If you might could be wondering a little about the kind of English spoken in the Appalachians — the kind that includes double modals like “might could” and asks, “Was you wantin’ to go to town?” Well, there’s a new website, written by the leading experts on that very topic, that tells the truth, the whole truth, about it. It’s free, available to everyone, and it’s right here.
Instead of waiting here for my further explanation, you can go right now to the website and enjoy its many features, including a vocabulary quiz. But in case you’d like a preview:
The principal author of the website is Michael Montgomery of the University of South Carolina, assisted by Paul Reed of the University of Alabama. Montgomery is the leading expert on Appalachian English, having devoted a lifetime to it. And a lifetime’s collection of materials is right there on the site.
Montgomery begins at the beginning, explaining that Appalachian English is “found in a large mountain and valley region encompassing all or parts of … West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, western Virginia and North Carolina, northern Georgia and Alabama, and northwestern South Carolina.” And he instructs us that natives of the region call it “AppalATCHa,” never “Ap-pa-LAY-cha.”
The website contains numerous articles, some of general interest and some for experts. There are also countless examples of Appalachian English sentences, such as these:
It just took somebody all the time a-working, a-keeping that, because it was a-boiling.
I might can go with you tomorrow.
It was a-fixin’ to come a storm.
I’ve not never heard of that.
These examples don’t begin to do justice to the organization, richness, depth, and even beauty of the website. I’m too impatient to wait — I want to go back to it right now. See you in Appalachia!