I'm from southeastern Kentucky and this has made me really really homesick! They sound exactly like my grandparents. I live in Utah now and I'm almost ashamed that I've worked so hard to rid myself of my dialect. I learned from a young age that I should hide it because people will assume I'm unintelligent. Recently, I have decided to be proud of my heritage because we don't just speak we sing!
As a lover of language, this video is incredibly beautiful to me... Thank you so much... Don't ever change it... Don't fix what's not broken... Again... Thank you... This is truly beautiful
I'm from south eastern Kentucky and everyone around these neck of the woods talk like that and everybody knows everybody. I'm blessed to be born and raised here
I totally agree. My family's roots are in southern WV, and I grew up listening to my dad say yander, poke, plumb, etc. I live in northern Illinois now, but I'm still very proud of my Appalachian roots and I miss the mountains!
I have started to put some audio and video together from my grandmother (born 1902) to my child in the present, all four of these generations and at least back two more generations from there are from the Western North Carolina Mountains. For those of us from the region in this video it brings a feeling of community, remembrance, warmth and family. Thank you for posting this!
@dil rob: I'm from Germany, and from what I can see in documentaries like these, they seem to be REAL people, very nice, warm-hearted and traditional. I look forward to travel to Appalachia, as (from what I know till now) I have great love for the region and it's people.
Nothing beats the beautiful mountain language. And no one beats mountain people! The tragedy of it all is the best generations are all about gone now though... Such amazing beautiful hearted people!! God help us in this world without them...😔
My grandfathers family came from the Ozarks and I grew up hearing a lot of the words and expressions used in this video. It kind of put a smile on my face to know people still talk like this.
I live in NW Ga. My "mamaws" folks came from Graham Co. and they are friendly folks. I am 3 generations removed from the area but still talk and understand "mountain talk". I'm kin to the Odoms,Colvins,Crisps and Welchs. Some are buried near Santeetlah lake in an unmarked graveyard known only to locals and family. Thanks for posting the video,brings back good memories. My great aunt,Dessie Odom,worked there in the jail in Robbinsville till she passed away several years ago.
I'm from the west side of the appalachians in East Tennessee. This video reminds me of home so much. My mamaw talks just like the old woman in this video. Im out here California and they have now clue what I'm saying half the time. Things like poke salad, wher'd you go, wersh(wash), comode.
I have so much love for the people living in Appalachia. They are wonderful, hardworking people with hearts the size of this whole country. They are honestly, as a whole, the nicest people I have ever met.
My Nanny would say "Breath come or go, but I'll not breathe ye!" And" I might could go over yonder directly"! I miss Nanny! She rode horses without a saddle and rowed up and down the Tennessee River to see her sisters. She was born in Triana, Alabama.
Honest, simple, and good people. You don't have to go deep into the Appalachia to find them.The older folks that talk like that live in western North Carolina, East Tennessee, South-eastern Kentucky. They lead a "retired" comfortable way of life, but they're wonderful. I believe that the Appalachian people are one of the very few that keep the American Heritage strong.And they're actually living all over the South-East.Retired, in a nice big house.At heart they keep the Heritage surviving.
Family friend, Ali Randolph, sang her original song about Popcorn Sutton at his Memorial Service. She has now posted a video of the song played with her band, The Outta Luck Band. Moonshiners - Popcorn Sutton - Ali Randolph & The Outta Luck Band - Music Video -
Thanks this is a wonderful video. In eastern Kentucky, the great author James Still compiled many mountain sayings and folk wisdom in his book "The Wolfpen Notebooks" - its a very entertaining read.
This is all so very precious and familiar to me. I was raised in Greenup County, Kentucky. My father's people from Breathitt and Carter and my mother's from Floyd. We may have been far from you all but they have taken the language with them where ever we went.
Appalachian's are the friendliest people as a whole in the States. They'd give the shirt off their back for you and defend you with their life if they're your friend.
I've lived in tennessee my entire life, so all of this sounds normal to me lol. But mostly you hear it from the really old folks. All of you commenting about wanting to visit, there's two thing you need to know: These people live simply, but they're not stupid. There's a difference. And second, they will give even a stranger the shirts off their backs... but if you prove yourself to be a bad, untrustworthy person, you'll answer for it one way or the other lol.
