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Today a joke sits heavy on my shoulders, The room running wild with laughter. The punchline? The sound of my voice Or, rather, a cheap imitation– What they think we sound like. Laughter scrapes my skin like Too-tight wool in the summer heat. It’s said that it’s a hell ofContinue Reading

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I generally provide a bit of detailed information with the quiz answers. Old Father Time, however, wouldn’t allow me to do so. Please enjoy the following findings about our Appalachian language from Appalachian English Quiz 5. Click the gallery images to look closer.   Aim to The Free Dictionary byContinue Reading

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In a break from our usual practice, we’re releasing the answers to the quiz now, so you can check and see how you did. We will publish an article discussing the etymology and cultural context of our language next week. This will give us the opportunity to provide a thorough,Continue Reading

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Welcome to our fifth quiz in Appalachian English. I always try to write some little introduction before the quiz with a little tidbit of information about our language. Here goes . . . The way Appalachian dialect is portrayed in media, literature, and television often discriminates against and inhibits us.Continue Reading

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See how you scored in the answers below. Kilt a. Quilt b. Cult c. Killed d. Kiln The “t” ending in kilt first appeared in Middle English: kelit, kelyt, kylt, kilt. The ending was first documented in a 13th century work called The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy.Continue Reading

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I’d like to begin here by saying I am not a linguist. I have studied a small portion of linguistics, enough to understand a smidgen of what I respectfully consider a complex discipline. Thanks to our Associate Editor, Edward Francisco, who graciously gifted his library to me (one of myContinue Reading

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Check out the following answers for Appalachian English Quiz 3. Appalachia Bare works to provide the best available answers, with the understanding that some words are said or meant differently in various Appalachian regions. Let us know in the comments if other meanings for these words exist. The following dictionariesContinue Reading

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One day, I’d just hung up the phone after talking with my mother, and my oldest son asked, “Mom, how come you talk different when you’re on the phone with Mammaw?” “Do I?” I asked, puzzled. My youngest son chimed in, “Yeah. You do. You talk more country. It’s weird.”Continue Reading

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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