The History of our Dialects and that Elizabethan English Rumor

Listen to the voice of John Gregory, a Civil War infantryman writing home from a cold, February campsite in 1862, a year before he would die at Gettysburg. Then, listen to the voice of Cordia Nichols, a woman diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1959 and recovering in the Catawba Sanitorium. John's letter allows us to study his dialect before audio-recording was invented, and Cordia's letter helps us to see (and hear) patterns that were still being spoken almost 100 years later in Virginia. This is just one example of what old documents like letters, journals, recipes, and more can teach us about voice through content analysis.

Thank to Brock Davidson (gbdavidson7@icloud.com) and Addy Hutchison for lending their voices to these letters.
Gregory's letter comes from the Corpus of Civil War Letters
Cordia's letter was found in an old sewing machine given to me.

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

If you've ever found yourself in the position of having to defend your accent or dialect, or if you're an educator who wants to support your students' home voices but you're not sure whether you can do that while teaching standard English, this one is for you. We'll cover three (among many) justifications for Appalachian home voices (as well as others.)
1. It's a legitimate way of speaking a language, and that is backed by research.
2. It can co-exist alongside standard English.
3. Stigma and stereotype fill the void when people do not know the histories or reasons for accent (and dialect in general.)

We'll also cover "sworp" and "watch for deer."

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

In Part II of my conversation with one of my favorite writers, Pulitzer-winning southern writer and journalist Rick Bragg, he talks about some of the news stories that haunt him. He also gives both teachers and students his best advice for becoming a journalist or novelist...what to do and definitely what not to do.

Rick Bragg is the author of memoirs like Ava's Man, All Over But the Shoutin' , The Best Cook in the World, and The Speckled Pup  that draw on his rural Alabama upbringing and his blue-collar family.  He won a Pulitzer prize in journalism for his work at The New York Times, and now teaches writing at The University of Alabama. He writes monthly columns for Southern Living and Garden and Gun.

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

Author Rick Bragg is a true storyteller. Though his work as a Pulitzer-winning journalist at the New York Times took him all over the world, the Alabama native came back home in his memoir writing. His books such as Ava's Man (my favorite), All Over But the Shoutin' (another favorite) The Best Cook in the World (well, they're all my favorites), and the Prince of Frogtown  take you to sharecropping fields, dusty country roads, hot, flavor-filled kitchens, and the cool banks of a river as we get to know his family and the grandfather he never met, but whose shadow looms large. He has even written about his dog in The Speckled Beauty. He has several collections of works, and is a regular contributor to Garden and Gun. Listen to the end of this episode to learn the word "whomp-sided." 
This interview took place in front of a live audience at UVA's College at Wise in 2018, and is re-broadcast with Mr. Bragg's permission. This is Part I of a two-part episode.

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

It's "untelling" what 2024 will bring, but in this episode we'll talk about why you should eat black- eyed peas on New Year's Eve, why you shouldn't do housework on New Year's Day, and why some people refuse to take down their trees until Old Christmas on January 6th. We'll also explore the word "untelling," our first word in 2024.
Have a Happy New Year!

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Research: WV Public Broadcasting, Dictionary of American Regional English, Southern Living website, "Old Christmas" fiddle tune (1937) by Asher Boyd, American Folklife Center

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

In this episode, I research the history of "Fixin' to" (as in "I'm fixin' to put up the holiday decorations.) Add the very old (middle English) dialect feature "a-prefix" and you've got "I'm a-fixin' to put up the holiday decorations.) Then, I'll tell you about the link between our dialect and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song (bet you didn't know you're Talking Appalachian when you sing it). Finally, listen for an excerpt from Knott County, KY native Verna Mae Slone's book How We Talked, a book she published later in her life that preserves so much of her eastern KY dialect.

Sources in this episode:
Yale Grammatical Diversity Project (online)
American English by Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes
How We Talked by Verna Mae Slone
Talking Appalachian: Voice, Identity, and Community, Eds. Amy Clark and Nancy Hayward

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

Part II begins with a story about how Napoleon Hill's influence reached all the way to the Kennedy White House. Then, Executive Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation and bestselling author, Don Green, continues our interview with what he knows about the four uses of money from years of experience, lots of books, and discussions with some of the world's most successful people, who credit Napoleon Hill for their achievements. Mr. Green shares the reasons why most people never move out of the survive mentality and what everyone should consider in order to thrive.

Get a bonus episode and more when you subscribe to our Patreon community.

Get your 2024 Talking Appalachian desk calendar here and support the podcast.

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You can also support the show by sharing links to episodes on social or here at our Patreon page:
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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

Long before Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, became a global bestselling author, he was a poor boy from Pound, VA in the mountains of Wise County, running through the woods with a rifle, stirring up trouble. His stepmother bought him a typewriter and the rest is history. His groundbreaking book Think and Grow Rich has sold millions of copies, and is still cited by some of the world's wealthiest businesspeople, U.S. presidents, and celebrities as the inspiration for their journeys. In Part I of this episode series, I'm talking with Don Green (also from Wise County), who is Executive Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation and knows the most about Hill's influence, which has remained constant for nearly a century. A success story himself, Don shares what he has learned from Hill's principles of success, which has resulted in several books and invitations worldwide to share his expertise. 

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

It's a 't' where no 't' ought to be....we call it "the intrusive -t" as in once't, across't, and kil't.  In this episode:

• I talk about the Appalachian delicacy of "killed lettuce"
• You'll hear some clips of storyteller Ray Hicks and his use of the intrusive -t and -n
• Listen to a Civil War soldier's accent and how he used the intrusive -t 100 years before Hicks
• I'll tell you about the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), a great resource for researching dialects

Ray Hicks audio clips: Alan Lomax Archive and Association for Cultural Equity
Voice of Civil War letter: Bernard Manatu V
Music: Landon Spain

Thanks to our newest Country Roads and Kindred Spirits subscribers: 
HH Reed and The Southern Drifter

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

The Legend of Bouncing Bertha was a story I heard straight from an eyewitness several years before he passed away, but I'd heard about little Bertha my whole life as a ghost tale, told and retold at spooky season. What made this Depression-era Appalachian ghost tale so scary was that by all accounts it was true. Years later, I researched and wrote about her, collecting photos and interviewing her cousin, Ralph, who went to school with Bertha and lived nearby. He recounted seeing the events you'll hear about in this episode....events so ghastly, no other family wanted to talk about them. News of her haunting spread worldwide, making her a child celebrity for a short period of time.  Listen and decide for yourself: hoax or haunted?


Original article published by Amy Clark in Blue Ridge Country Magazine
Photo by: Virgil Wacks courtesy of son Stephen Wacks
Music from Just Off the Wilderness Road

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Acoustic music: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain