KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

KC topics that don't fit anywhere else.
earthling
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KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by earthling »

These have been discussed before but was at a dinner with a couple who moved here earlier this year from SoCal to Waldo and they brought these up (with light hearted fun tone conversation)...

Wornall Rd is pronounced WornEll? Yet Nall Rd is pronounced with an A. Have even seem some spell Wornall with an E on this site.

Not many say Missourah but some of the older ones do. Do you say Mississippah? Would you hail a taxah?

We say # Highway instead of Highway # like rest of US. People who move here consider it odd but does make sense given this is a metro wide numbered street grid. Is natural to differentiate 40th St from 40 Highway, though we do say Interstate 70.

Northlanders drive freakin slow on the highways and in left lane. They need signs up there.... slow traffic keep right. Actually I think it's cops up there not giving an inch. I've gotten a ticket for 72 in a 60 zone up there, in any other large metros 80mph would be fine on freeways if not driving crazy. JoCo/WyCo and Southlanders are not at all slow drivers.

Kansity.

Burnt ends! Wonderful oddity indeed.

What else?
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by flyingember »

What?
earthling
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by earthling »

Add "and some locals might not get what anyone means by these" to the list. :) We can take some light hearted jabs, right? Right?
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by flyingember »

earthling wrote:Add "and some locals might not get what anyone means by these" to the list. :) We can take some light hearted jabs, right? Right?
No I got it, just that none of those were quirks or oddities.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by earthling »

To those not from KC region some of these are odd to some indeed even if trivial. It does strike me curious is if you point out to some locals about pronouncing Wornall as Wornell, they don't know what you mean. Apparently many don't notice it's even spelled with an A as some use an E when typing Wornall on this site. So you just made a case in point. No, it's not odd to you.

I wonder how John Wornall pronounced it?
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by NorthOak »

Good idea for a thread!
earthling wrote: Not many say Missourah but some of the older ones do. Do you say Mississippah? Would you hail a taxah?
I think the confused pronunciation goes back to the original native tribe. As people settled Missouri from the east they learned different ways of pronouncing the state name. Some of the slang has hung around. This guy thinks it goes back to the spelling and how you really say Missouri with a long i.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/20 ... issour-uh/
earthling wrote:We say # Highway instead of Highway # like rest of US. People who move here consider it odd but does make sense given this is a metro wide numbered street grid. Is natural to differentiate 40th St from 40 Highway, though we do say Interstate 70.
Growing up in KC nobody I knew said "Interstate." Historically, Kansas Citians have always said "I" 70, or "I" 435
Having lived in Cali I always thought it was funny that they referred to their interstate highways as "The 5," The 8," etc as though they were living entities with personalities.
earthling wrote: Northlanders drive freakin slow on the highways and in left lane. They need signs up there.... slow traffic keep right.
Truth. And Liberty MO is the absolute worst slow-driving hell hole on planet earth.
earthling wrote: Kansity.
Truth.
earthling wrote: Burnt ends! Wonderful oddity indeed.
Burnt ends are taking over the entire BBQ world.

One of the biggest quirks few know or talk about is the full history of the River Quay and the "North End."
After the mafia wars in the 70's and early 80's the city made a point to change the names of these historic and unique areas of KC to try to eliminate the crime and dangerous stigmas associated with them.

The River Quay was changed to "River Market" :roll:

The North End was changed to "Columbus Park."

Now that these hoods are fully back, I would love to see the city start a new marketing effort in bringing back the original names and even capitalize on the history. Although changing Columbus Park back to the North End would probably do more harm to good as most people would assume it's somewhere between Zona Rosa and KCI. I would love to see Columbus Park changed to Little Italy.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by WoodDraw »

I've never pronounced wornall as wornell, and I grew up right along it. I've probably heard the former more than the latter I'm guessing...
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by earthling »

^I hear it more with 50+ who grew up here but not everyone does. Try searching the forum here with 'wornell'. Several even spell it that way probably accidentally thinking the way they say it.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by earthling »

NorthOak, I didn't realize the River Quay/North End name change was specifically to change perception of the mafia stigma. Interesting, agree it should be brought back. Also, I saw old drawings of Union Station that referred to that area as Midtown. When did identifying Midtown starting past 31st St start?

On the 40 Highway vs Highway 40, I think we just say # street so often everywhere in metro that it's natural to say # highway. But we don't say 70 I or 70 Interstate is what I meant. There aren't very many metros that are street numbers throughout entire metro, it may just be the old town centers if any.

This may explain the early history of Missourah pronunciation. The original natives may have pronounced it ending an 'ah' or at least the early Native to French to English interpretation/translation...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouria
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by taxi »

earthling wrote:Would you hail a taxah?
All hail.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it fun)

Post by earthling »

^Clever.

Have also noticed when I first moved here years ago most people I knew would say "KayCee". Lately most people seem to specifically say Kansas City entirely or Kansity even though KayCee is the shortest syllables of all and rolls off tongue well.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by pash »

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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by WoodDraw »

People coming into visit and saying "I'm on Ward" would always make me laugh when they were on "ward parkway".
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by Highlander »

pash wrote:Wor-NELL is wrong, and nobody who lives in South Plaza/Brookside/Waldo pronounces it that way. Some people who don't live nearby pronounce it that way, but people pronounce unfamiliar place-names wrong everywhere.

However, I've long wondered what it is about the -nall ending that makes people want to pronounce it as "nell" and put the stress on it. There was a dormitory at my university called "Darnall" that everybody pronounced Dar-NELL—which was wrong.
Well, my neighborhood (west of Wornall between 89th and 95th) pronounced it wrong when I was growing up and admittedly, I still say Wor-NELL from time to time. Force of habit. But I've always pronounced the "i" at the end of Missouri like the proud yankee I am. None of this Missourah nonsense - sounds like Arkansas slang.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by brewcrew1000 »

The 40 highway thing threw me off when I first got here.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by brewcrew1000 »

I also hate how people pronounce Nevada missouri. Its not like the state.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by TheSmokinPun »

I'm more of a KansaCity guy, I just slur it together with the last s merging into the c, feels like a lot of my millennial friends are the same way. I'd say our way of doing the number before highway is the biggest quirk though.

Also, the lady I'm seeing grew up in Waldo & says Wor-nell and I correct her from time to time, and I even grew up in East Jax.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by earthling »

brewcrew1000 wrote:I also hate how people pronounce Nevada missouri. Its not like the state.
Nevada, MO was named before state of Nevada. Nevada, MO used to be called Hog Eye...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada,_Missouri

Though the state name was taken from Sierra Nevada range in Spain, the MO version may be some other Euro origin pronunciation.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by JBmidtown »

Pell-oh instead of pillow.
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Re: KC's quirks and oddities (keep it light)

Post by earthling »

TheSmokinPun wrote:I'm more of a KansaCity guy, I just slur it together with the last s merging into the c, feels like a lot of my millennial friends are the same way. I'd say our way of doing the number before highway is the biggest quirk though.
I say KayCee maybe 90% of time. It just rolls of tongue more easily, less syllables. Then "Kansity" probably 10%. Almost never entirely say "Kansas City" unless traveling.

Is curious how outsiders can be particularly annoyed with KC stating # before highway.
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