I live by the Appalachian trail in PA mountains. People talk in yins. My grandparents use the dialect and say words and phrases I don't always understand. The other day my grandfather said to me "boy you're really stepping out this morning" apparently it means walking fast. They definitely say things like over yonder, put near, wersh, soda pop, crick, kmark or walmark, door-eat-toes (Doritos), dinner is lunch and supper is dinner, and directions to anywhere around the hill (area of mountain range we live on) are always sternly given in landmark descriptions like "it's past the pump, over the bridge, just past the church" Once my grandfather became very adamant that I explain to a friend not from the area directions in this way. It's already an off road backwoods hard to find area, let alone with directions like "go past the water pump" 😀Anyways, I think all of the small subcultures in the country are interesting.
Spend a little time here in East Tennessee, you'll hear plenty of people still using "mountain speak". Lived in ET all my life and hearing folks speak in our native foothills tongue is music to m ears. Sadly, it's quickly fading away. The younger ones coming up are learning their dialect from pop culture. Many of them don't sound like they're from here at all. I suppose that's the natural progression of things but I hate to see it happen.
Used to travel up and down I-26 frequently and stopped at the Mountain Energy Truck Stop in Fletcher quite often. I think it was a Food Lion DC I delivered at down the road from there. I always liked that part of the country. People were always friendly. One of the few regions I look back on with fondness from my freight hauling days.
My grandmother and her folks came from Muhlenberg County Kentucky and this takes me right back there. If she got tired,it was "woo mee, I gotta sit for a spell and rest myself." If she thought someone wasn't too bright,she,'d say," he/she ain't got no more sence than what God gave a goose." If it was far away, it was " a right fer piece down the road", if it was a lot of something,it was " a right smart amount." LOL
Lord, I haven't heard the term 'pecker wood' since my Daddy passed away. He used to say that often to describe a person he found annoying. Another of my favorite 'sayins' of Daddy's - he might see a person that's bow-legged and say "he couldn't hem a hog in a ditch!" Love it!!
This will probably start a piss'n contest but you'll never meet more helpful folks than those up in the Appalachian mountains. You knew your neighbors in the hollow or up on the hill and everyone helped each other. It's a shame it's slowly being erased.
If they're a neighbor or family? Absolutely, but we won't take a cent for it. If they're strangers showing up unannounced? Iffy, and they may see the barrel of a loaded shotgun. If they're Yankees? Nope.
The people in the south have their own language and traditions.... Because of isolation in the mountains and hollers.... But I can tell you this fact, if the people who would make fun of southern people, I say Yankees, would drive down here, and God forbid, break down or have some emergency with a child or loved one, any home they ran to crying for help, that house would not turn them away.... We have deep seated traditions for home and family , for God and country.... Southern people are blessed beyond measure... In the most part, because of what lies in their heart.
As a longstanding fan of Appalachian old-time music, I find this video clip immensely fascinating. Yes .. as others have observed .. these people come across as genuinely nice folks. Like, how things used to be, a few decades back .. when everyone looked after everyone else in the local community. I LOVE this 'mountain talk'. P.S. does anyone know : does the term 'pudknucker' come from this part of the country ? Congrats, this is GREAT posting !!
they use a lot of the same words as we do in fife, scotland. they all seem really nice people. if i ever go to america this is the type of place i'd go to lovely countryside lovely people.
good ol mountains of the carolinas. Makes me miss home, the good ol' old timers and some mountain talk. Aint nothing like Memphis. I may be college educated, but I still got that mountain slang in me. I can always get a second look when I use younder, One word I didn't hear is "yuns" (you all) ya'll is more known.
speedyd10 I'm from very near where this video was shot (1 county over basically) and we used "yuns" or "you'uns" I guess would be a good guess at derivation. English needs a 2nd person plural and almost every region and dialect has invented one. We also use "young'uns" for children. Reminds me of the "younglings" in Star Wars...
This is such a fascinating documentary! I've always heard, "Don't buy a pig in a poke." I assumed that a poke was a sack and it's nice to have a confirmation of this. Imagine the confused looks I would get if I went into a store and asked the salesperson to put my purchase in a poke!
