Appalachian English is American English native to the Appalachian mountain region of the Eastern United States. Historically, the term Appalachian dialect refers to a local English variety of southern Appalachia, also known as Smoky Mountain English or Southern Mountain English in American linguistics. This variety is both influential upon and influenced by the Southern U.S. regional dialect, which has become predominant in central and southern Appalachia today, while a Western Pennsylvania regional dialect has become predominant in northern Appalachia, according to the 2006 Atlas of North American English (ANAE). The ANAE identifies the "Inland South", a dialect sub-region in which the Southern U.S. dialect's defining vowel shift is the most developed, as centering squarely in southern Appalachia: namely, the cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee; Birmingham and Linden, Alabama; Asheville, North Carolina; and Greenville, South Carolina. All Appalachian English is rhotic and characterized by distinct phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. It is mostly oral but its features are also sometimes represented in literary works.
Extensive research has been conducted since the 1930s to determine the origin of the Appalachian dialect. One popular theory is that the dialect is a preserved remnant of 16th-century (or "Elizabethan") English in isolation,Cooper, Horton. "History of Avery County", Biltmore Press, (1964) though a far more accurate comparison would be to 18th-century (or "colonial") English. Regardless, the Appalachian dialect studied within the last century, like most dialects, actually shows a mix of both older and newer features, with particular Ulster Scots immigrant influences.
Appalachian English has long been a popular stereotype of Appalachians and is criticized both inside and outside the speaking area as an inferior dialect, which is often mistakenly attributed to supposed laziness, lack of education, or the region's relative isolation. American writers throughout the 20th century have used the dialect as the chosen speech of uneducated and unsophisticated characters, though research has largely disproven these stereotypes; however, due to such prejudice, the use of the Appalachian dialect is still often an impediment to educational and social advancement.
Along with these pejorative associations, there has been much debate as to whether Appalachian English constitutes a dialect separate from the American Southern regional dialect, as it shares many core components with it. Research reveals that Appalachian English also includes many grammatical components similar to those of the Midland regional dialect, as well as several unique grammatical, lexical, and phonological features of its own.
Phonology
Phonetics The Southern Shift and Southern drawl: A vowel shift known as the Southern Shift, which largely defines the speech of most of the Southern United States, is the most developed both in Texas English and here in Appalachian English (located in a dialect region which The Atlas of North American English identifies as the "Inland South"). This involves several unique vowel changes, in three complex stages: Stage 1: In the diphthong , the second half of the diphthong is often omitted (referred to as monophthongization), and it is thus pronounced similar to . (Thus, for example, the word tide in this dialect may sound to outsiders more like Todd or even tad). In extreme instances, words such as "wire", "fire", "tire", and "hired" are pronounced identically to the words "war", "far", "tar", and "hard," respectively.Kirk Hazen, "African-American Appalachian English". The Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), p. 1006. Stage 2: The diphthong begins further back and open in the mouth, so that, for example, fish bait and old lace in this dialect may sound to other English speakers more like fish bite and old lice. The vowel then moves in the opposite direction and acquires a "drawl" or longer, glide-like sound quality, so that red may be said to sound more like ray-ud or rih-yud. Stage 2 is most common in heavily stressed syllables. Stage 3: The vowel is pronounced higher in the mouth and with a drawl, so that hit may be said to sound like hee-it. Conversely, the vowel lowers and then glides up again, so that feet may sound more like fih-eet or fuh-eet. Stage 3 is most common in heavily stressed syllables. Lax and tense vowels often neutralize before , making pairs like feel/fill and fail/fell homophones 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" vs. "straight pin" or "safety pin").
Phonemic incidence Research suggests that the Appalachian dialect is one of the most distinctive and divergent dialects within the United States.
