re: Do Missouri people say "fixin"

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Most of southern Missouri is the Ozarks , same as northern Arkansas and location of University of Arkansas. Native Ozarkians don't consider themselves Midwest and the accent is closer to eastern Tennessee or north Alabama and Appalachia , where most of the settlers came from. Maybe a Midwestern accent with southern undertones. Of course there's been a big influx of people moving in from around the country ,so that's fading the generalities.

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Technically it’s called Smoky Mountain English or Dialect and yes it covers a wide area, including Western NC, E. ky, N, Ala etc. What has always amazed me is that the dialect (and it is a bit more than just an accent) skips the middle and western part of the state but then picks back up in the Ozarks. I think that’s likely due to rural isolation allowing older syntax and language to thrive whereas more accessible areas had more people coming and going and they’d of course bring with them their speech.

We all pick up new words everyday but back then if you weren’t in a place where there was a lot of migration your language wouldn’t change much over the years.

It wasn’t so long ago that y’all wasn’t used outside of the South and black populations that migrated from the South but pop culture has changed that.

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That's a Midwest compromise between the Southern y'all and whatever they say in the Northeast

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Northeast says "youse guys"

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