My first mother in law was from the Blue Ridge Mountains. She said all that old stuff, She could grow enough to feed an army in about a 12 ft patch, hell she threw it all in there together, not in rows. Mixed it all up. And it all grew. and all good food, she could cook like crazy
In our part of WV any kind of soda pop was called "tonic": "If ye be takin' yerself down to Carder's store direc'ly don't fergit to fetch us back some tonics fer th' reunion tamarra."
here i'll do it again :) 6:57 "said its an old scald, that means its old dead land... it wont grow nothing you know? call it scald. i dont know if you'll ever hear what that is. i know you have. you call it a scald. poor land." im living in Hawaii since i got orders to come out here. miss being at home in NC and hearing the people talk like in this video actually cheers me up... i showed this to a couple of the guys i work with and they went nuts haha! they aint never heard nothing like this! and they thought i had it bad!
Thank you. Often we are automatically stereotyped as being inbred and ignorant. Positive remarks can be far and few between. Most of us are exactly as you define and it is nice to see there are those who do not immediately judge.
@DawnRoselyn You know, I have lived here all my life and we are no more perfect or less perfect than any other group of people. We are not intolerant of others, we are just cautious as anyone should be with strangers. At least we care enough about each other to take care of our own and we are friends with our neighbors and worry about them if they are sick and try to help them if they need something.
I live in the flatlands of eastern NC and all that sounds normal to me. Folks from around the Outer Banks have a distinct dialect. RIP Popcorn Sutton, he was only 62 years old.
I've travelled the world but grew up in the West Va hills - English is a second language to me - "Hillbilly" was my first language :) Everything these folk say is so true of the mountain folks of Appalachia. Good hearted folks. My Dad used to say "I am plumb tuckered out" (meaning - extremely tired). Folks used to say things like; "They would've carried (transported) me over (into) town, but land to Goshen! (an explicative) They live so far back in the holler (dense forested valley) they have to pump sunshine in to that place. But they have a nice creek (small stream) a running through their property (land)." And "peckerwood" can be used when angry at inanimate objects too :) "That peckerwood bolt is rusted and won't come loose!"
I knew a eighty year old woman whose mountain talk made these people sound like New Yorkers :P. I understood clearly every word in this video, but when it came to speaking to her I only caught every fifth or sixth.
In Northern Ireland they would say a Poke of Chips. Meaning a portion of chips wrapped in paper (fried potatoes like french fries). Yonder would be used in Northern areas of England, it's considered an old fashioned word elsewhere. A stout fellow would also be used by older people in Northern England, maybe other areas to. Lot's of similarities but some I've never heard of.
@homeschoolmom42 Many people from the Appalachian area resettled in the Dayton, Columbus, Akron and east side Cleveland, including my parents. We visited relatives and family friends in these different areas. I am 58 and living in Seattle, WA area and have people tell me they still pick up on my accent even though I grew up in Cleveland area. Their is a large community of people in this area that came here to work in the logging industry. ...and yes they are all beautiful people.....
@gatoryak people don't practice an accent in order to sound the way they are expected to by tourists. It's just how they sound. If you go to Boston you will see a huge difference and sometimes can't tell wether they are saying Cod (fish) or card because both sound so similar when spoken.In the beginning he says that much of the words and phrases were brought over by their ancestors and since not all imigrants went down south, you're bound to hear a similar speak out west somewhere.
Fascinating.........love the different aspects of the English language and I don't recognise any of the terms they use as being Scottish, Irish or English. So.....it must be mountain talk!
I still say poke and pop instead of coke. I once worked with a man from NY .I could not for the life understand half of what he was saying he spoke so fast it was like he was in a race.He made fun of me said i spoke to slow .
George Lindsey, "Goober" from Andy Griffith Show (shows setting is N.C.) Lindsey was born & grew up in Northern Alabama, part of the Appalachian region - It has it's distinctive dialect but similar to some words etc the folks in this video from N.C. Appalachian area use. Don Knotts "Barney Fife" was from West Va, and Andy from N.C. both true Appalachians as well. Check Wikipedia for "Appalachian Regional Commission" (ARC) article has map of what's considered Appalachia - basically it follows the Appalachian mountain range.