An epenthetic sometimes occurs in some words such as wash, leading to the pronunciation "worsh". can be used in place of word-final, unstressed . For example, hollow— "a small, sheltered valley"— is pronounced , homophonous with hollerBridget Anderson, "Appalachian English in the Urban North", The Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), p. 1011. and yellow like yeller . In initial position, unstressed syllables may be deleted. While this is common in casual speech for most varieties of English (e.g. around as 'round and because as 'cause) it is somewhat extended in Appalachian speech. Electrician can be pronounced 'lectrician and remember like 'member. This, combined with the use of er for ow, produces the stereotypical Appalachian pronunciations of tomato and potato like 'mater and 'tater. 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, homophonic with a local word for ghost or spirit (itself a corruption of the word haunt). Participles and gerunds such as doing and mining end in instead of . 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 , as in okra (). Also see opera --> "opry" as in the "Gran' Ol' Opry" and Dula --> "Dooley" as in "Tom Dula" (Dooley). Intervocalic s in greasy is pronounced , 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 adjective and in the verb "to grease." People who live in the Appalachian dialect area or elsewhere in the South pronounce the word Appalachia with a short "a" sound (as in "latch") in the third syllable, or , while those who live outside of the Appalachian dialect area or at its outer edges tend to pronounce it with a long "a" sound (as in "lay"), .David Walls, "Appalachia". The Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), pp. 1006–1007.
Grammar
Pronouns and demonstratives "Them" is sometimes used in place of "those" as a demonstrative in both nominal and adjectival and 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 which, 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").
The possessive absolutive forms, Standard yours, his, hers, theirs, and ours appear as yourn, hisn, hern, theirn, and ourn. The possessive absolute form of "yinz/yunz/you'uns" is yournses.
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'" also are common in Northern England.
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").
Verbs
Conjugation of the verb "to be" The conjugation of the verb "to be" is different from that of standard English in several ways, and sometimes more than one form of the verb "to be" is acceptable in Appalachian English.
Divergence from standard English conjugation of the verb "to be" occurs with the highest frequency in the past tense, where grammatically plural subjects also take the singular form "was" rather than "were". Thus, the paradigm of the verb "to be" in Appalachian English more closely resembles the paradigm for other non-"be" verbs in English, where the past tense takes a single form, regardless of number or person.
The use of the word ain't is also one of the most salient features of this dialect. While "ain't" is used to some extent in most American English dialects, it is used with much greater frequency in the Appalachian dialect. Similarly, the phrase "it is" frequently appeared as "it are" in Appalachian English as late as the mid-twentieth century.
Conjugation among other verb types While the greatest amount of divergence in subject-verb concord occurs in the past tense of the verb 'to be', certain types of plural subject have an effect on concord across various types of verb. However plural subjects continue to show the greatest frequency of non-concord. The example below is taken from :
Conjoined noun phrases: "Me and my sister gets into a fight sometimes." "A boy and his daddy was a-huntin'." Collective noun phrases: "Some people makes it from fat off a pig." "People's not concerned." Other plural noun phrases: "...no matter what their parents has taught 'em." "The cars was all tore up." Expletive 'there': "There's different breeds of 'em." "There was 5 in our family."
A-verb-ing (a-prefixing)
A notable feature of Appalachian English is the a-prefix which occurs with participle forms ending in -ing. This prefix is pronounced as a schwa . The a-prefix most commonly occurs with progressives, in both past and non-past tenses. For example, "My cousin had a little pony and we was a-ridin' it one day". Common contexts also include where the participle form functions as an adverbial complement, such as after movement verbs (come, go, take off) and with verbs of continuing or starting (keep, start, get to). Examples include "All of a sudden a bear come a-runnin'," "He just kep' a-beggin'," and the song lyric "A froggie went a-courtin' and he did ride."
Phonological rules and restrictions apply to a-prefixing; for example, it can only occur with verbs accented on the initial syllable: a-fóllowin but not a-discóverin or a-retírin.Wolfram, Walt, and Natalie Schilling-Estes. American English: Dialects and Variation. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Moreover, it cannot occur on –ing forms functioning as nouns or adjectives; the forms must function as verbs. Thus, sentences like the movie was a-charmin are ungrammatical. 'A' can only be a prefix of verbs or complements of verbs with –ing.
While much less frequent or productive, the a-prefix can also occur on participles ending in -ed, such as "a-haunted".