Appalachian English is a common name for the Southern Midland

Midland American English

The Midland dialect of American English was first defined by Hans Kurath as being the dialect spoken in an area centered on Philadelphia and expanding westward to include most of Pennsylvania and part of the Appalachian Mountains...

 dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of American English

American English

American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....

. This dialect is spoken primarily in the Central and Southern Appalachian Mountain

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

 region of the Eastern United States, namely in North Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, Northwestern South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, Southern

Southern West Virginia

Southern West Virginia is a culturally and geographically distinct region in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Generally considered the heart of Appalachia, Southern West Virginia is known for its coal mining heritage and southern affinity...

 West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

, Southwestern

Southwest Virginia

Southwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Virginia counties on the Appalachian Plateau, all Virginia counties west of the Eastern Continental Divide, or...

 Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, Southern Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, Eastern

Eastern Mountain Coal Fields

The Eastern Mountain Coal Fields is part of the Central Appalachian bituminous coal field, covering all or parts of 30 Kentucky counties and adjoining areas in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee. It covers an area from the Allegheny Mountains in the east across the Cumberland Plateau and...

 Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, the Upper Potomac

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

 and Shenandoah

Shenandoah River

The Shenandoah River is a tributary of the Potomac River, long with two forks approximately long each, in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia...

 Valleys of Virginia and West Virginia, Western Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, East

East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...

 Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, Western North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, and Northeastern Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. It is a dialect distinct from Southern American English

Southern American English

Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...

, and it has more in common with the Northern Midland

Midland American English

The Midland dialect of American English was first defined by Hans Kurath as being the dialect spoken in an area centered on Philadelphia and expanding westward to include most of Pennsylvania and part of the Appalachian Mountains...

 dialect of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and Northern West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

 than the Southern dialect. While most of this area lies within Appalachia

Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

 as defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission

Appalachian Regional Commission

The Appalachian Regional Commission is a United States federal-state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life...

, Appalachian English is not the dialect of the entire region the Commission defines as Appalachia. The Appalachian dialect is rhotic

Rhotic and non-rhotic accents

English pronunciation can be divided into two main accent groups: a rhotic speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not...

 and characterized by distinct phonology

Phonology

Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

, morphology

Morphology (linguistics)

In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

, syntax

Syntax

In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....

, and lexicon. It is mostly oral but can also be found in writing.

Appalachian English has long been derided as an inferior dialect. Detractors both within and outside of the speaking area mistakenly cite laziness, lack of education, and the region's relative isolation as reasons for the dialect's existence. American writers throughout the 20th century have used the dialect as the chosen speech of uneducated and unsophisticated characters. While research has largely disproven these stereotypes, use of the Appalachian dialect is still often an impediment to educational and social advancement.

Extensive research has been conducted since the 1930s to determine the origin of the Appalachian dialect. One theory is that the dialect is a remnant of Elizabethan (or Shakespearean) English that had been preserved by the region's isolation. Another theory suggests that the dialect developed out of the Scots-Irish and Anglo-Scottish border

Anglo-Scottish border

The Anglo-Scottish border is the official border and mark of entry between Scotland and England. It runs for 154 km between the River Tweed on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west. It is Scotland's only land border...

 dialects brought to the region by some of its earliest British Isles settlers. Recent research suggests that Appalachian English developed as a uniquely American dialect as early settlers re-adapted the English language to their unfamiliar frontier environment. This is supported by numerous similarities between the Appalachian dialect and Colonial American English.

Speakers of Appalachian English have no trouble understanding standard English, but even native speakers of other dialects can find it somewhat impenetrable (compare the similar situation of Glasgow English and London English

Estuary English

Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...

), and foreigners may have some trouble understanding it, while others may find it easier to comprehend. Standard forms are taught in schools, with the implicit assumption that the Appalachian dialect is inferior to Standard American English. The characteristic syntax and morphology of Appalachian English gives way to more standard forms in schools, public speaking venues, and courts of law, but the phonology is likely to remain the same.

Phonemic incidence

Research suggests that the Appalachian dialect is one of the most distinctive and divergent dialects within the United States.

• An intrusive R occurs in some words such as wash, leading to the pronunciation /wɔrʃ/.

• An -er sound is often used for long "o" at the end of a word. For example, hollow— "a small, sheltered valley"— is pronounced /ˈhɑlər/, homophonous with holler. Other examples are "potato" , "tomato" , and "tobacco" .

