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Teetotally Appalachian English
Backcountry Notes ^ | March 12, 2010 | Jay Henderson

Posted on 03/12/2010 6:19:58 AM PST by jay1949

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1 posted on 03/12/2010 6:19:58 AM PST by jay1949
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To: jay1949

Interesting, bookmarking to read later.


2 posted on 03/12/2010 6:22:45 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: jay1949

I remember reading something one time where the author said that if you could go back in time to England and the Colonies in the early 18th century, everybody would sound like “backwoods” Americans do now.


3 posted on 03/12/2010 6:24:32 AM PST by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (We bury Democrats face down so that when they scratch, they get closer to home.)
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To: jay1949

I’ve read that the largest group of unintergrated White people left in the world today are those living in the Appalachian Mountains.


4 posted on 03/12/2010 6:26:13 AM PST by blam
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Not everybody; it would depend on the area. Settlers from the Scottish-English Borderlands, above Hadrian’s Wall, and from Northern Ireland would speak alike, regardless of where they had settled — some Scotch Irish came in through Georgia and SC, others went to areas in New England, for example. Settlers from southern England already had developed different usages. One area which remained isolated for a time was Manteo-Elizabeth City, NC, where traditional speakers pronounce “i” as “oi” or “oy”, as in “It’s hoy toid at Buxton” (”It’s high tide . . .”). Compare the strong “i” in Appalachian speech — it would be “high tide” here, and the same strong, clipped “i” sound would turn up in “light” and “might”, and so on.


5 posted on 03/12/2010 6:33:29 AM PST by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

Yes bookmark


6 posted on 03/12/2010 6:35:12 AM PST by mel
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To: blam

Possibly, although that observation may fail to take into account the frequent intermarriage with Cherokees and other Native Americans (my wife has enough Cherokee to qualify for tribal membership, should she ever desire to do so).


7 posted on 03/12/2010 6:36:38 AM PST by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

Very sad to report that the fine old Appalachian dialect is disappearing very fast.

I recently spent the night in soutwestern Virginia. A visit to the local Walmart Supercenter gave ample evidence that most natives above the age of about 25 still speak in the dulcet tones of the classic mountain twang.

But the teenaged waitresses at IHOP and Cracker Barrel all sound like Britney Spears.

So I predict that in 50 years, almost everybody in Appalachia will be speaking the “Valley
Girl” dialect.

Ugh!


8 posted on 03/12/2010 6:36:45 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

My mother and other family were raised in a country town in Arkansas, quite frequently i hear words that make me think of early times. they say ye and arsh taters for potatoes etc. It is sad to think they will be gone soon and that type of speaking. as far as i know it.


9 posted on 03/12/2010 6:36:54 AM PST by mel
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To: blam

I don’t understand what you mean by “unintegrated”???

Quite a lot of Appalachian folk have Ani-Yun-Wiya (Tsalagi or Cherokee) bloodlines intermingled with English, Scots/Irish, German, Dutch. etc....Often there is also African in there as well...though not as much as the early Appalachians couldn’t afford slaves even if they had wanted them.

I was told by an english professor at the University of Tennessee that the mountain dialect was as close to true “Olde English” as America had to offer...(BTW, I am born and raised in the mountains and my ancestry is Ani-Yun-Wiya and Scots/Irish...)


10 posted on 03/12/2010 6:38:52 AM PST by Boonie
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To: Hawthorn
Right on point, H. Television will eventually kill off most of our regional dialects. The next generation, like, will all go, like, like, youknow. All the more reason to voice-record dialectical speakers while we can. Not just in Appalachia -- DownEast Maine also, for example (I love the DownEast accent!)
11 posted on 03/12/2010 6:41:24 AM PST by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

>> One area which remained isolated for a time was Manteo-Elizabeth City, NC, where traditional speakers pronounce “i” as “oi” or “oy” <<

Similar story for the dialect of Tangier Island, which is in the Chesapeake Bay between Maryland and Virginia.

Moreover, you can even hear faint echoes of the same pronunciation and lilt in the speech of very old folks who grew up on the “eastern shore” of Maryland and nearby areas of southern Delaware.


12 posted on 03/12/2010 6:42:45 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: mel

Ye don’t say? There’s still a few of us ‘round these parts. ;-)


13 posted on 03/12/2010 6:43:14 AM PST by OB1kNOb (“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain)
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To: jay1949

jay...You do excellent work...Thank you very much for your postings...

Have you ever looked into the Melungeons of Middle Tennessee?


14 posted on 03/12/2010 6:43:29 AM PST by Boonie
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To: OB1kNOb

They are around Jonesboro, but lived in Cash in northeast Arkansas. Sadly those days are gone because now they bus to a more urban school and it just isn’t the same little country town. Now they just use double negatives.


15 posted on 03/12/2010 6:46:18 AM PST by mel
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To: OB1kNOb

They are around Jonesboro, but lived in Cash in northeast Arkansas. Sadly those days are gone because now they bus to a more urban school and it just isn’t the same little country town. Now they just use double negatives.


16 posted on 03/12/2010 6:46:19 AM PST by mel
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To: jay1949

’ It is in certain respects more true to its roots than other versions of American English.

Speck so... I reckon.


17 posted on 03/12/2010 6:46:32 AM PST by Leg Olam
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To: Boonie

I have read about the Melungeons from time to time, and there is a group which is doing a good job of collecting information and literature. Genetic studies would be interesting. On non-Melungeons, as well . . . the incidence of blue-eyed, dark-brown-haired persons is much higher in Southern Appalachia than elsewhere; I believe this to be genetically tied to the Picts of the Borderlands. Along with the blue eyes and dark brown hair, there is often a distaste for fin-fish, which the Romans observed to be a characteristic of the Picts.


18 posted on 03/12/2010 6:48:06 AM PST by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

Your threads always make for interesting reading. Thanks.


19 posted on 03/12/2010 6:48:41 AM PST by bricklayer
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To: jay1949

>> Television will eventually kill off most of our regional dialects. <<

Yep. And it’s not only “our” regional dialects:

I had a chance at Christmastide to exchange views on the matter with a woman who spent most of her childhood in Yorkshire and still has family there — a place whose traditional dialect is very nearly a foreign language for us spearkers of “standard” English.

My friend said — with apparent sadness — that her teenaged nephews and nieces in Yorkshire now speak entirely with a “London” dialect. So it seems that Merry Old England will also lose her regional dialects over the next 50 years.


20 posted on 03/12/2010 6:50:53 AM PST by Hawthorn
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