Appalachian Speech: By Craig Hadley

[btwils]

How about (fair to middlin) that means so so. how are you doing? Fair to middlin. Also my grandmother was a mawmaw and my grandfather was a papa. I still miss her Fried Pies. Brian Wilson

[westernprivate]

Growing up and living in the Southern Apps. (Western, NC and Western, SC) I am reminded of two that have been left out

Cooter= turtle

Play Pretty= toy

Beau Blackwell

[Curt Schmidt]

Hallo Kameraden!

Always the prefix "a" on verbs- "a-feared," "a-swingin'," "a-fishin'," "a-huntin'," "a-goin'."

Deleting the final "g" on "ing" verbs (as above)

"Sword" = "sward"

" Chew" = "chaw"

"Engine" = "ingine"

"Picture" = "picter or pigger"

"Curdled Sour Milk" = "Bonny clabber"

"Wheat Cake" = "Flannel Cake"

"All you" = in many forms "you -all," "y'all," "You 'nes,"

"Hair" = "Hayre" or "Harre" "Herr"

"It" = "Hit" (as in "Hit's somethin' new ta me.)

"Pint" = "parnt"

"Tobacco" = "t' bacco" or "t'bacca" or "tobacca" or "baccer"

"Definitely" = "plum" as in "plum right" or "plum crazy"

"Angry" = "mad" (not mad as in insane)

"Swindle" = "bamboozle"

"Lie" = "lay"

"Knew" = "knowed"

"Window" = "winda" or "winnder"

"Root" = "rutt"

"Broom" = "brumm"

"Roof" = "ruff"

Final "o's" become soft "a's" as in "potata's"

Final "i's" become soft "a's" as in "Cincinnata"

Internal "i's" becomes soft "a's" as in "Louaville"

Final "er's" are dropped, as in Hamburg or Double Cheeseburgs

"Pin," "pen," and (animal) "pen" are all pronounced "pin"

"Mary," "merry," and "marry" are not all pronounced the same

"Fire" = "far"

"Tire" = "tar"

"Flower" = "Flaur"

"Greasy" = "greasie" not "greazzie"

"Pop" = "soda"

"Soda = "pop"

"Sack" = "bag"

"Poke" = "sack"

"Mirror" = "mirra"

"Bury" = "burrie" not "berry"

The practice, from the German frontier influence, of putting the verb LAST in a sentence. "Eat finished!" not "Finnish eating!"

"Dollar" = "dawhlar"

"House" = "haus."

The practice of adding more syllables to words with less. Such as "Yes" becoming "Yay-ass."

It can be tricky here, because the romanticism with things Appalachian largely spread AFTER the 1920's expansion of the radio which fed that interest by bringing the actual voices of "Amercia's hillbilies" to the ears of most people.
His was further developed and explopited by the power and draw of the NY and Hollywood image makers and the evolution of "country music" and "country" in music, talk, and dress.

And I won't even mention the Sun Belt and New South phenomena on modern day Confederate reenactors who speak something there CW ancestors would have alot of fun in hearing.... ;-) :-)

And, my grandfather was called "Pap." My grandmother, "Grandmaw." My father, when he become a grandfather did not like it, and went to "Popa" instead...
My wife's grandfather was called "Grandpaw." Her 98 year old last week grandmother, "Granny." :-)

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[shubal]

Just a quick note,
Micheal Montgomery, professor at University of South Carolina who has worked on regional language origins for his whole career has just come out with an extensive tome that might be of some interest on this thread.

The Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
Montgomery, Michael B., and Joseph S. Hall
University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville

Its pricey but you might want to check your library pretty soon.

[LtDan]

As an educated West Virginia I can say that the use of these "terms" needs to be natural. I have heard too many people attempt our accent ans tear it up. For one thing we tend to speak faster than your average southerner. There is a certain flow to the words and the terms being used. It most definately should not be forced. On a final note, the folks in the Appalachian region had an accent that some have suggested was closer to Shakespeare than the "English" we hear now. This is a result of the isolation the hills provided. There was just not enough contact with other dialects to offer a variance of the original dialect.Please keep this in mind when you speak of the "uneducated' Appalachians.