• The "z" sound in certain contractions is replaced by a d or glottal stop. For example, Isn't and wasn't are often pronounced idn't and wadn't. The contraction "wasn't" is pronounced with a glottal stop in place of "s" and with the "t" dropped(wu'n). The word "wouldn't" is pronounced the same way.

• H retention occurs at the beginning of certain words. It, in particular, is pronounced hit at the beginning of a sentence and also when emphasized. The word "ain't" is pronounced hain't.

• Participles and gerunds such as doing and mining end in /n/ instead of /ɪŋ/. While this occurs to some extent in all dialects of American English, it possibly occurs with greater frequency in Southern Appalachia.

• Word final a is sometimes pronounced /i/, as in okra (/ˈo kʰɾiː/).

• Intervocalic s in greasy is pronounced /z/, as in other Southern American and some British speech. A related matter: The noun "grease" is pronounced with an "s," but this consonant turns into a "z" in the verb.

• People who live in the Appalachian dialect area pronounce the word Appalachia with a short a sound in the second syllable, /ˈæpəˈlætʃə/ or /ˈæpəˈlætʃiə/, while those who live outside of the Appalachian dialect area or at its outer edges tend to pronounce it with a long a sound, /æpəˈleɪʃə/.

Phonetics

• Vowels are pronounced for a slightly longer period of time than those in standard forms of English (e.g., "red" is pronounced "rey-uhd"), and diphthongs can clearly be heard to have two distinct vowels. This tendency, known as the "southern drawl," is also common in Southern American English.

• In the two-syllable vowel /aɪ/, the second half of the vowel syllable is often omitted, and is thus pronounced similar to [ɑː]. In extreme instances, words such as "wire" and "fire" are pronounced so as to completely rhyme with "car."

• Lax and tense vowels often neutralize before /l/
  English-language vowel changes before historic l
  In the history of English phonology, there have been many diachronic sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers. A number of these changes are specific to vowels which occur before .-Salary–celery merger:...
  
  , making pairs like feel/fill and fail/fell homophone
  Homophone
  A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
  
  s for speakers in some areas. Some speakers may distinguish between the two sets of words by reversing the normal vowel sound, e.g., feel may sound like fill, and vice versa.

• Short "i" and short "e" have the same pronunciation when appearing before "n" or "m" (e.g., "pen" and "pin" are both pronounced "pin"). Adjectives are often used to distinguish between the two (e.g., "ink pen").

Conjugation of the verb "to be"

The conjugation of the verb "to be" is different from that of standard English in several ways, and there is sometimes more than one form of the verb "to be" acceptable in Appalachian English. The use of the word ain't

Ain't

Ain't is a colloquialism and contraction for "am not", "is not", "are not", "has not", and "have not" in the common English language vernacular. In some dialects ain't is also used as a contraction of "do not", "does not", and "did not". The usage of ain't is a perennial subject of controversy in...

is one of the most salient features of this dialect. Ain't originated as a contraction of "am not." Today, however, it is used as the negative form of the verb "to be" in the present tense (cf. Scottish Gaelic chan eil) and is used instead of a conjugated form of the verb "to have" plus "not" to express the present perfect tense. An example of the latter would be "He ain't done it" instead of "He hasn't done it." While "ain't" (though considered improper) is used to some extent in most American English dialects, it is used with much greater frequency in the Appalachian dialect.

Whereas standard English makes no distinction aside from context between the singular and plural forms of the second person past tense forms of the verb "to be," using "you were" for both, Appalachian English has "you was" and "y'all were," making for a more balanced paradigm with "was" used for the singular past tense in all cases, and "were" used for the plural. Singular forms of the verb "to be" are often used with compound pronouns, as in "Them is the ones I want" and "Him and her is real good folks." (For use of real, see Wolfram & Christian 1976)

"Is you?" is sometimes used instead of "Are you?" Pluralized concrete nouns used as abstract nouns call for a singular form of the verb, i.e. "Apples is good for you." "Was" is sometimes used in the third person plural, i.e. "They was there."

Other verb forms

• Sometimes the past participle of a strong verb such as "do" is used in place of the past tense. For example, "I done it already" instead of "I did it already" or in the case of the verb "see," "I seen" instead of "I saw." "Went" is often used instead of "gone" as the past participle of the verb "to go." She had went to Ashland. Less frequently, "gone" is used as the simple past tense. I gone down to the meeting, but wasn't nobody there. "Done" is used with the past tense (or a past participle commonly used as a past tense, such as "gone") to express action just completed, as in, "I done went/gone to the store".

