AppalachianDialect..

Vivid, Virrle and Elizabethan

Mrs. Dial, ertension education area coordinator for West Virginia uni,uersity's Charleston center for Appalachain Stulies and Deuelopment, spokeon,'Appolachian Dialect" at a meeting of the SocietEon Sept. 23 and tltis article is an ertension of her talk. The datqhter of an Armg offi,cer, she holds degrees from Brenau College and Marshall UntuersitE and has liued in West Virginia since the end of World War ll.

Mrs. Wylene P. Dial

riety of names, the majority of them somewhat less than complinrentary. Educated people who look disfavor on this particular form of speech are perfectly honest in their belief that something called The English Language, which they conceive of as a completed work-unchanging and fixed for all time-has been taken and, through ignorance,shamefully distorted by the mountain folk. The fact is that this is completely untrue. The folk speech of Appalachia instead of being called corrupt ought to be classified as archaic. Many of the expressionsheard throughout the region today can be found in the centuries-oldworks of some of the greatest EngIish authors: Alfred, Chaucer, Shakespeare,and the men who contributed to the King James version of the Bible, to cite but a few. Most editors who work with older materials have long assumed the role of officious busy bodies: never so happy, apparently, as when engaged in tidying up spelling, modernizing grammar, and generally rendering whatever was written by various Britons in ages past into a colorless conformity with today's Standard English. To this single characteristic of the editorial mind must be ascribed the almost total lack of knowledge on the part of most Ameri. cans that the language they speak was ever any different than it is right now. How many people know, for example, that when the poet Gray composed his famous "Elegy" his tifle for it was "An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard?" Southern mountain dialect ( as folk speech of Appalachia is called by linguists) is certainly archaic, but the general historical period it represents can be narrowed down to the days of the first eueen Elizabeth, and can be further particularized by saying that what is

rhe diarect spokS'{ ffitnltililH,Jr.Ht

given has been a va-

heard today is actually a sort of Scottish flavored EtizabethanEnglish. This is not to say that Chaucerianforms will not be heard in everyday one as well. Anglo-Saxon use, and even an occassional When we remember that the first white settlers in what is today Appalachia were the so-called Scotch-Irish along with Germans from the Palatinate area along the Rhine. there is small wonder that the language has a Scottish tinge: The remarkable thing is that the Ger' mans seem to have influenced it so little. About the only locally used dialect words that can be ascribed to them are wamus, for a woolen jacket, "hit wonders" me and briggity, for uppity. Otherwise the Scots seem to have had it all their own way. When I first came to Lincoln County as a bride it used to seem to me that everything that did not pooch out,ltoooed up.Pooch is a Scottish variant of the word pouch that rvas in use in the 1600's.Numerous objects can pooch out including pregnant women and gentlemen with bay windows. Hoooe is a very old past participle of the verb to h,eaoe and was apparently in use on both sides of the border by 1601. The top of an old-fashionedtrunk may be said to hoove up. Another word In Scottish in the back country rs ingerns for oni,ons. heard occasionally dialect the word is inguns; however if our people are permitted the intrusive "r" in potaters, tomaters, toba.ccer,and so on, there seems to be no reason why they should not use it in ingerns as well. It is possible to compile a very long list of these Scots words and phrases. I will give only a few more for illustration, and will wait to mention some points on Scottish pronunciation and grammar a litUe further on. Fornenst is a word that has many variants. It can mean either "next to" or "opposite from." "Look at that big rattler quiled up fornenst the fence post!" (Qui,Led, is an Elizabethan prounuciation of coil,ed.) "When I woke up this morning there was a little ski.ft of snow on the ground." "I was getting better, but now I've took a backset with this flu." "He dropped the dish and busted it all to fli,nders." "Law, I hope how soon we get some rain!" (How soon is supposedto be obsolete,but it en' joys excellent health in Lincoln County,) "That trifling old fixin ain't worth a lraet!" Haet means the smallest thing that can be conceived of, and comesfrom Deilhae't (Devil have 1t.) Fiti,n is the Old Englirl or Anglo-Saxon word f.or she-yor as used in the northern dialect. In south of England you would have heard rsinen,the word used todal Standard English.

