Appalachian English
Appalachian English is a dialect of the English language. It is spoken in the Appalachian Mountains region. Research suggests it is one of the most unique dialects in the United States.[1]
Since the 1930s, a lot of research has been done to figure out where the dialect came from. One theory is that the dialect is a remnant of Elizabethan (or Shakespearean) English that had been preserved by the region's isolation.[2][3] Another theory suggests that the dialect developed out of the Scots-Irish and Anglo-Scottish border dialects brought to the region by some of its earliest British Isles settlers,[4] who were from the border of Scotland and England.
Recent research suggests that Appalachian English developed as a uniquely American dialect as early settlers adapted English to their unfamiliar frontier environment. This is supported by many similarities between the Appalachian dialect and Colonial American English.[5]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Walt Wolfram and Donna Christian, Appalachian Speech (Arlington, Virginia: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1976), 1.
- ↑ Michael Montgomery, "How Scotch-Irish is Your English?" The Journal of East Tennessee History vol. 67 (1995), 17-18.
- ↑ Cooper, Horton. "History of Avery County", Biltmore Press, (1964),
- ↑ David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 653-654.
- ↑ Montgomery, 1002-1004.
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