Interesting, bookmarking to read later.
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.
I’ve read that the largest group of unintergrated White people left in the world today are those living in the Appalachian Mountains.
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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!
’ It is in certain respects more true to its roots than other versions of American English.
Speck so... I reckon.
Your threads always make for interesting reading. Thanks.
This is a very interesting article.
When we were living in the Upper Eastern Shore of Maryland, our church bought land to build a new church building just over the Delaware line. It was expected to be a straight forward project to build the church ( about a year).
Ah!...What we didn’t know was the foundation of the building sat right on the line where the Piedmont ridge began. Half the foundation would be on the firm granite of the Piedmont Ridge and the other half would be on the softer alluvial land that formed the Eastern Shore. BIG problem!
Five years later we finally opened the doors on our new church.
Thanks for posting this. I’d always wondered about the origins of different dialects. Texan here, with roots all over the south.
Bump!
This is a very interesting post. I recommend it.
lol
Sadly, today the only celebrated colloquial language is that of urban blacks.
Your blog is very nicely done. I’ve been researching my “lines” off and on over the past ten years and have found a great number of cousins living in Giles and Augusta counties. Been up there a few times and if I could afford it myself, would probably move there. Beautiful place.
amen...being a cotton state raised lad from Dixie now living in middle Tennessee and who works with folks from up the Cumberland plateau and so forth daily....I already knew this.
hillbilly and southern drawls as very different
true southern drawl runs from east Texas up to Dallas and across Louisiana and southern Arkansas into only west-middle Tennessee and western Kentucky and then all of Mississippi and Alabama south of Huntsville into southern Gerorgia and parts of Atlanta even and most of South Carolina , middle and eastern North Carolina, to tidewater Virginia and a hint even into Maryland coastal...and a spine down through Florida panhandle over to Jacksonville and meanders down through Florida in places all the way to Clewiston to Everglades City
Appalachin accents though varied between say Blue Ridge Georgia to Wheeling West Virginia run primarily in all the hill/mountain country from the southeast up deep into the North
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*ping of interest*
Thanks for posting this. Very cool!
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