It is interesting to note that until very recently it has b-

marilythelinguistichistorianswhohavepointedoutthepred{ Scottish and Germanic heritage of the Southern slerrntlt IIt b Perhaps I may be allowed to digress for a moment to E people back to their beginnings. 42

Early in his Engrish reign, James I decided to try to contror the Irish by putting a Protestant population into Ireland. To do this he confiscated the lands of the earls of ulster and bestowed them upon scottish and English lords on the condition that they setge the territory with tenants from scoiland and England. This was known as setilement" or the "King,s ptintation,,,--"n, was begun ,'lrru,[l.", Most of the scots who moved into ulster came from the lowlands, and thus they would have spoken the scots variety of the Northumbrian or Northem English dialect. ( Most highland scots at that time still spoke G-aeric. ) This particular diateci would have been kept intact if the scots had had no dearing, *itt the Irish, and this, according to records, was the case. while in urster the scots multiplied, but after roughly 100 years they became dissatisfied with the^ trade and religious restrictions imposed by Engrand, and numbers of them began emigrating to the English colonies in America. Many of these scots who now caled themserves the ,,scotchIrish" came into pennsyrvaniawhere, firdi;g the better rands already settled by the Engrish, they began to move south and west. ,,Their enterprise and. pioneering spirit made them the most important erement in the vigorous frontiersmenwho opened up this part of the south and later other territories farther west into which they pushed.,,z Besidesthe scots who arrived from Irerand, more came direcily from scotland to America, particularly after ,,the ,45,,, the final Ja. cobite uprising in support of "Bonnie p.ir,.. Charlie,, the young pretender, which ended disastrouslyfor the Scottish clans that suported him' By the time of the Americin Revolution ttrere were about b0,000 Scots in this country. But to get back to the diarect, ret me quote two more ringuistic authorities to my point about the scottish infruence on the _prove local speech.Raven I. McDavid notes, ',ihu speech of the hill peopre is quite different frcm both dialects of the southern lowlands for it is basically derived from the scotch-Irish of western pennsylvania.,," H' L. Mencken. said of Appalachia folk ,pu.ct, ,,The persons who speak it undiluted are often _cared by the- southern pubricists, ,the purest Anglo-saxons in the united siates, but less romantic ethnorogists describe tlug as predominanry c.iti.ln;;;.o;,,;ousl, there has be-en a large infittration of English una-.uun German strains.,,o The reason our people still speak as ttrey do is that when these early scots and Engrish and Germans (and some Irish and welsh too) came into the Appalachian area and settled, they virtually isolated themselvesfrom the mainstream of American life for generations to come because of the hils and mountains, and so they- r..pt tt . old speechforms that have long since fallen out of fashion elsewhere.

sense Thingsinourareaaren o t a lui-"CioOy w a y s Y l . lain't t h e ygot See m ' I i nenough guistically you*it tetl back ,*V see' So*.ot cleuer'you speaking. ,o* i. clever'" Jl ask you AIio' if to comei' outu;ttu-rrinnlt l'neigtrbortyo' ttto**oiating'" are you ;il tt "very well"' in the 1600,s tdl:. urrd-n..t'Jp*t to* t.*ir, someone ot the stateof his health' colorful qth'ii* 'iititt vividtv necerru'ity't-o not to use a tpJtttt to our people are-accustomed *"ur., ttnri-'ttr-is feeting "so-so'" *u'llirrrv your and virile that h;;";;t at ,,sevei#' people came to a meeting' in it using it If you are intorriea oo lbr'^;;; ra!-he is *il;;^;;u If informant oo"J'ooi-*.r" t'i'''J io to roopeople' you'n;T;

!*.k s 300' 1 h. ;:.r:il:i f.:T:: r,t itrfi"i:tt;l,t ;,ffi'#;; ixl ,tn'""of *'*ot:", its older

