Ioway [variation of Iowa]

[perpend]

I'm hoping if Americans from the Midwest could chime in.

Made-up sentence: The corn crop in "Ioway" is supposed to be real good this year.

We jokes sometimes in the Midwest about this pronunciation of Iowa, but is it real, or from yesteryear?

 

[JustKate]

I've never heard anybody say it and intend it to be taken seriously. I've never heard anybody from Iowa say it - except in The Music Man​, of course.

 

[perpend]

My Dad sort of says it in jest, every once in a while, but I have friends in California with "ancestors" from the Midwest, and it sort of sounds like "Ioway" when it has come through/down the pipeline.

 

[Keith Bradford]

In the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair, it's pronounced "Ioway" throughout one of the song-and-dance numbers called All I owe Ioway.

Does this come over to US speakers as local dialect, musical licence or simply outdated?

 

[kentix]

I would guess musical license, but it's a pure guess.