Just heard a clip of Bush on his new tour (as in the title of this post)--a dig at Kerry's comment that the heart and soul of America was represented by Whoopie Goldberg & Co. He said "Springfield, Missoura." I wonder if that's a natural Texan pronunciation, or if he knows it's what the natives (outside of St. Louis) call it?

Well, here in the Ft. Worth/Dallas area, we say Missouree. Did in rural Texas where I grew up, as well. So either he already knew, or was well-prepped ahead of time.

He is so elected.

I grew up in St. Louis, and have always called it "Missouree", but "out-state" (as the rest of the State outside St. Louis and KC is referred to) definitely calls it "Missourah". I am sure Bush was prepped by the Missouri Republicans, who would have known the correct pronunciation in Springfield. I have seen several politicians from St. Louis actually change their pronunciations to "Missourah" once they run for State-wide office, to wit, Jim Talent who now sits in the US Senate.

I was born in St. Louis, MO, and my first college was in Nevada, Missouri. That's pronounced ne-VAID-uh. Missouri was pronounced "miss-zour-ee" in St. Louis and "miz-ur-ah" in Nevada. Regional dialects and no disrespect. I'd let it drop.

I wonder if there's a state that isn't contained within Missouri. Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. They have other countries, too (e.g., Mexico).

Not just US States. There is a little town by the lake of the Ozarks called Versailles, pronounced by locals as "Ver-sails".

Of course Aleta is right that there shouldn't be any disrespect based on regional dialects, still, that doesn't mean the differences are not interesting.

I don't think that anyone is expressing disrespect here. I was just curious as to whether the president had been coached on the proper pronunciation. If so, great. Now if they could just get him to learn to say "nookleeyur."

But you can't say "Missourah" and "nookleeyur". That's like those fancy-schmancy news anchors who speak normal English but every once and a while pronounce a foreign country's name in an exotic foreign accent, and who end up sounding pretty awkward. If you are going to speak "Amurrican" dialect, then indeed the correct pronunciation is "nukular". Plus, if Bush does start saying "nookleeyur", I guarantee he loses the hardcore good ol' boy vote, myself included.

I was born and raised in Springfield, in SW MO, and everybody I knew said "Missouree".

President Truman said Missourah. From Independance and spent a lot of time in Kansas City.

Rich

Missouri loves company.

Enough of this nukular crap! Just call the dang thing ATOMIC and be thought an articulate Old Fart, or Trumanite, from Missoura, or Luzianna, or Joisey or wherever...

Sedalia is a long way outside of St. Louis, and there we call is "Mizzouree".