• Some English strong verbs are occasionally conjugated as weak verbs in Appalachian English, i.e. "knowed," and "seed."

• The construction "don't...no" is used with transitive verbs to indicate the negative, i.e. "He don't know no better." This is commonly referred to as the double negative
  Double negative
  A double negative occurs when two forms of negation are used in the same sentence. Multiple negation is the more general term referring to the occurrence of more than one negative in a clause....
  
  , and is either negative or emphatically negative, never positive. "None" is often used in place of "any," as in "I don't have none."

• Verb forms for the verb "to lay" are used instead of forms of the verb "to lie." For example, "Lay down and hush."

• Participles found in present tense progressive aspect verb forms often have a vowel prefix commonly written with an "a" followed by a hyphen, and this is pronounced as a schwa sound. An example is "I'm a-goin' now." Cf. the composite present of Scottish Gaelic, as in Tha mi a-smochach, or "I'm smoking."

• "Might could" is sometimes used where a speaker of standard English would say, "might be able to" or "could maybe."

• Measurements such as "foot" and "mile" often retain their singular form even when used in the plural sense. For example, "That stick is 3 foot long", or "We need 6 foot of drywall". "Foot" in the singular is standard in UK English.

• Contraction can occur naturally and frequently. This can significantly alter the annunciation of certain words. While "you" might be enunciated as "ye", through the dialect's strong tendency to contract, new changes might take place such as "Did you?" being pronounced as "Didjah" or "Didjii?" (Extreme cases of contraction and elision can occur as well, as demonstrated and popularized by comedian Jeff Foxworthy:)
  A: "Hey, 'jii'eat yet?
  B: "Naw'd'joo?"
  A: "Yantu?"
  B: "Ah-yte!"
  

Double nouns

Some nouns are spoken in pairs, the first noun describing the seemingly redundant second noun, as in "hound dog", "widow woman", "toad frog", "biscuit bread", or "rifle gun".

Pronouns and demonstratives

"Them" is sometimes used in place of "those" as a demonstrative in both nominative and oblique constructions. Examples are "Them are the pants I want" and "Give me some of them crackers."

Oblique forms of the personal pronouns are used as nominative when more than one is used (cf. French moi et toi). For example, "Me and him are real good friends" instead of "He and I are really good friends." Accusative case personal pronouns are used as reflexives in situations that, in American English, do not typically demand them (e.g., "I'm gonna get me a haircut"). The -self/-selves forms are used almost exclusively as emphatics, and then often in non-standard forms (e.g., "the preacher hisself"). Second person pronouns are often retained as subjects in imperative sentences (e.g., "You go an' get you a cookie").

Other grammatical forms

• Pronouns and adjectives are sometimes combined with "'un" (meaning "one"), such as "young'un" to mean "child", "big'un" to mean big one, and "you'uns" to mean "you all". Young'n' and 'big'n' are standard in northern UK English.

• The word element "-ever" is sometimes reversed in words such as "whatever" ("everwhat"), "whoever" ("everwho"), and "however" ("everhow"), but the usage remains the same (e.g., "Everwho did this is in big trouble").

• The word right can be used with adjectives (e.g., "a right cold morning") and along with its standard use with adverbs can also be used with adverbs of manner and time (e.g., "right loud" or "right often"). This is an acceptable formation in some areas of UK English.

Sample vocabulary

The following is a list of words that occur in the Appalachian dialect. These words are not exclusive to the region, but tend to occur with greater frequency than in other English dialects.

• Afeared: afraid.
• Airish: cool or chilly
• Ary: any
• Bald: n. a treeless mountain summit (See Appalachian balds
  Appalachian balds
  In the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States, balds are mountain summits or crests covered primarily by thick vegetation of native grasses or shrubs occurring in areas where heavy forest growth would be expected....
  
  ).
• Ball-hoot: v. to drive recklessly fast on dangerous rural or mountain roads; derived from an old logging term for rolling or skidding logs downhill.
• Blinds: n. window shades or window shutters. While blinds usually refers to window shades, in Appalachia and the greater Midland dialect, it can also refer to window shutters.
• Brickle: brittle.
• Caps: popcorn
• Cat-head: a large biscuit
  Biscuit
  A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....
  