Yonder is uphill Yunder is down hill Yander means left or right depending on gesture zank is where you found the Morels (that you never give directions where you actually found them, lol.) if you got sick from wrong kind of mushrooms you feel "Pewney".
❤♫•*❤♫•*❤♫•*❤ Well that was fun , we here in Scotland UK have our own type of language as well . I think it all goes back to the Elder people who brought us up and words get past down through generation . Sometimes its good to spot an outsider fast if you know what i mean lol ❤♫•*❤♫•*❤♫•*❤
@Tabfort I get what you mean. My Dad is from Roanoke and he used to make fun of my Mother's accent. She's from Buchanan Co., up in the mountains. Nobody quite speaks the same way as the mountain folks, even though Roanoke is part of SW VA also. I do think that the people in the Shenandoah Valley speak more like the folks in SW than they do the folks from the Tidewater, with their dropped "r" sounds and all (hee-uh for here, etc.) vs. harder and more nasally "r's" as in Appalachia and the Valley.
This really should be titled "North Carolina talk". The Appalachian mountain chain runs from northern Georgia to New Foundland. Most New Englanders don't talk this way. This dialect is thought by many liguists to be as close to old English as any dialect left. Finest people on Earth.
the word plumb is not unfamiliar to me and I'm an aussie. plumb means straight. we have little weights we put on strings to check things are perfectly upright and we call the weight a "plumb bob". that's where the word comes from.
+Lazy Spark he said his momma used to play a game where she would pull his ear and ask him goose or gander. if he said goose she would turn it loose, but if he said gander she would pull it yander. its not really an explanation of the word as much as it is a fond memory of his mother. hope that helps lol.
Fact. Mom's generation (born in '43 in Crab Orchard, TN) used a lot of the words in this video. My two brothers and I use fewer of them. My brother's kids use MAYBE a couple. And money says his grandkids won't have a clue about any of it.
+Armistice023 "Plumb" is a real word just as it is and means exactly vertical and can be measured with a level or a plum bob. In this case it is being used informally as "exactly" or "completely." "Gaum" does come from "gum" as in "gummed up" but has taken on a life of its own as a noun that means "mess" but worse than a simple mess, a twisted or gummed up mess.
I'm from southeastern Kentucky and this has made me really really homesick! They sound exactly like my grandparents. I live in Utah now and I'm almost ashamed that I've worked so hard to rid myself of my dialect. I learned from a young age that I should hide it because people will assume I'm unintelligent. Recently, I have decided to be proud of my heritage because we don't just speak we sing!
As a lover of language, this video is incredibly beautiful to me... Thank you so much... Don't ever change it... Don't fix what's not broken... Again... Thank you... This is truly beautiful
I'm from south eastern Kentucky and everyone around these neck of the woods talk like that and everybody knows everybody. I'm blessed to be born and raised here
I totally agree. My family's roots are in southern WV, and I grew up listening to my dad say yander, poke, plumb, etc. I live in northern Illinois now, but I'm still very proud of my Appalachian roots and I miss the mountains!
I have started to put some audio and video together from my grandmother (born 1902) to my child in the present, all four of these generations and at least back two more generations from there are from the Western North Carolina Mountains.
For those of us from the region in this video it brings a feeling of community, remembrance, warmth and family. Thank you for posting this!
@dil rob:
I'm from Germany, and from what I can see in documentaries like these, they seem to be REAL people, very nice, warm-hearted and traditional.
I look forward to travel to Appalachia, as (from what I know till now) I have great love for the region and it's people.
Nothing beats the beautiful mountain language. And no one beats mountain people! The tragedy of it all is the best generations are all about gone now though... Such amazing beautiful hearted people!! God help us in this world without them...😔
My grandfathers family came from the Ozarks and I grew up hearing a lot of the words and expressions used in this video. It kind of put a smile on my face to know people still talk like this.
I live in NW Ga. My "mamaws" folks came from Graham Co. and they are friendly folks. I am 3 generations removed from the area but still talk and understand "mountain talk". I'm kin to the Odoms,Colvins,Crisps and Welchs. Some are buried near Santeetlah lake in an unmarked graveyard known only to locals and family. Thanks for posting the video,brings back good memories. My great aunt,Dessie Odom,worked there in the jail in Robbinsville till she passed away several years ago.
