English Language in Appalachia

In High Mountains Rising, Michael Montgomery did a great job writing his chapter English Language, emphasizing the language used in Appalachia. I mean, I have read a few other articles about the words used in these mountains however this has been the best one I have come across. I feel like his words really described how my family and people from the surrounding counties speak! On top, of that I learned quite a lot, so I wanted to make some comments on what I found to be true with me, what I learned, and what I can add to his point. Plus, I am a Communication Sciences & Disorders undergraduate, so language and dialects is my milieu one could say (see? We mountain people are capable of knowing big words).

First I learned that Appalachian English is not really a remnant of Elizabethan dialect, even though I would like for that to be true so we have more bragging rights. Many people consider the dialect inferior and “an impediment to social mobility and educational progress” (page 147). This is something that has always irked me and flat out hurt my feelings. I personally had no problems with my accent until I got to ASU. Even at my community college, everyone (save a few Marion, NC people) had the same mountain “speech”.

However, when I came to ASU, I already knew how some students talked and was well aware that many students came from different areas in the nation, so I was prepared to run into that. It hit home the most when I worked at Appalachian Fund. I got to where I despised the job because most of the ASU alumni I reached on the telephone would question me about my heritage or have some comment to make on the way I talked (if I was lucky, I reached a person with a southern accent and they would be a joy to talk to, even if they gave no donation). None of the other employees had the same accent as me so I remained alone until I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and quit. The funny thing is that when I leave campus and go into the part of Boone with fast food restaurants, I come across all kinds of people with mountain accents! So I feel that we are still in a trend where people with more Standard English accents go to obtain higher education while those with Appalachian accents end up with blue collar jobs or work in fast food.

I also wanted to comment on some of the vocabulary that Montgomery mentions. I actually use a some of these and can add some more words to the list, however some of the words I have never heard. Where I live, on a daily or weekly basis my relatives use these examples: bawl, green beans, hull (but more as in the shell, not to shell), you’uns, poke, skillet, arm load, little piece, adding the prefix a- on verbs (seldom if not often, though), ain’t, was with plural subjects ("you/we was outside"), ill (bad-tempered), creel (to twist, e.g. “I creeled my ankle”), and sop (gravy). Now these next examples I don’t use, but my mother from the neighboring county has used or at least heard of them: galluses [“suspenders”], swan/swanny (“to swear”), palings [“fence posts”], fit and holp as the past tense of fight and help, knowed and blowed. Some examples I can add are cuckle [“to steal somebody’s girlfriend”] (possibly and Avery County term), and light [“to sit still somewhere/ stop moving around], light into somebody [“to let someone have it”].

I also want to elaborate on a vowel on page 156. Number 5 says “modification of the “long i” to ah in different contexts, so that my right side rhymes with mah raht sahd; wire rhymes with either car or war.” This may be true but more so with the more southern states like Alabama or Louisiana I am guessing. Here in this area of Appalachia, the vowel is actually more between the long I and “ah”, in the phonetic alphabet it has its own symbol, /a/, instead of /aI/ and /ɑ/. In addition, it is actually the same vowel used in Boston for “ar” so with the /a/ vowel, park the car in the garage sounds like pike the kie in the garige. The best way I can explain is in person though, so if you would like to know more ask me in class!

There is too much that can be discussed in this blog about English Language in Appalachia. It is a fascinating subject to me, as well as all of our nation’s dialects and all the world’s languages! It would be nice to eradicate the world’s language barriers and rid of all the prejudices that arise therein but it is also nice to have a special dialect that you belong to.