People who live in the heart of the Appalachia region, which spreads across the mountains of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and into parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and eastern Tennessee, can easily be identified by their dialect.
It still amazes me that when we travel away from the area, people can guess where we are from based on our accent. They seem to know immediately that we are from the south or Appalachian Mountain region. At the same time, when someone comes into our town and has a city accent or northern dialect, we do the same. We might say, “You’re not from these parts, are you?”
My wife Vicki and I still use words from our past, which are typically mountain terms or phrases. We laugh at how we know what they mean, but others may look at us like we are speaking a foreign language.
Here are a few of these terms.
Light bread – I’m gonna make a baloney (bologna) sammich (sandwich) out of “light bread.” I always joke and ask Vicki if the bread is light enough to float.
I want a glass of “sweet milk” as opposed to buttermilk. This is what most today call whole milk or 2% white milk. How many of you ate crumbled-up cornbread in a glass of “sweet” milk while growing up?
Sop — I’m going to “sop” up my gravy with these fresh baked buttermilk biscuits.
Mushmelon — This word is the same as cantaloupe. But many old-timers and I still call it a mushmelon.
“Oh lawdy be” — This basically means “Oh my goodness” or that someone is surprised. It is something that Vicki said her late aunt Nelly used a lot while she stayed with her when growing up.
“Poke” — If you have a small poke of candy, you have a little paper bag of whatever you may be carrying.
Co-cola — This means Coca-Cola or Coke, the caffeinated soft drink. Which of course we call pop in our region, but if you go away from here, you may hear the word soda. “I ordered a co-cola for lunch with my slaw dog.)
Of course, depending on where you live, you may want a bottle of “pop” or a can of “soda.” This is definitely a regional thing.
“Ate Up” – A definition of this is that someone is infected or allergic. Like, “Bob is ate up with the poison ivy. Or another use of this term means he could even be ate up with envy.
“Skittish” — This means nervous. The boy was skittish when asked by his teacher to recite a poem.
“Spell” — This has multiple meanings. It could be used as “sit a spell” or have a rest for a while. Or she sure had a spell, which meant being lightheaded or dizzy. “The woman had a spell in the store.”
“Plumb” — He was plumb tired out after cutting those weeds, which means completely.
Growing up you may have heard your parents or grandparents say they needed to pay the “juice” bill or the “light” bill. Of course they were talking about the electric or power bill.
If Vicki gets upset at me over messing with the thermostat, I might say she is pitching a “hissy fit.”
At the same time she might say I’ve got a “burr under my saddle.” Which means I am irritable and aggravated at something.
You’re lower than a snake’s belly, which means they don’t think much about a person and they feel they are low in character. The same goes for saying that someone is “a snake in the grass.” Which also can mean they are a sneaky individual prowling around your property.
“Holler” — This refers to a hollow, a small road that many of us grew up on. Of course it is a narrow valley sheltered and squeezed between two steep mountains or hills.
Vicki and I still laugh at the time we were at Myrtle Beach when we first got married. We went into a sub shop to get a sandwich. When she was telling the food server what to put on her sub he asked her if she wanted any mustard or mayonnaise. She said just a “smidge.” With a puzzled expression he looked at me as if I needed to translate. I told him she just wanted a little bit of the condiment he was offering. He just smiled and finished the sandwich.
It just shows you that, even in our own country, different regions have different dialects and words.
Appalachian English is still a type of language native to our beloved Appalachian mountain region of the United States. Historically, the term Appalachian dialect refers to a local variety of language used in southern Appalachia.
Regardless of where you live in West Virginia, Kentucky, or other parts of the region, we are all blessed with a bit of that southern twang and our own use of certain vocabulary, their definitions and phrases. I am sure many of our readers have some of your own that you can recall or still use.
Until next time.
(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)