I'm from the west side of the appalachians in East Tennessee. This video reminds me of home so much. My mamaw talks just like the old woman in this video. Im out here California and they have now clue what I'm saying half the time. Things like poke salad, wher'd you go, wersh(wash), comode.
I have so much love for the people living in Appalachia. They are wonderful, hardworking people with hearts the size of this whole country. They are honestly, as a whole, the nicest people I have ever met.
Ya gotta love these people. So real & innocent.
My Nanny would say "Breath come or go, but I'll not breathe ye!" And" I might could go over yonder directly"! I miss Nanny! She rode horses without a saddle and rowed up and down the Tennessee River to see her sisters. She was born in Triana, Alabama.
Honest, simple, and good people. You don't have to go deep into the Appalachia to find them.The older folks that talk like that live in western North Carolina, East Tennessee, South-eastern Kentucky. They lead a "retired" comfortable way of life, but they're wonderful. I believe that the Appalachian people are one of the very few that keep the American Heritage strong.And they're actually living all over the South-East.Retired, in a nice big house.At heart they keep the Heritage surviving.
Such a lovely and musical language. God bless!
from huntingdon here and i love it!
Family friend, Ali Randolph, sang her original song about Popcorn Sutton at his Memorial Service. She has now posted a video of the song played with her band, The Outta Luck Band.
Moonshiners - Popcorn Sutton - Ali Randolph & The Outta Luck Band - Music Video -
Language is NOT a garment! Language is our MOTHER. What a treat it would be to be among these people
.
I know a lot of these words from my grandparents. It's weird seeing a film about it, I never thought they were anything special.
Thanks this is a wonderful video.
In eastern Kentucky, the great author James Still compiled many mountain sayings and folk wisdom in his book "The Wolfpen Notebooks" - its a very entertaining read.
This is all so very precious and familiar to me. I was raised in Greenup County, Kentucky. My father's people from Breathitt and Carter and my mother's from Floyd. We may have been far from you all but they have taken the language with them where ever we went.
These people are one of the "sweetest, kind-hearted' ppl in the South-East.
Appalachian's are the friendliest people as a whole in the States. They'd give the shirt off their back for you and defend you with their life if they're your friend.
You never in a million years would you think that this dialect sounds like home until you move away.
best one of the series.
good ol mountain folk
Very proud of myself and my family. matewan virginia, Pikeville, and mouth card Kentucky
I've lived in tennessee my entire life, so all of this sounds normal to me lol. But mostly you hear it from the really old folks. All of you commenting about wanting to visit, there's two thing you need to know: These people live simply, but they're not stupid. There's a difference. And second, they will give even a stranger the shirts off their backs... but if you prove yourself to be a bad, untrustworthy person, you'll answer for it one way or the other lol.
I live by the Appalachian trail in PA mountains. People talk in yins. My grandparents use the dialect and say words and phrases I don't always understand.
The other day my grandfather said to me "boy you're really stepping out this morning" apparently it means walking fast. They definitely say things like over yonder, put near, wersh, soda pop, crick, kmark or walmark, door-eat-toes (Doritos), dinner is lunch and supper is dinner, and directions to anywhere around the hill (area of mountain range we live on) are always sternly given in landmark descriptions like "it's past the pump, over the bridge, just past the church"
Once my grandfather became very adamant that I explain to a friend not from the area directions in this way. It's already an off road backwoods hard to find area, let alone with directions like "go past the water pump" 😀Anyways, I think all of the small subcultures in the country are interesting.
Spend a little time here in East Tennessee, you'll hear plenty of people still using "mountain speak". Lived in ET all my life and hearing folks speak in our native foothills tongue is music to m ears. Sadly, it's quickly fading away. The younger ones coming up are learning their dialect from pop culture. Many of them don't sound like they're from here at all. I suppose that's the natural progression of things but I hate to see it happen.
Used to travel up and down I-26 frequently and stopped at the Mountain Energy Truck Stop in Fletcher quite often. I think it was a Food Lion DC I delivered at down the road from there. I always liked that part of the country. People were always friendly. One of the few regions I look back on with fondness from my freight hauling days.
We sanging man we sanging
My family speaks like this! I am proud of my heritage!
