Posted on 03/12/2010 6:19:58 AM PST by jay1949
The unenlightened assume that Appalachian accents and usages are a hillbilly corruption of the flatlands Southern drawl. This is not so; the accents and usages of the Backcountry developed contemporaneously with the versions of English spoken in the other areas of European settlement. The society and culture of the Backcountry were dominated by the large numbers of Scotch-Irish immigrants, blended with the influence of German, Dutch, Welsh, Scottish, and yeoman English settlers. Appalachian speech developed from the versions of English introduced by these settlers, independently of the development of the Southern drawl and the Yankee accent of New England. The traditional speech and vocabulary of the Backcountry is not a "corrupt" dialect. It is in certain respects more true to its roots than other versions of American English.
(Excerpt) Read more at backcountrynotes.com ...
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.
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.
Yes bookmark
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).
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!
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.
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...)
>> 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.
Ye don’t say? There’s still a few of us ‘round these parts. ;-)
jay...You do excellent work...Thank you very much for your postings...
Have you ever looked into the Melungeons of Middle Tennessee?
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.
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.
’ It is in certain respects more true to its roots than other versions of American English.
Speck so... I reckon.
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.
Your threads always make for interesting reading. Thanks.
>> 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.
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