Thread by @Missouri_Mapper

Many are aware that Missouri was first colonized by the French, but it may surprise some to know that there is an endangered dialect of French still spoken in Missouri by a few descendants of those French settlers.

🧵Thread on Missouri French and Old Mines, MO:

Missouri French (or "Paw-Paw French" as it is informally known) was once spoken in French settlements in the northern half of the Louisiana Territory (then known as the "Illinois Country"). Most of the initial French settlers of the Illinois Country came from Canada...

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and from the southern half of the Louisiana territory, so Missouri French has many similarities to the dialects of French spoken today in Canada and the Louisiana. However, due to its isolation, Missouri French has a number of differences in diction, pronunciation, and...

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vocabulary. For example, a while a speaker of French in Paris, Quebec, or Acadiana would say "Bonjour" to say hello, a Missouri French speaker would say "Beaujour".

Some spoken examples of the differences can be found here:


(3/14)news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-…

After the Louisiana Territory passed under American control, Missouri French went into decline as native French speakers began to assimilate into Anglophone culture and non-French speaking settlers and immigrants moved into formerly Francophone areas. Settlements like...

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St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve, once almost exclusively Francophone, saw the use of French die out over the course of a few generations. However, in one of the more isolated French settlements, the use of Missouri French would endure longer.

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In Washington County, the settlement of Old Mines (La Vieille Mine), owing to its relative isolation, has been one of the last bastions of Missouri French. In Old Mines a large sign announces "300 ans on est toujours icitte" - "300 years, we are still here."

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Initially settled in the 1720s by Lead miners, Old Mines continued to be a Francophone island in an Anglophone sea throughout the 19th century. However, once new mining methods began to disrupt the traditional lead mining industry, Missouri French began to decline...

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especially as the dialect began to be associated with poverty and backwardness. By 1980, only 3.0% of residents of the Old Mines area spoke French at home (compared to 0.28% statewide), though the area still stood out as the most Francophone in the state:

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Today, only a few elderly residents of Old Mines are native speakers of Missouri French and the dialect is on the verge of extinction. However, the area still has among the highest concentration of French ancestry in Missouri and has some unique voting patterns.

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Reminiscent of many areas in other parts of America with large concentrations of French ancestry, Washington County was once ancestrally Democratic but has swung massively to the right in recent years:

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Indeed, Washington County boasts the largest shift right of any county in Missouri since 2000.

Strikingly, while Obama won Washington County in 2008, Trump in 2020 won the county by over 60 points, with Biden getting less than 40% of Obama's raw votes in 2008.

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If we look at just the Old Mines area (the townships that include or directly border the Old Mines Concession), the shift is even more striking - a 77.7% shift to the right over the past two decades:

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While Missouri French may not be spoken much anymore, it continues to shape the identity and political geography of Old Mines, MO.

As the few remaining speakers continue to age, there has been a rush to record the dialect by scholars and linguists so this aspect of...

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Missouri heritage is not lost to time. In particular, the musician Dennis Stroughmatt has done much to record and preserve the dialect.

However, much preservation work remains as it is likely the dialect will lose its last native speaker in the coming years.

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Language data courtesy of IPUMS NHGIS.

Election data courtesy of the Washington County Clerk website.