They proudly hold on to their rich historic heritage and they speak from the heart. Good people :)
Beautiful looking country! Would live to visit. Hello from Ottawa, Canada, eh!!!!
My grandmother and her folks came from Muhlenberg County Kentucky and this takes
me right back there. If she got tired,it was "woo mee, I gotta sit for a spell and rest myself." If she thought someone wasn't too bright,she,'d say," he/she ain't got no more
sence than what God gave a goose." If it was far away, it was " a right fer piece down
the road", if it was a lot of something,it was " a right smart amount." LOL
What I found funny was my people talked an awful lot like that but we're from North Saskatchewan Canada and that is a fair piece from Appalachia.
My Grandma "Maw Maw" was from Appilachicola, Fl she talked just like this even though she lived in South Florida for more then 40 yrs
Thank you for taking me home :)
Lord, I haven't heard the term 'pecker wood' since my Daddy passed away. He used to say that often to describe a person he found annoying. Another of my favorite 'sayins' of Daddy's - he might see a person that's bow-legged and say "he couldn't hem a hog in a ditch!" Love it!!
This will probably start a piss'n contest but you'll never meet more helpful folks than those up in the Appalachian mountains. You knew your neighbors in the hollow or up on the hill and everyone helped each other. It's a shame it's slowly being erased.
If they're a neighbor or family? Absolutely, but we won't take a cent for it. If they're strangers showing up unannounced? Iffy, and they may see the barrel of a loaded shotgun. If they're Yankees? Nope.
Here in the Ozarks we say some of these words. I guess it makes sense since many of the first Ozark pioneers were from Appalachia.
Ant nothin better than good country mountains Folks Y'all!!!
This is so cool. I love learning about this culture.
The people in the south have their own language and traditions.... Because of isolation in the mountains and hollers.... But I can tell you this fact, if the people who would make fun of southern people, I say Yankees, would drive down here, and God forbid, break down or have some emergency with a child or loved one, any home they ran to crying for help, that house would not turn them away.... We have deep seated traditions for home and family , for God and country.... Southern people are blessed beyond measure... In the most part, because of what lies in their heart.
I love this accent, I hope it isn't lost. It's a part of American culture.
As a longstanding fan of Appalachian old-time music, I find this video clip immensely fascinating. Yes .. as others have observed .. these people come across as genuinely nice folks. Like, how things used to be, a few decades back .. when everyone looked after everyone else in the local community. I LOVE this 'mountain talk'. P.S. does anyone know : does the term 'pudknucker' come from this part of the country ? Congrats, this is GREAT posting !!
they use a lot of the same words as we do in fife, scotland. they all seem really nice people. if i ever go to america this is the type of place i'd go to lovely countryside lovely people.
NOTHING like mountain life!! It's the best!! I miss it every day. I pray every day to go home. :(
good ol mountains of the carolinas. Makes me miss home, the good ol' old timers and some mountain talk. Aint nothing like Memphis. I may be college educated, but I still got that mountain slang in me. I can always get a second look when I use younder, One word I didn't hear is "yuns" (you all) ya'll is more known.
speedyd10 I'm from very near where this video was shot (1 county over basically) and we used "yuns" or "you'uns" I guess would be a good guess at derivation. English needs a 2nd person plural and almost every region and dialect has invented one. We also use "young'uns" for children. Reminds me of the "younglings" in Star Wars...
Thank God for our differences. It makes the world a much more fun and exciting place!
Wow...my dad (Lord rest his soul) used to have most of those words in his vocabulary...wow...memories. :)
Much love and respect friend! This footage is GREAT!
They're blessed to be 20 years beyond the whole country!
IM so glad i have this language.
Agreed; I have a lot of family in the Chattanooga area and lived there a short while myself. It is a very different world indeed. :)
Love to hear their accent... nice to hear
This is such a fascinating documentary! I've always heard, "Don't buy a pig in a poke." I assumed that a poke was a sack and it's nice to have a confirmation of this. Imagine the confused looks I would get if I went into a store and asked the salesperson to put my purchase in a poke!