  .
• Chancy: doubtful.
• Chaw: chewing tobacco.
• Clean: verb modifier that is used to mean entirely completing an action. Can be used in place of 'all the way', e.g., "He knocked it clean off the table."
• Coke: short for Coca-Cola
  Coca-Cola
  Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
  
  , but applied to all flavored, carbonated sodas, regardless of brand, flavor or type. Coke is used primarily in the southern half of the dialect region, whereas the more northern-influenced pop receives more usage in Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and most of Southwest Virginia
  Southwest Virginia
  Southwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Virginia counties on the Appalachian Plateau, all Virginia counties west of the Eastern Continental Divide, or...
  
  .
• Cornpone: Skillet cornbread made without eggs.
• Counterpane: bedspread.
• Cove
  Cove (Appalachian Mountains)
  In the central and southern Appalachian Mountains of Eastern North America, a cove is a small valley between two ridge lines that is closed at one or both ends....
  
  : a valley between two ridges.
• Discomfit: v. inconvenience.
• Directly: later, after a while, when it becomes convenient, soon, immediately (largely depending on context).
• Fireboard: Mantel
  Fireplace mantel
  Fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a hood that projected over a grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fireplace, and can include elaborate designs extending to the ceiling...
  
  .
• Fit: used in place of the word "fought".
• Fixin':
  • a serving or helping of food. Can I get a fixin' of dumplings?,
  • an event, party or social function where food is served. They're having a fixin' at church next Friday.
  • about to, They're fixin' to get hitched.
• Gaum: n. mess. gaum (gôm); also used as a transitive verb: "to gaum up" (i.e., "to mess up").

• Flannel cake: pancake
  Pancake
  A pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side...
  
  .
• Holler: n. hollow, as in a valley between two hills, e.g., "...I...continue to travel between hollers and cities."
• Hull: v. shell, as in to shell beans.
• Ill: bad-tempered.
• Jacket: n. vest.
• Jarfly: cicada
  Cicada
  A cicada is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha , in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the world, and many of them remain unclassified...
  
  .
• Kyarn: (Carrion) Dead flesh, such as roadkill. That smells like kyarn.
• Lamp oil/coal oil: kerosene
  Kerosene
  Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
  
  .
• Lay out: to be truant (e.g., to "lay out of school" or "lay out of work").
• Meeting: a gathering of people for religious purposes.
• Nary/Nary'ne: none
• Palings: fence posts.
• Piece: distance (e.g., "He'd have went up the road a piece to get on the main road").
• Piece: n. snack.
• Plum or plumb: completely (e.g., "Son, you're plum crazy")
• Poke: n. brown paper bag
• Poke sallet: n. a type of salad made from boiled greens
  Boiled greens
  Boiled greens are leaves cooked for food. They are part of many cuisines, and may be the leaves of common cultivated vegetables, such as spinach, fennel, mustard, or turnip, or the leaves of wild plants such as dandelion, wild radish, and purple amaranth....
  
   (usually pokeweed
  Pokeweed
  The pokeweeds, also known as pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot, poke sallet, polk salad, polk salat, polk sallet, inkberry or ombú, comprise the genus Phytolacca, perennial plants native to North America, South America, East Asia and New Zealand...
  
  ). Spelled variously salat, salit, and similar variations.
• Pokestock/polkstalk: n. a single shot shotgun; historically a rifle with an unusually long barrel popular with Kentucky frontiersmen.
• Quare: Queer (totally unrelated to sexuality), strange, odd (as in, "He's shore a quare 'un").
• Reckon: suppose. I reckon you don't like soup beans
  Soup beans
  Soup beans is a term common in the Southern United States, particularly the regions around the Appalachian Mountains. It refers to pinto or other brown dried beans cooked with smoked pork as flavoring.1 Soup beans are usually served with cornbread, greens , corn , and potatoes and may...
  
  .
• Right smart: good deal of (e.g., "a right smart piece" for "a long way").
• Skift: dusting of snow.
• Slap: full, complete (e.g., "...a fall in the river, which went slap-right and straight down").
• Sop: gravy
  Gravy
  Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...
  
  .
• Springhouse: n. a building (usually positioned over a stream) used for refrigeration before the advent of refrigerators.
• Sugar tree: n. Sugar Maple tree.
• Swan: (also swanny) swear; declare to be true.
• Tow sack: burlap sack.
• Whistle pig: n. groundhog
  Groundhog
  The groundhog , also known as a woodchuck, whistle-pig, or in some areas as a land-beaver, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but...
  
  .
• Yonder: a directional adverb meaning distant from both the speaker and the listener (e.g., "Look over yonder").

Colloquialisms

• Co'-cola: Coca-Cola, but used in the same sense as "Coke" above.
• 'Pon m'onor: "Upon my honor", honestly, truly.

