Published on Show Me Mizzou Aug. 27, 2024
Missourians’ speech patterns vary significantly across the state, with both subtle and dramatic differences in words and vowel sounds that continue to evolve. Mizzou English professor Matthew Gordon explores these linguistic shifts in his recent book, The Origins of Missouri English, coauthored with MU alumnus Christopher Strelluf, PhD ’14, from the University of Warwick.
The book draws on an oral history project, created in the 1980s, that aimed to preserve the stories of Missouri’s mule industry workers. Melvin Bradley, a College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources professor, observed that many key figures in the industry were aging, so he sought to capture their histories. Alongside photojournalism professor Duane Dailey, Bradley conducted hundreds of interviews with Missourians involved with mules and preserved voices from across the state. Some recordings even feature mules braying in the background — though whether that whinny has evolved remains unknown. The study focused on individuals born between the late 1800s and the 1930s.
“For example, most younger Missourians today pronounce words like ‘lot’ and ‘thought’ to rhyme and make homophones of pairs like ‘dawn’ and ‘don,’” Gordon explains. “This is a change that has swept across the state in the last few generations, but we found a handful of people born much earlier who showed this pronunciation pattern.”
Gordon hopes to earn future funding to explore audio recording archives from the Missouri State Historical Society and other institutions. “There’s a wealth of recorded material just sitting in archives,” he says, “and librarians and archivists are eager to have people work with their collections.”
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