(Incidentally,goodEnglr,shusedsickto'etertol'ohealthlong,long 1tl for the same connota' eve*tl'i"O saying foiebearers our before tions. ) in Manyofourpeople'refertosourmil\asbltnked,milk.Thisusage *t"" ptopr" still- believed ;60-01 ttre word to of the qoesback ,t r.urt one t;;h;deanings u .riir eye. .t tt ";r; power at some' "gtunce.lt;; the glanced and you lito *it.he, if *1, days to be called blinked btinkbackin those ,n;; '"*' *irt ;; ii, ai,niuJ,i thing, vou "'d

him!" into ltialj:l!^,o" .u", :ffi%il 1t#,X;*l'1il#: reather its gotten having

fairly murderot" to"io;;i;d This used to carry a long bow was the ultimate *n"ffii-;,gth bow with it""days i' back start then, ir yft dtt* Yfur enemy up po*ur.--Back your word in destructive arrgY to ienetrate .1ur" ;; tillt strength i'im' Nowadavs' into to sufficient ;;d 't"it' its indicates l:ild;A merely reathers-on it to the erred in meaninf until weat has .*prurri* the (baffling r-iit oi fisticuffs. ns our peopleuse a definite J ;ffi'mutual hearinga young fellow car sees' I,d love to.,,Oneis forever*or. d'i"il;;; stopsano gentlemg" a 'i;tif'Ttate gentleman in which wn.n the lr,umning don't keer to"' atongside standing ttn1i1 ].19T'.,;, very nt.gttii noy -'I tne the asksif he waits a lift, *ottt' ott'trearingthis trtt ,.n"'or young using carein ttre nriraneiri# r.uuing an equally baffled consid*.;i;;,1ti9a, off drives utta httt in its Elizaman i f orergt"' id?f It wor but ttre (Even asthe speaker, man behind' ,urn.'ni;io""ritv the is o *t of someon. bethansense ) homearea' immediate speaker's the not from

' ITo'outi'nours seems this ?JllttT5"i1l?;i much' ffi;;, vou so ,,.,,m#,,1n ,,no,,, t" iirtr' iiactua'y'^ttn-'':;ttttn5 bewilderment whereas

is generallyused Reoerend but it is to addresspreachers, a pretty versatile word and full-strength whiskey, or even the full-strength scent of skunk,are alsocalledreuerend. In these latter instances,its hasnothingto do with meaning reverence,but with the fact that their strength is as the strength of ten becausetheY are undiluted. In the dialect, the word allow more often means"think, than "Permit." say,or suppose" git it done to' he'd "He'lotfied morrow." A neighbor may take You into her confidence and an' nouncethat shehasheardthat "reverend" whiskey should daughter the preacher's haue been running after the mailman.Theseare deep waters to the uninitiated.What she really meansis that she has heard a juicy bit of gossip:The preacher's daughteris chasingthe local mail carrier haue However,she takes the precautionof using the phrase sh'oul'd been to show that this statementis not vouchedfor by the speaker. The samephraseis used in the sameway in the Pastonletters in the 1400's. Almost all the so-called "bad English" used by nativesof Appalachia was once employedby the highest ranking noblesof the realms of England and Scotland. Few humans are really passionatelyinterested in gtammar so but let's considerthe I'll skim as lightly over this sectionas possible, following bit of dialogue briefly: "I've been a-studyingabout how to say this, till I've nigh wearriedmyself to death. I reckon hit don't never do nobodyno good to beat about the bush, so I'll just tell ye. more time There'snothing ails !rim, but he spends Your man'shippoed. using aroundthe doctor'soffice than he doesa-working." The only criticism that even a linguistic purist might offer here in the eighteenthcentury, hippoed was consideredby some, that, is JonathanSwift among others, to be slang even though it was used is hippoedis to by the English societyof the day. (To say someone hypochondriac. say he is ) Words like a-studyingand a-working are verbal nouns and go on' peoplewho studied times:andfrom the 1300's to Anglo'Saxon

