The Language of Appalachia

Imagine my surprise when I went to Jamaica a few years ago and learned that I do, indeed, have an accent. You see, unlike my paternal grandmother, I don't stretch the word "cornbread" into four syllables. She might say, "Here. Have ye some co-orn-bray-ed;" whereas I might say, "You want some corn-bread?" See? Two syllables on the cornbread; "you" rather than "ye."

Unlike my maternal grandmother, I say "carrion" rather than "kyarn." In fact, I had no idea what she was talking about until recently when I mentioned the word to my husband. I told him, "Grandmother used to say, 'That stinks like kyarn.' I never figured out what 'kyarn' was." He said, "Road kill." My jaw dropped. "You mean, carrion? Kyarn is carrion?" "Yeah," he said. "Put the Appalachian accent to it." It made sense.

Unlike my mother-in-law, I say "they fought," not "they fit."

Thus, I concluded that I have no accent. After all, I'm fairly well educated. I studied French for three years, and I did some self-study of German and Greek. Plus, I'm well read, and I've authored several books. Ain't I the berries? I couldn't possibly have a hillbilly, Appalachian accent. And, yet, in Jamaica, everyone I met asked, "What part of the South are you from?"

So, I did a little research and learned that the Appalachian region has its own language. Linguists call it "Appalachian English." The Scots-Irish settled the entire region known as Appalachia (all of West Virginia and portions of Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia) in the mid-1700's. At the time, physical boundaries kept modernization out. Then in the 1940's, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was created; and that brought tourists to the area. By the 1950's, highways and telephones were more prevalent throughout Appalachia, bringing the modern world another step closer to its rural inhabitants.

Now, I don't want you to think we in Appalachia are a bunch of snobs. We realize that the same immigrants who settled here settled land elsewhere, but the linguists tell us that our speech patterns will not be found in any other dialect to the extent that they are in Appalachia. In addition, we Appalachians use variants of our own speech patterns. Just because I don't use the same words as my grandmothers doesn't mean that I don't have an Appalachian accent. In fact, the linguists say that each region has its own speech patterns and that most of us allow our situations to govern our speech. For example, when I'm talking with my family, I'm liable to let down my guard a little—use a bit more Appalachian English and a bit less Standard American English. In a more formal situation, I'll try to employ a lot less Appalachian English. Even though I know from personal experience that most Appalachians are not "dumb hillbillies," I'm afraid that others might see me that way if I use the language I naturally use. And yet, some phonological differences are so inbred, that I can't not use them.

Did you know that the t at the end of slept is not silent? You might say, "I slept in this morning." I would say, "I slep in." To me, that "t" just doesn't feel right. It reminds me of an episode of "All in The Family" where Edith met a Jewish baker and he called her "Edit." She told him, "My name's Edith! Th!" So then he called her "Edit-th." To me, "slep-t" would be every bit as awkward.

Do you say "exactly" or "exackly"? And how about ten? I've actually heard people say "ten" with a short e sound—like in the word "bed." How weird is that? Tin and ten are words with the "exack" same sound but different meanings.

The linguists also point out some lexical differences in Appalachian English. For example, the Standard American English word might be faucet, but the Appalachian English version would be spigot. If somebody looks sick, we might say, "he's peaked" (that's peek-ed). Did you hurt your finger? Then we might say you "stoved it up." I once knew a man who substituted "for" for "because." He'd say, "I need to go to the store, for I'm out of milk." My brother would substitute the entire remainder of our family with the word "nim." He'd ask me, "Did Mama and nim go to the store?" Some people say "knowed" rather than "knew." We're famous for our double negatives. "I don't have none of that." Our present perfect tense has raised some eyebrows, too. "He's done done it now!"

This little foray into my Appalachian heritage has given me new insight. We might chop off some of our "-ings"; we might "reckon" rather than "guess" sometimes; and we might have places with such outlandish names as "Lick Skillet," "Frog Holler" and "Sugar Loaf," but we have a rich history. We know where we came from and, for the most part, where we're going. And if anyone thinks we're a bunch of ignorant hillbillies, then you ought to come and get to know us a little better. If you stay long enough, we might be able to teach you how to talk right.
Gayle Trent

Olde Charlie Farquharson's Testament

Let me tell you about a book I bought about 3 years ago. First, let me tell you how I discovered the book.

In my research of my family tree, my Scottish line goes back to the Farquharson Clan. So, one day, I googled Farquharson. I came across this book on eBay - Olde Charlie Farquharson's Testament. From the description in the listing, I could only decipher that it was the Bible as if written phonetically by (IF you can figure out what some of the words should be!), what we here in the United States would refer to as "hillybillies", but because the author, Don Harron, is Canadian, it would be as if written by the Scottish who immigrated to Parry Sound.

I have to tell you, that while reading the King James Bible, often it is like reading Shakespeare - you are not sure exactly what a sentence means.

However, if you can make out what the words should be, then you will be in for a real treat. This is the best "Plain English" Bible I have ever seen, all the while providing a real chuckle due to the manner of vernacular.


Let me provide you with some examples from the book which I will follow up with the translated version.

The First Book of Moeziz, called Jennysez
Chapter I
1 At the start there wasn't a thing. That'd be yer Void.
2 Dark too, Absoloot kayoss. So God decided to do something about it.

Translated, reads:
The First Book of Moses, called Genesis
Chapter I
1 In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.

The way it is worded about Adam and Eve being created and then committing the first sin is hysterical.

Here are the 10 Commandments!

1 No God but me. (FOOTNOTE: He is not jist Chareman of the Board, He is It.)
2 No cravin' imedges, or Idle Dollatry.
3 No taking My name in vane.
4 Nothin' on Sundys allowed but the Sabbith. Six days on, one day off.
5 No sassin yer pairnts.
6 No kilin.
7 No Adult follin' around.
8 No stealin.
9 No brakin' oafs or lyin' in cort.
10 Hands off yer Naber's everything.

Here are the rest of the names of the books of the Old Testament (I don't think I need to translate them for you!):

Exxodust
Levickedness
Nummers
Joshawa
Jedges
Roof
Sam Yell
Kings Won
Two Kings
Ezzrer
Neermyer
Estor
Jobe
Dan Yell

the illustration is captioned as

"Dan Yell joins the Lyin's Club"

Joaner

Then the books of

Sams, Proverbs, Cleazy Astys and Songa Salomon

are cut very short and condensed thus

These books is all fulla poetry. Even tho it don't rime it is luvly in itself and don't need enny help from enybuddy.

It goes on and list names of Biblical characters (even this was hard for me to figure out), but it ends up saying

No matter what ther name is, everyone of them profits seems to tell the people the same thing:
YER DOIN' IT ALL RONG!!!

Charlie Farquharson is a character that Don Harron (a stage actor as well as an author) portrayed often. He also wrote more Charlie Farquharson books. So the pictures/illustrations of the Charlie Farquharson in each of the books is actually Don Harron.


There are Gustave Dore illustrations (the same ones illustrated in many Bibles), but with one little twist. Somewhere in the illustrations you will find Charlie Farquharson.

I would read the book during my lunch or break at work. As I began reading the book, I realized just how much I was enjoying it. The book is small, so I could have read it in an hour. However, I really wanted to savor it. So I read it in small pieces.

The humor is not to be believed. It is not humor just for the sake of humor. It is actually the Parry Sound translated Bible. I would read a bit and just break out into a loud laugh. After a couple of days, everyone was aware of what I was reading and everytime I would laugh, they wanted me to read what it was that made me laugh.

I bought about 10 more of these books to give to friends and family. It has to be up there in my 10 ten list of books to read.