Articles of General Interest
Montgomery, Michael. 1995. “Does Tennessee Have Three ‘Grand’ Dialects?: Evidence from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States.” Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 57:69-84. Reprinted in Ted Olson and Anthony Cavender, eds. 2007. Tennessee Folklore: Selections from Seventy Years of Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Examines evidence from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States for the state to have three regional dialects corresponding to its three political “grand divisions.”
Montgomery, Michael. 1995/2006. "How Scotch-Irish is your English" Journal of East Tennessee History 77(supplement):65-91. Explores the linguistic heritage of East Tennessee by discussing the extent to which it can be attributed to early settlers from Ulster.
Montgomery, Michael. 1998. "In the Appalachians they Speak like Shakespeare". [revision of paper originally published in Myths in Linguistics, ed. by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill, 66-76. New York: Penguin.]
Montgomery, Michael. 2000. “The Idea of Appalachian Isolation.” Appalachian Heritage 28.2.20-31. Argues that the region has never been as isolated from the outside world as is it often alleged and discusses the implications of this for the region’s speech.
Montgomery, Michael. 2000. “Myths: How a Hunger for Roots Shapes Our Notions about Appalachian English.” Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine 17.2.7-13. Examines myths about the nature of Appalachia and its speech held by outsiders and many insiders as well.
Montgomery, Michael. "The Hills were Alive with the Sounds of English". [revision of an essay published in Smokies Guide, Winter, 19. Reprinted 2004 in Colloquy 5.1.1-2.]