This is something every Kentuckian should know.
The Appalachian dialect is an ancient connection to our rich heritage and deserves to be safeguarded and honored. The language we speak is known as Appalachian-English and actually serves as one of the oldest varieties of English spoken in this nation. But why do we speak it and where did this dialect come from?
Like nearly all things related to Appalachia, there is no one clear answer to this question; however, extensive research has been conducted on this very topic for the better part of a century in order to determine why so many of us pronounce words such as “wire,” “fire,” “tire,” and “retired” as “war,” “far,” “tar,” and “retard” respectively.
Appalachian-English also places an “-er” sound at an end of a word with a long “o”. For example, “hollow”— a small, sheltered valley— is pronounced like “holler”. Other examples are “potato” (pronounced “tader”), “tomato” (pronounced “mader”), and “tobacco” (pronounced “backer”). H retention occurs at the beginning of certain words as well. “It”, in particular, is pronounced “hit” at the beginning of a sentence and also when emphasized. The word “ain’t” is pronounced “hain’t”. Dog pronounced dawg, everyone knows where “yonder” is, pole-po, ear-yer, year also yer, here-hur or yer. Let’s not forget those pesky skeeters 🦟 and waspers 🐝
But why is it that we speak so uniquely?
The predominate theory is that the existence of Appalachian-English is the result of the isolation the mountains beyond the Blue Ridge ensured — making our dialect one of the most ancient and protected dialects in the nation.
An evidence of this is the use of words such as “afeared”, a Shakespearean word that is largely forgotten by most English speakers outside of the Appalachian region.
While our high-browed relatives who moved to the big city and lost their accent may frown upon our words and pronunciations, it is believed that the Appalachian dialect is a remnant of Elizabethan English.
Interestingly, Appalachian-English has virtually no Native American influences (with the exception being place names, e.g., “Appalachia”, “Tennessee”, “Kanawha”, etc.) while so many other regional dialects in the nation do contain heavy influences from Native Americans. This is noteworthy, as it showcases something we know and realize today — the people who settled in this region are not easily influenced by the accents and languages of others, even if they become displaced, Appalachian-English is a hard dialect to lose.”
~ Appalachian Magazine. Author not known. Will add name if found.
Photo: Paul Bulmer. Pike County, Kentucky. 1967
