Most Importantly: It’s App-uh-LATCH-un. If you say it wrong, we’ll correct you. If you keep it up, we can’t be friends.
For a long time, people have assumed that the dialect and language we use here in the Foothills and the Blue Ridge Mountains is “bad English”. That’s not true at all. It’s actually “very old English.”
We still use a large number of the words that the people who settled this land used. “Afeared”, for instance, is considered archaic English, except here in our hills. In some ways, it’s as if the last 200 years of linguistic changes just didn’t happen here. We speak the way our ancestors spoke, and our lexicon doesn’t seem to be dying out.
We are Southerners, but that’s not all we are. We speak the language of the hills. If you’d like to understand us better, here are some tips.
Long I sounds turn to A sounds. Tire and fire become “tar” and “far”. Iron is “Arn.” The “o” sound at the end of words is often replaced with an “er”…holler, mater, tater, backer for hollow, tomato, potato and tobacco. You noticed we dropped the beginning syllable from some of the words we use the most-we just expect you to keep up.
Abide-tolerate
Acrost-across
Afeared-afraid
Afore-before
Agin’-Against
Aigs-eggs
Backerds-backwards
Blowed-past tense of blow
Briar-patch child-a child out of wedlock
Brickle-brittle
Britches-pants, but not your dress pants
Chanct-chance
Crick-creek
Et-past tense of eat
Ever war-everywhere
Heared-past tense of hear
Heared-tell-heard by way of gossip
Her’n-hers
His’n-his
Holler-shout
Hollow (pronounced “holler”)-
valley surrounded by mountains
Jail house
Jasper-someone not from our hills
Kilt-killed
Larn-to teach
Lible-likely to
Might-could-there is a possibility
Passel-a lot
Plum-all the way
Reckon-to reason
Right-very (He’s right smart)
Scald-land that won’t grow plants
Schoolhouse
Seed-past tense of saw
Sigogglin-crooked
Skift-just a little snow
Sour milk-buttermilk
Sweet milk-regular milk
Teched-crazy
Twicst-twice
Whup-beaten
You’ns-similar to y’all