Origins

Early theories regarding the origins of the Appalachian dialect tend to revolve around popular notions regarding the region's general isolation and the belief that the region is culturally static or homogenous. The tendency of Appalachian speakers to retain many aspects of their dialect for a generation or more after moving to large urban areas in the north and west suggests that Appalachian English is conservative rather than isolated. Beliefs about Appalachia's isolation led to the early suggestion that the dialect was a surviving relic of long-forgotten forms of English. The most enduring of these early theories suggested that the Appalachian dialect was a remnant of Elizabethan English, a theory popularized by Berea College

Berea College

Berea College is a liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky , founded in 1855. Current full-time enrollment is 1,514 students...

 president William Goddell Frost in the late 1800s. However, while Shakespearean words occasionally appear in Appalachian speech (e.g., afeared), these occurrences are rare. Most European speech patterns and vocabulary that occur in Appalachian English come from the greater British Isles, rather than just England itself.

The earliest settlers in Southern Appalachia, who arrived in the region in the 18th and early 19th centuries, came primarily from the Anglo-Scottish Border country and other areas bordering the Irish Sea

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...

. A great number came from Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

 in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, although these were typically resettled Lowland Scots— known as Scots-Irish or Ulster Scots— rather than actual Irish. The English dialect of these settlers formed the core of what would later develop into Appalachian English. Examples of Scots-Irish influence include the use of might could for might be able to (cf. Scots and Ulster Scots micht could), the use of "'un" with pronouns and adjectives (e.g., young'un), the use of "done" as a helping verb (e.g., we done finished it), and the use of words such as airish, brickle, swan, and bottom land. The use of double negatives wasn't uncommon in the English Border region in the 17th and 18th centuries. The use of the "a-" prefix (e.g., "a-goin'" for "going") and the attachment of "-ed" to certain verbs (e.g., knowed), originated in South England. Many Appalachian speech habits were used throughout the British Isles, including the h-retention (e.g., hit for it), the use of the word right in the place of rather (e.g., right cold), and the presence of words such as yonder.

While the Scottish-Irish and Northern English settlers had a strong influence on the Appalachian dialect, linguistic analyses suggest that Appalachian English developed as a distinctive dialect among English-speaking people in North America. The Appalachian dialect retains a number of speech patterns found in Colonial American English but largely discarded in Standard speech, such as "r" intrusion (e.g., "warsh" for "wash") and a "y" sound in place of "a" on the end of certain words (e.g., "okry" for "okra"). The southern drawl is of an unknown American origin, although some suspect it originated in African-American English.

Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 influences in the Appalachian dialect are virtually non-existent, the exception being place names (e.g., "Appalachia", "Tennessee", "Chattahoochee River", "Cheoah Mountains"). While early settlers adopted numerous customs from tribes such as the Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 and Shawnee

Shawnee

The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...

, they typically applied existing words from their own languages to these customs.

Similarities to other dialects

The Appalachian dialect is part of the greater Midland dialect, and as such has several terms in common with its North Midland counterpart, including poke (paper bag), hull (to shell), and blinds (shutters). Certain German words such as smearcase ("cottage cheese"), however, are present in the North Midland dialect but absent in the Appalachian dialect. The rhotic element of Appalachian English is the primary feature linking it to the Midland dialect and the primary feature distinguishing it from the Southern American dialect.

A number of speech patterns and terms are found throughout the English language or the American English dialect, but occur with greater frequency in Appalachian English. These include the dropping of "g" on words ending in "-ing" and the use of terms such as ain't and plumb ("completely").

The Ozark dialect is largely derived from the Appalachian dialect, and the two dialects remain remarkably similar. Appalachian terms found in Ozark English include fireboard, tow sack, jarfly, and brickle. The two dialects also share similar speech patterns, such as h-retention (hit instead of it), the use of the "-a" prefix ("a-goin'" for "going"), and the d-stop in place of certain "z" sounds (e.g., "idn't" for "isn't"). Studies have shown that Ozark English has more in common with the dialect of East Tennessee than with the dialect of West Tennessee or even Eastern Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

.

Sources

• O'Grady, William, Dobrovolsky, Michael, and Aronoff, Mark. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. Second Edition. New York: St. Martin's press, 1993.
• D.A.R.E., The Dictionary of American Regional English.

External links

• Southern Appalachian English — Transcripts — sound files of interviews with long-time residents of the Great Smoky Mountains
  Great Smoky Mountains
  The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains or the...
  
  conducted in 1939