is the older word about something, deliberated or reflected on it. N?gh in the 1300 and worry of pronunciation for near, and ,ir*E was the was current in Reckon ' pronunciation 1400's. The Scot, ,iro used this is the Old I{it suryose' or consi'der Tudor England in the sense of. ringing come has and it for pronoun English 3rd person singular neuter years. thousand a over Ooin through the centuries for some All those multiple negatives were perfectly proper until twcl that English mathematician in the eighteenth-century decided negative the neg"ativesmake a positive instead of simply intensifyrng He used quality of some statement. Shakespeatelo"ed to use them' been has flutn quadruple negauves.Ye was once useo accusatively, and means ?'se to emproyla since early times to mean husband. And finally, to frequent or loiter. caused certain grammatical forms occuring in the dialect have among Prominent marms' it to be regarded r,rith pious horror by school them "Bring these: list to the off enders, they would be almost sure three found good "I English. books over here." in the 1500'sthis was for !h" bird,s nestes on the way to school." This dissyllabic ending it's mine' n-ot pencil's plural goes back to the Middle Ages. "That Midd1e the in yOWrn eVOlved fOrms like his'n, 6u,r'n, her'n." Possessive the wycliffe Ages on the model of.mr.ne and,thi,ne. In the revision of such as phrases find we Bible, which appeared shortly after 1380,_ oum of and "some restore tb'nir alle things that ben hern." and sixteenth In the jrav e." "He doi't scare me none." went in to the simply is Don't it. and seventeentn centuries do was used with he, she, sevend,o not, of course. "Yolt u)asrft scared, was aou?" During-the distinto careful were teenth and eighteenth centuries many people unbecame I-t were' guish between-singular Aou wo.s and plural Eou Webster Noah although iashionable in thJ early nineteenth century stouUy defended it. ,,My brother cotne in from the army last night." This usage goes letters and back to late Anglo-saxon times. You find it in the Paston echoes many has also lessons," my in Scottisn poetiy. "l d,one frnished, poets. scots the and in the Pastons' correspondence of EngFrom the late Middle Ages on up, the Northern dialect ,,guiltless persons is condemned," and lish used formations like'thil forms like so do our people. And, finally, ln times past, participial were forms these abound, h6 beat, was boie with it, has chose.Preterite clum' find you can as varied: blowed, growed, catched, and for climbed clome, clim, all of which are locally used' Deef Pronunciation of many words has changed considerably too'

/ '-i

'^\Y"ffie '#jtii'r'+*::.:j""jill;
4-n -.6:'r,)h\\ ? | | --

one Proud grandPa'

"'"."r'o".;* -ttt. l-:"* T"",i.tT:l ptryd .despatiente*ittt

X0;*$A\

rather to be put orr with the insrpid"**r""Mlft:11:*;" .ira out todaY?" ::'1li;';'-il just how iln.v- *.ot to know 'nhotter lhe il;;t .;ld: "It's blue or "Hit's tt"rr J ffig* common ffi o"t thar!" Other ror phrases :919 ffidive "It's ;;;--iit.elYf .translated 'n a wttch's bosom" o: eolder i'ii;t .oraer 'n a well-digger's
backside'" Southern SPeakers of *onniuio dialect are Past T1" coining vivid ters of the art of

Their everYdaY 'r'rv----;;;iotittt' .(Erl^^+ m6Yr is gems as: "That man rs such with sprinkled up stream!" conversationis liberally ni* in a river ie'd float thro*"4 you if so contrary, to-t"" if she'Ja'movin!" ,,Shewalks ro rjo* they t"uu-to set st"klt for a man and not big big ,,That pore boy,s a1. awkwj ;r;-t"o road quick as enou8h for thar and hit it for the borlln:.:utta ;.tH: ('she's so crossvtJ ttttt she can stand in lightenin!" as smooth as double-geared L"ttt sondavr. "That's and'i.. *.uk rfr" of the middle a schoolmaT;"ff;d for somereasonthere upon in Appalachia,^but would ,,nekkid as . .'" "-'n'rrr.r.r. ely- t":Y."1,.sampling as a are numerous l'Ntitftid t! t it'litA"' "bare'nekkid ttese three, comes directprobably.oniri' d;t; ;kkid -nound "'tt'i--nlxrtia'" and rump"' dog's "tall'" lyfromtheAngto.Saxons,s o i t ,steort s b e e*ttittt n " ' o umeant naform o r e tHence' hanathou. was j,.si?,;" originall{ sand years. to the tatt;' A similar if you were;tt?'t'ntkkid"' t:l y:;:Y*phrase,"'t"tt'o"ked"is-aJohnny-comelately'notevenappearing

tongue's that,"her sav mav rriends her are a ladies 1+lwTm:"|ltJ?:3;rnr, tttdt';' Such -ro.io""t"uv, ii"'iwags at-both else
a mile long"' or

greattriar i" ;d;

ex-actly terminology to indicate

coupres r,e:

g;i11s:;l'pi;': how

1tr1l

;'ffil; tr,ll,'# iki-J#"lFlili'1,*'il

1".i*t

ttte'intentions of these

is a formal there.

