Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 08:14:40 -0700 From: Dan Alford Subject: SE Missouri pronunciations My Ozarks mom happens to be sitting right here as the message about "pliers, St. Louis, ornery and ignorant" comes through, and she validates all those forms mostly as given. But for instance, her 'pliers' is more like /pla:rz/; Saint/Sant has a nasalized vowel; personally, I didn't know there was a three-syllable word 'or-ner-y' until high school, but I think I learned very quickly in my first public-school experience (junior high -- Christian school before that) that I was no longer just 2-syllable ig-nert [no final nazalization anywhere, I'm still surprised to hear!] but now 3-syllable ig-nor-ant! -- Moonhawk (%->) <"The fool on the hill sees the sun going down and> <-- McCartney/Lennon>