My first mother in law was from the Blue Ridge Mountains. She said all that old stuff, She could grow enough to feed an army in about a 12 ft patch, hell she threw it all in there together, not in rows. Mixed it all up. And it all grew. and all good food, she could cook like crazy
In our part of WV any kind of soda pop was called "tonic":
"If ye be takin' yerself down to Carder's store direc'ly don't
fergit to fetch us back some tonics fer th' reunion tamarra."
I am from Alabama but knew what they were talking about & use most of the words to this day.
here i'll do it again :)
6:57 "said its an old scald, that means its old dead land... it wont grow nothing you know? call it scald. i dont know if you'll ever hear what that is. i know you have. you call it a scald. poor land."
im living in Hawaii since i got orders to come out here. miss being at home in NC and hearing the people talk like in this video actually cheers me up... i showed this to a couple of the guys i work with and they went nuts haha! they aint never heard nothing like this! and they thought i had it bad!
I left Mitchell County NC 25 years ago... I didn't miss a word. XD Tug my heartstrings a little harder, might let the banjo and dulcimer call me home.
Thank you. Often we are automatically stereotyped as being inbred and ignorant. Positive remarks can be far and few between. Most of us are exactly as you define and it is nice to see there are those who do not immediately judge.
This would be a fascinating anthropological experience to study these mountain folk.
@DawnRoselyn You know, I have lived here all my life and we are no more perfect or less perfect than any other group of people. We are not intolerant of others, we are just cautious as anyone should be with strangers. At least we care enough about each other to take care of our own and we are friends with our neighbors and worry about them if they are sick and try to help them if they need something.
I live in the flatlands of eastern NC and all that sounds normal to me. Folks from around the Outer Banks have a distinct dialect. RIP Popcorn Sutton, he was only 62 years old.
I've travelled the world but grew up in the West Va hills - English is a second language to me - "Hillbilly" was my first language :) Everything these folk say is so true of the mountain folks of Appalachia. Good hearted folks. My Dad used to say "I am plumb tuckered out" (meaning - extremely tired). Folks used to say things like; "They would've carried (transported) me over (into) town, but land to Goshen! (an explicative) They live so far back in the holler (dense forested valley) they have to pump sunshine in to that place. But they have a nice creek (small stream) a running through their property (land)." And "peckerwood" can be used when angry at inanimate objects too :) "That peckerwood bolt is rusted and won't come loose!"
I knew a eighty year old woman whose mountain talk made these people sound like New Yorkers :P. I understood clearly every word in this video, but when it came to speaking to her I only caught every fifth or sixth.
Fascinating. English is my native language and at times, I barely understood them. I love how they still use yonder. Coolness.
Fascinating!
The accent is different the lifestyle too probably but the words are the same. Your words are like mine and I live in Scotland.
Proud to be Appalachian American!
In Northern Ireland they would say a Poke of Chips. Meaning a portion of chips wrapped in paper (fried potatoes like french fries).
Yonder would be used in Northern areas of England, it's considered an old fashioned word elsewhere. A stout fellow would also be used by older people in Northern England, maybe other areas to.
Lot's of similarities but some I've never heard of.
Us norn Irons still say yonder too. Like them there over yonder.
We'd use it in the same way. I like dialects and old words, it's much better to have a bit of character to how you speak.
I had a book about here somewhere with the full Ulster/Scotts terminology. Interesting read.
Andy Agnew Michael Montgomery's book, I think he's from the University of North Carolina.
Andy Agnew the correct word for this group of people is scots/English .
We are the best friend a person could have or the worst enemy. I am afraid they don't make to many of these nowadays.
My dad grew up in Mississippi and he sounds a little bit like this too.
@homeschoolmom42 Many people from the Appalachian area resettled in the Dayton, Columbus, Akron and east side Cleveland, including my parents. We visited relatives and family friends in these different areas. I am 58 and living in Seattle, WA area and have people tell me they still pick up on my accent even though I grew up in Cleveland area. Their is a large community of people
in this area that came here to work in the logging industry.
...and yes they are all beautiful people.....
@gatoryak people don't practice an accent in order to sound the way they are expected to by tourists. It's just how they sound. If you go to Boston you will see a huge difference and sometimes can't tell wether they are saying Cod (fish) or card because both sound so similar when spoken.In the beginning he says that much of the words and phrases were brought over by their ancestors and since not all imigrants went down south, you're bound to hear a similar speak out west somewhere.
