We’ve compiled some tidbits of information on these Appalachian English words. Some information is extensive, telling the first usage and a little etymology. Other information is sparse. Still other information is somewhat entertaining. 1. Coal oil: b.) kerosene From “How is Lamp Oil Made?” by Alex Burke onContinue Reading
The dialect and language of Appalachia is unique. Our way of speaking hearkens back to 1500s Middle English. Some of our words are, arguably, even Old English. (Hit, for example, is, as Wylene P. Dial writes, “the Old English third person singular neuter pronoun for [the word] it . .Continue Reading
Ma: You fixed thishere ringer warsher yet? Pa: I’ll git to it terreckly. Ma: When? Pa: I might could fix it tamaree fit don’t rain. Ma: You might ought to’ve fixed it yestidy when there warn’t no threat of rain. ‘Sides, rain ain’t got nuthin’ to do with it.Continue Reading
He was a pariah among his own people, having been born with a club foot. His formal education ended early because boys at school taunted him. Maybe that was fate’s way of ensuring the child, who later became Sequoyah, aka Edward Guess, inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, discovered in hisContinue Reading