History buffs race to preserve dialect in Missouri

OLD MINES, Mo. (AP) — A small circle of history researchers is racing to capture the last remnants of a little-known French dialect that endures in some old Missouri mining towns before the few remaining native speakers succumb to old age.

So-called Missouri French is spoken by fewer than 30 people in Old Mines, southwest of St. Louis, although dozens of others can still rattle off phrases from childhood songs or overheard conversations involving their parents and grandparents.

"When they didn't want us to know what they talked about," they spoke in French, said Lucy Baquette, whose husband traces his regional roots back to the founding families of St. Louis.

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