[MDec]

The movie "SGT YORK", with Gary Cooper is full of the same words that have been shared on this thread. I'm sure the use of the words were more commonly in use in that area, when the film was made in 1941. I'll have to rent it again.

Michael Dec
Rutledge's/McClung's Tennessee Battery

[nrandolph]

On the subject of movies, the John Wayne movie True Grit offers up an amazing number of what could be termed Appalachian or country usage of language. I was watching it a couple months ago and was surprised at the amount of "old time" words used. Never recognized that as a kid when I first saw it, but it sure bounces on my ears now that I'm more tuned in to listening for that sort of thing.

Neil Randolph
1st WV

[KyCavalier]

Having married a young lady from Peoria, Illinois we had several friends and family down for the wedding here in Kentucky. I remember her friend was just going crazy with the use of two syllables for one syllable words, as Curt mentioned with "Yay-ass." She told of story in the lady's room involving one of my cousins girls asking for "hay-yelp" she asked her several times until she realized she needed help with her pants. Oh, and the selling of fishing bait ("hey if they had 'em they woulda used 'um" ) out of a vending machine just floored her....I bet she still talks about it. Oh, and the drive-thru liquor stores were such a hoot for her....

Tony Downs
6th KY Cav.

[Army30th]

My mother was born in a two room shack in Wilkes County NC, and her parents were as "rural" as they come. Neither one ever attended a day of public schooling. My father's mother was also born in that same county. She had the proverbial "6th Grade edumacation". Got relatives all over from Transylvania Co right up into Ashe Co.

Their manner of speech was very flowing and quaint. They weren't intentionally speaking single syllable words with two syllables, it just naturally came out that way. If you attempt to try a dialect like this, please take a trip to the area, listen to how the locals speak. Stay away from the motels, and seven elevens. Go to truckstops, local mom and pop restaurants, the grocery store. Forget the movies and that Larry fellow. That isn't the way a true Southron speaks.

I lived 34 years in the south, now that I'm up north, I miss it.

[FlatLandFed]

"If you attempt to try a dialect like this, please take a trip to the area, listen to how the locals speak."

Good point, although sometimes it's difficult to determine who's "local." My inlaws (they are native Omaha, Nebraskans but lived a long time in Atlanta, West Germany and California due to his military contract obligations) retired to Brevard, NC -- and unfortunately most of the circles in which they travel are populated by other transplanted northerners. Soooooo, when I visit I enjoy going to the stores downtown and talking with craftsmen along the mountain trails, but I'm never certain when I'm hearing an "authentic" local dialect.

Still is great fun. I used to talk with a Brevard native who moved here to Lincoln in the 1930s -- he regaled me with tales of chatting with Civil War veterans when he was a lad -- and I would say the way he spoke was not "midwestern" but also not what would jump out as a North Carolina accent.

My brothers have lived in Clemson, SC and Savannah, Ga for many years, so they use what I would consider southern phrases (as does my fair bride, who was born in Omaha but raised in Atlanta) but not really a Hollywood version of a "southern" voice.

A while back a thread (heck, maybe it's above!) noted that the Ashley Wilkes character's speech pattern, with its English inflection, probably was closer to what a man of his station would have sounded like in the 1860s. A colleague who helped stage the "Civil War" musical (quit laughing, it was so-so but good overall) here was an expert in Shakesperean plays and used "that" voice for his Confederate role -- when I asked him how he'd perfected his part, he smiled and started quoting from "Midsummer Night's Dream" -- same voice, just a couple hundred years earlier.

I'd like to go back to reading letters from my CW ancestors (Ohio and New York) -- their phonetic spelling should give a hint as to how they pronounced certain words.

Regards,
Paul Hadley
Land of Carson, Cavett, Fonda, Brando and Ford

P.S. -- at the risk of being tossed to the sinks folder, if you can recall the voice of the Powerful Oz in the movie version, it's a ringer for WJ Bryan's recorded voice here at the museum. Maybe there's more to the legend of why the story was written than meets the eye ...