ST. LOUIS — How do you pronounce Missouri? It's a long heated debate among residents of the Show Me State, and a new poll from Saint Louis University and YouGov may finally put the question to rest.
SLU partnered with YouGov, a research group that conducts surveys for academic institutions and media organizations, to poll 900 likely Missouri voters on how they pronounce the state in which they live.
'Missour-ee' or 'Missour-uh'?
The poll results showed a clear winner. Only 9.5% of Missourians said they live in "Missour-uh." Meanwhile, more than 90% of respondents said they live in "Missour-ee."
Among those who chose "Missour-uh," there were a few commonalities, including age and location in the Show Me State.
“After growing up in Missouri, I was surprised so few Missouri voters used the Missour-uh pronunciation,” said Steven Rogers, SLU/YouGov poll director and associate professor of political science at SLU, in a statement. “Using Missour-uh appears to be partly generational. 16% of voters who are 65 years old or older said Missour-uh, but only 3% of voters below the age of 29 said Missour-uh.”
While only 6% of St. Louis respondents said "Missour-uh," 15% of poll-takers in Northwest Missouri used the pronunciation.
Christina Garcia, associate professor of Spanish in Saint Louis University’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, suggested more Missourians may prefer the "uh" pronunciation than reported.
"There is nothing inherently ‘better’ about one way of pronouncing something over another,” Garcia said in a statement. “However, society creates associations between different forms of speaking and social characteristics, both positive and negative. Since Missour-ee carries prestige in this case, it is likely that Missourians may be under-reporting their use of Missour-uh.”
Click here to see the full results.
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