Illustration by Britt Spencer
My hypothesis: The local pronunciations of words such as Gravois (the last syllable sounding like the “oy” in oy vey) and Chouteau (like “show-tow”) are intended to help us identify and weed out snooty outsiders like you, the sort of person who would use a word like “weird” to defame our sacred local culture.
To make sure I’m right, I call John Baugh, the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University and a big-deal linguistics expert. He says I’m wrong.
The French founded St. Louis, so it figures that we have so many French names. But after the Louisiana Purchase, Anglos descended. That, Baugh says, “brought in people who didn’t speak French, but read those place names based on their own knowledge of language.”
Those English-speakers may have been familiar enough with French to drop the final “s” in Gravois but not enough to do so correctly. It should sound like “grav-wah,” says Isabelle Heidbreder of the Alliance Française de St. Louis. When she says a word in French, the listener imagines that, somewhere, a couple has just fallen in love. When she says the same word as St. Louisans do, an angel gets kicked in the shins.
In French, Chouteau would be “shoe-toe.” The final “t” would be dropped from both Carondelet and Florissant. Laclede wouldn’t end with a “leed” sound but rather with a “led” one. A word I felt sure we were pronouncing correctly was fleur-de-lis, since most locals know to drop the final “s.” But no, this is an exception, with a hard final consonant. “Because we’re French,” Heidbreder explains. “We have rules, but rules are not for us anyway.”
Even the name of our city is bungled. It should properly be “san loo-ee.” Lest our neighbors to the east get cocky, Illinois should be pronounced like Gravois, ending with “wah.” And don’t even get Heidbreder started on Fort de Chartres.
In her infinite grace, she isn’t offended by the ugly way in which we say her beautiful words. “I’m the one who chose to come to this country,” she notes. “I’m flattered that you borrowed the names.” It’s a perspective that certain other newcomers, ahem, should take to heart.
