Appalachian English is an umbrella term referring to the social and geographical varieties of English found in a large mountain and valley region of the Eastern United States.  We use it to encompass all or parts of eight states: West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, western Virginia and North Carolina, northern Georgia and Alabama, and northwestern South Carolina.  Historically and structurally Appalachian English is closely related to Ozark English, and it shares many features with varieties of English spoken in the Deep South. 

We say "umbrella term" for two reasons.  Many speakers can use more than one style or dialect, depending on circumstances.  Further, the region is simply not homogeneous geographically.  Take terms (and names) for a stream.  Generally speaking, creek rhymes with sick in central West Virginia and to the north, but with seek everywhere south of that.  In West Virginia and western Virginia streams are often called runs, but licks in southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.  Found everywhere is branch, often for a smaller stream, one that is a tributary to a creek.  

Why a site on "Appalachian English" or "Appalachian Speech"?

There are two reasons, really.  For one, the speech of the region is so darn interesting.  We don't need to elaborate, because we hope the rest of the site does that.  The second reason is the number and persistence of misconceptions about the subject.  Nearly a hundred years ago, the Indiana-born clergyman and social reformer John C. Campbell stated that Southern Appalachia was “a land about which, perhaps, more things are known that are not true than of any [other] part of our country.”  That was in his enduring book The Southern Highlander and His Homeland (1921). 

Misconceptions give rise to stereotypes, many of which are about speech.  A fact of life is that when we meet people, either in person or by telephone, for the first time, we begin to size each other up just by our voices as soon as we start talking.  Of course, people listen for all kinds of things, because our voices can send many messages.  When people start making assumptions from the way we talk, that's a process known as "linguistic profiling."  It may be the pronunciation of a certain word or something much harder to pinpoint in the cadence of our voices, but it can begin to lead others to classify where we're from and who we are, thus forming judgments--too often negative ones--about us.  Yes, our speech and our voice are a deeply personal part of us and also a precious heirloom.  That's why millions hang onto them, not just in the hills.  Contrary to popular and some academic belief, people in Appalachia have a variety of accents.  They do not all sound alike.

Who speaks Appalachian English?  One of the best-known was Andy Griffith, America's beloved small-town sheriff.  Andy's Mayberry was based on his native Mt. Airy, in Surry County, North Carolina.  So he came by it naturally.

At a professional conference some years ago, one of us (Montgomery) happened to sit next to a linguist from the University of California at Berkeley, who is now on the faculty at an Ivy League school and a widely known media commentator on language.  He asked me what my special interest was, and I said, “Appalachian English.”  He responded, “Oh, Appalachian English is one of my favorite dialects. Does anyone still speak it?”  The question sort of took me aback, but I looked at him for a moment and replied, “Yes, I’d say about twenty million people do.”  He seemed a bit confused, so I explained that plenty of people from the region actually choose to talk the way they do and that their distinctive English is probably here to stay.  Their speech helps define who they are, whether they live in Kentucky or have moved to Detroit to work in a plant.  He looked out the window.

The information on this site touches on every aspect of mountain speech, and its history too.  Most Americans understand far too little about their native speech habits and where these come from.  This fact is not new or surprising, but it’s still rather unfortunate.  We hope that teachers will use this site to help address that situation, because the history of all American dialects is mighty interesting in addition to helping us understand ourselves and our backgrounds.  For one thing, the articles point out that Appalachian speech has a much stronger Scotch-Irish heritage than it does that often-claimed Elizabethan one.