Backcountry Notes

Recently a coal company has been running television ads made in someplace "away" in which a narrator mis-pronounces the word "Appalachia," making it "appa-LAY-chuh." Chalk screeching on a chalkboard, to my ears.  Or screechy flute music, like the guy in the picture. For guidance in the correct Southern Appalachia pronunciation, see How To Pronounce 'Appalachia.'

If you haven't visited Blind Pig & The Acorn, I implore you to go there for Tipper's educational and entertaining series on speaking the language of Southern Appalachia.  Start with Speak Like An Appalachian, then go to Speak Like An Appalachian II, and then work your way through the  tests, starting with Appalachian Vocabulary Test and running to the most recent post, Appalachian Vocabulary Test 17. Music to my Backcountry-loving ears. The vocabulary turns up all through the Backcountry, including metropolitan Whynot, NC, where my siblings and I spent summers on our grandparents' farm.

The unenlightened assume that the Backcountry accents and usages are a “hillbilly” corruption of the flatlands Southern drawl.  This is not so; the accents and usages of the Backcountry developed contemporaneously with the versions of English spoken in the other areas of European settlement. The society and culture of the Backcountry were dominated by the large numbers of Scotch-Irish immigrants, blended with the influence of German, Dutch, Welsh, Scottish, and yeoman English settlers.  The accent and usages of Appalachia developed from the versions of English introduced by these settlers, independently of the development of the Southern drawl and the Yankee accent of New England.

In other words, the traditional speech and vocabulary of the Backcountry is not a "corrupt" dialect. It is in certain respects more true to its roots than other versions of American English.

A Backcountry usage which survives in some areas is the use of “yous” for the plural of “you.”  At the time of Colonial settlement, the plural “you” had not been established in American English.  The “yous” usage was contemporaneous with the ambiguous plural “you” and survived in many areas of the Backcountry; I have heard it in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, southwest Virginia and Tennessee. 

Another example is the use of "hit" for "it." "Hit" is actually the older word, from which "it" derived:

hit pronoun It (used especially as the initial element in a clause and in other stressed positions, most often as a subject). [from Old English hit; this form was prevalent in England into the 16th century and since that time has been used primarily in Scotland, northern England, and northern Ireland, especially as an emphatic form; DARE labels it "chiefly South, South Midland" in the U.S.]
       1836 Pawpaw Hollow Minutes 78 The Church wish Brother Lammon Jones to attend them twelve months longer & Br Jones agrees to hit.  1875 King Great South 788 Some of the mountaineers speak of "hit," instead of "it," and emphasize the word as in this case, "I meant to have brought my gun, but I forgot hit.". . . .

Dictionary: Southern Appalachian English, entry "hit."

Yet another example -- "knowed:"

knowed verb past tense and past participle of know. [OED dates this usage from the 15th century; EDD labels it "northern Ireland, England"; DARE labels both usages "chiefly South, South Midland" in the U.S.]
       1 (past-tense form) Knew.
       1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 284 In many cases a weak preterite supplants the proper strong one: ... drawed, growed, knowed, throwed.  1937 Hall Coll. (Mingus Creek NC) I never knowed nothin' about cannin' fruits and vegetables when I was a girl.  1939 Hall Coll. (Deep Creek NC) We learned to spell purty well, but that's all we knowed was just spellin'.  1969 GSMNP-37:3:7 I knowed Old Man Aden ever since I knowed anybody.  1980 Miles Verbs Haywood Co 92 I never knowed him to work a day in his life. . . .

Dictionary: Southern Appalachian English, entry "knowed." One more and I'll quit -- "catched:"

catched verb past tense and past participle of catch. [OED dates this usage from the 16th century]
       1 (past-tense form) Caught.
       1939 Hall Coll. (Big Bend NC) He'd kill Carl Miller if he ever catched him.  1969 GSMNP-38:148 And where he catched that sheep you could hear them talk about that ridge today.  1981 GSMNP-122:45 He's the one that catched the most bears of anybody I know about.
       2 (past-participle form) Caught.
       1937 Hall Coll. (Cades Cove TN) I didn't want to be catched in the rain an' no shelter.  1957 GSMNP-23:1:21 I never could believe Art would have catched him in a bear pen ... lots of people did but I didn't believe it.

Dictionary: Southern Appalachian English, entry "catched."

Of course, there is a passel of Appalachian colloquialisms and usages which developed during settlement and early American times, and tracking these down can be teetotally fascinating, iffen you seriously listen at it.

More recommended articles:

Talk About The Smokies

Appalachian English

The "Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English" as a Resource for Southern Appalachia

Appalachian English and Dialects