Appalachian English is a dialect of English that is spoken in the Appalachian Mountains region. Research suggests it is one of the most different dialects in the United States from the others.[1]
Since the 1930s, much 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 has 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 that were brought to the region by some of its earliest settlers,[4] who were from the border of Scotland and England, in the British Isles.
Recent research suggests that Appalachian English developed as a uniquely-American dialect, as early settlers adapted English to their unfamiliar frontier environment. That is supported by the many similarities between it and Colonial American English.[5]
References
change- ↑ 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.
This short article about the United States can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.