Fascinating.........love the different aspects of the English language and I don't recognise any of the terms they use as being Scottish, Irish or English. So.....it must be mountain talk!
i live in the heart of the appalachen mountains i live about 50 miles from maggie valley where pop corn if from
Popcorn sutton, a true mountain legend. R.I.P
Cute accent begat by/from friendly people of mxd culture ...cheers 2 u the uploader 4 sharing thee..
Great Video.
I still say poke and pop instead of coke. I once worked with a man from NY .I could not for the life understand half of what he was saying he spoke so fast it was like he was in a race.He made fun of me said i spoke to slow .
George Lindsey, "Goober" from Andy Griffith Show (shows setting is N.C.) Lindsey was born & grew up in Northern Alabama, part of the Appalachian region - It has it's distinctive dialect but similar to some words etc the folks in this video from N.C. Appalachian area use. Don Knotts "Barney Fife" was from West Va, and Andy from N.C. both true Appalachians as well. Check Wikipedia for "Appalachian Regional Commission" (ARC) article has map of what's considered Appalachia - basically it follows the Appalachian mountain range.
Yonder is uphill
Yunder is down hill
Yander means left or right depending on gesture
zank is where you found the Morels (that you never give directions where you actually found them, lol.) if you got sick from wrong kind of mushrooms you feel "Pewney".
❤♫•*❤♫•*❤♫•*❤ Well that was fun , we here in Scotland UK have our own type of language as well . I think it all goes back to the Elder people who brought us up and words get past down through generation . Sometimes its good to spot an outsider fast if you know what i mean lol ❤♫•*❤♫•*❤♫•*❤
@Tabfort I get what you mean. My Dad is from Roanoke and he used to make fun of my Mother's accent. She's from Buchanan Co., up in the mountains. Nobody quite speaks the same way as the mountain folks, even though Roanoke is part of SW VA also. I do think that the people in the Shenandoah Valley speak more like the folks in SW than they do the folks from the Tidewater, with their dropped "r" sounds and all (hee-uh for here, etc.) vs. harder and more nasally "r's" as in Appalachia and the Valley.
My Grandma used a few of those words!
I live in Alabama and these ppl just sound southern to me
This really should be titled "North Carolina talk". The Appalachian mountain chain runs from northern Georgia to New Foundland. Most New Englanders don't talk this way. This dialect is thought by many liguists to be as close to old English as any dialect left. Finest people on Earth.
The wonderful "POPCORN"!
the word plumb is not unfamiliar to me and I'm an aussie. plumb means straight. we have little weights we put on strings to check things are perfectly upright and we call the weight a "plumb bob". that's where the word comes from.
yeah it is
Too bad the full Appalachian Mountain Talk documentary is not available on here....
He said "I'll see you over yonder" I understood that straight away. Then when he explained what it meant, that part I couldn't understand.
+Lazy Spark he said his momma used to play a game where she would pull his ear and ask him goose or gander. if he said goose she would turn it loose, but if he said gander she would pull it yander. its not really an explanation of the word as much as it is a fond memory of his mother. hope that helps lol.
enjoy it coz it's disappearing fast.
Fact.
Mom's generation (born in '43 in Crab Orchard, TN) used a lot of the words in this video. My two brothers and I use fewer of them. My brother's kids use MAYBE a couple. And money says his grandkids won't have a clue about any of it.
quazzie1 ài
There's a special place in my heart for Crab Orchard and Crossville!
I'm related to some Goss folks from there. Are you?
I'm in SoCal and understand "plumb" and "gaum". However, I hear them as "plum" (fruit) and "gum" (just how we pronounce it). Cool hearing this stuff
+Armistice023 "Plumb" is a real word just as it is and means exactly vertical and can be measured with a level or a plum bob. In this case it is being used informally as "exactly" or "completely." "Gaum" does come from "gum" as in "gummed up" but has taken on a life of its own as a noun that means "mess" but worse than a simple mess, a twisted or gummed up mess.
The way "plum" is used sounds like saying "straight" or "very."
Except when you use it like this "he's just plumb crazy".
i guess some people still use it in the sense of "plumb forgot".
Ben Hinman
True
My gran says "thats the word with the bark on it" meaning thats the final say on the subject !