This section presents information of general interest about the Appalachian region.  We address arious topics in the pages here. Not all of these deal with speech, at least directly.  You'll see that the first two questions touch on regional 'debates'.  Even within small groups people can disagree strongly about where the invisible borders of the region are or what its "proper" pronunciation is.  Thanks to the University of Tennessee Press, we have reproduced (and in some cases updated) all the entries from the Language section from the Encyclopedia of Appalachia (2006) and a link to the encyclopedia Music section, which is entirely online.  In addition to English, you can read about two European languages (German and Spanish) now or once spoken in the region, as well as two indigenous ones (Cherokee and Shawnee). 

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SPOTLIGHT
West Virginia Dialect Project, West Virginia University

Linguists are interested in how language works. We study language as
it is actually used in order to see how it works in people’s lives.
Many people believe that language variation and change are negative
and that dialects are inferior to “standard” forms of language, but
linguists see variation as a natural and important quality of
language. The West Virginia Dialect Project takes this linguistic,
descriptive approach in order to study language variation in West
Virginia, and we use what we learn to teach about dialects in the
Mountain State and the Appalachian region.

The primary goals for the project are to conduct quantitative
sociolinguistic analysis on English varieties in West Virginia to
figure out its current status, including its regional affiliations,
its relative degree of vernacularity, its sociolinguistic divisions,
the social meanings attached to its vernacular forms, and its current
direction of change.

From the research accomplished to date, it is clear that many of the
traditional features of English in Appalachia are fading from West
Virginia. Yet despite the changing dialect landscape, 21st-century
Appalachians are using the language variation of their ancestors to
create new identities in their ever-changing societies.

Through our work, we have created lesson plans to be used in schools,
collaborated with other world dialect projects, and endeavored to
combat prescriptivist views of language through public outreach. We
hope that our studies will have a positive impact on the communities
we interact with and help everyone understand that dialects are
important parts of Appalachian communities.

https://dialects.wvu.edu/

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• Where is Appalachia?
  Why are there so many different definitions and maps of the region? and Why is the federal government's "official" one perhaps the strangest-looking one of all?  We provide several examples showing where the boundaries of the region are said to be.
  
  

• How do you pronounce Appalachia?
  Who cares?!?  Actually, many people have strong feelings about this. So how do you say the name of the region? In this section we provide some commentary and a photo about the two main pronunciations.
  
  

• Articles of General Interest
  Here you will find articles that summarize much general information about the speech of the region.
  
  

• Links of General Interest
  Here you will find links to general information and interesting facts about the speech of the region.
  
  
• Encyclopedia of Appalachia 
  Publication of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia in 2006 was a watershed in Appalachian Studies. Here we reproduce and update the entries from the volume's section on Language.
  
  

• Dictionary of Southern Appalachian and Smoky Mountain English 
  Here you will find an overview of the forthcoming Dictionary of Southern Appalachian and Smoky Mountain English.
  
  

• Cratis D. Williams, "Mr. Appalachia"
  Here is a tribute to the father of Appalachian Studies, Cratis D. Williams. We document his life, career, and impact, and we reproduce an example of his scholarship and famed story-telling in the form of a recording (with transcript) of a presentation at an NEH Symposium. 
  
  

• Meet the Hosts
  This page provides information about the two site hosts, their research, and their interests in the Appalachian region.