't you

[kjklo]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 10:25pm

Shelley Winters had a very strong St Louis accent. She particularly exhibited the substitution of "or" with "ar" that Yenta mentioned.

[tagiunagi]

Posted: 9/14/06 at 1:22pm

Those from St Louis that I know are people who have a Chicago/midwestern type of accent.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 9/14/06 at 1:30pm

I have a friend who was born and raised in Missouri and she has a Southern accent stronger than any Belle in Mississippi.

Rough for roof drives me CRAZY!

[Kringas]

Posted: 9/14/06 at 6:35pm

It really just depends. St Louis has a hodge-podge of different dialects, as others have pointed out, from the flat and midwestern to inexplicably Dixie.