lffl#J'

means the couple is seriousry_contemprating matrimony. shakespeare uses loUrng in this senseb- King t eii. If a man has imbibed too much of wlro;lhotJohn, his neighbor may describe him as "so drunk he couldn,t hit the ground with hat," or, on the his the suffer.o *.y admii that ..I .morning-after, was dizzyI had to hold so on to-*e grassafore I could rean ag,in the ground.,, one farmer was having a rot 'em of troubre with I *""r"r kiuing "He

iesterabs

someone wbo has a disheveled appearancemay be describedin any oo. of ,everar or bedraggred ,,you ways: rook tite you,ve been chewedup and qpii out," or "you tootr tit . you've been a-sortin wildcats," or '!ou loot like the rrinoquarlJi-:l.haqd luck,,, or, simply "you look lte omsthin'tle cat d",ig in that the dog wouldn,t eat!,, "My belly,thinks my throat is rtrrn hungry,,, and seemsto have a venerable iut,, simpty *rin, history lr ,*u.ral hundred years. found a eitaEonfor it dated in I the early lb00,s. d rnan Dry be "bad to drink" ol ibicked to sryear,,,but these descriptiye .djectves ane never reversed. Yor o.rybt Dot to be shockedif you rr"r. a saintly rooking grand_ mother admit rhe Hlec to hear a coarse-talking man; she meansa man with a deep b.ss w&r- (rhis can arso refer to a singing voice, and in rhic sasq if gnuhe p""f,e", a tenor, sheld talk about someone 'Shallor--) who sings oght you leap to tn. concrusionthat ,,Hard a girl" is one rto -Nor r'eh t6roo feminine sensibilities.,,Hard,, is the dialectal promchtbn oniarra;o;il; to stem from the same sounoe as do ifrp cngrnesthat run-il;&r ,,tars.,, This tt48ul8e i8 rd'tid -a rit'",-uul; was ElizabethanEnglish. Howerer, so'e of thi"gr you say may be shocking the folk as .tle muetr as their ombined leJcons mat ue shogningyou. For instance, the strat'm of-society in wtricu ,li,A it wis-consiaereoaccep-*"J table for a rady to iay eittrer J ,,damn,, r,h.u,, or if strongry moved. Most Appalachianladies *""r0 rather be caught dead thin uttering either of these words, but they are pretty free with their use of a four-letter word for manu." *t i.r, r a-onii"use. some famiues employ another of thesefour-letter words for manur. a pet name for the children' and seem to have no idea that il i. ",consideredindelicate in other areas of the .ou"try. Along with a spadea spade,the dialect l.tlgp.n.itv l9r calling has a strange pid:victorian" streak in "it, to"o.until recently, it was considered brashto use either the word oiu-io stauion.If it was necessary to refer to a bu[, he was known urrlourty as a ,,father cow,, a "genileman cow" or an or "o*,, or a ,,arr-au-Iiner,,while a stallion ttstablg was
either a horsgt' or

"r;

d; cangit wordto God,,, he

h e a r d o f a u ' & s p t h e r e , a n d l , v e n e v e r b e e n aare b l e called t o t r a ccu'ckleburrs' ethereason

f,ut I do know;liJ;welty.s confor that usage' carriedan objectionable cockieburr word oiit part The first "
"notring about notationtothefolk.However,iftheyareg o i n g t o bobjectionable alkatthat,itse ems that ;h;iirJ me to h'arious rather cuckle. Afriendofmineusedtohaveasma l l slady t o r e who o n t htrotted e b a n k into s o f t the he old

NIy River.ilu tora r. .loui. uttr. of trtt strum'pet cand'y'" Guyan too,. reques;;;; a day'*itt, added she storeone qq"^t;;;t any' But' The little friend saidshewasveryo"y,-iutt som-e' order to try wha] kind wasit, ,oi rn. would be overheard' lowered her gamely, could
to see if";;. Iady glanceo around ,,well, it's noreioii, voiceand said,

word!" iut t aon'i like to usethat compar: do'"o tniog "the The dialect today i' " *'i;; best talkers in the -" ,UU but ago, generation -oui"p-"pf. them with more appreciation' was a firi"nio world, and I ,ni'f.=i" sbould FOOTNOTES
lTtromasFyles,nc^.o.rr{11rndl)evclop-9ot-..:lthcEn3ltrh,.rTlTj"".NewYor*',

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and the two

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suppte'#iis

annotations

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