Missouri French (French: français du Missouri), also known as Illinois Country French and nicknamed "Paw-Paw French" or, in the dialect itself, la française assimine, is a nearly extinct variety of the French language formerly spoken in the upper Mississippi River Valley in the Midwestern United States, particularly in eastern Missouri. Once spoken widely across the region known as the Illinois Country or Upper Louisiana, the dialect is now highly endangered, with only a few elderly local residents able to speak it.