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From: NCLLP
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  • This is so true. People in West Virginia are the salt of the earth. We treat everyone as they deserve to be treated; as an equal. A stranger as a brother or sister, an elder as a mother or father. We enjoy helping people any way we can. It's unbelievably hurtful that we can be so helpful to people and still be ridiculed as hillbillies or uneducated hick. Our accents may be amusing at first but if you get past that, you will miss it when you leave.

  • Good people, God bless em all...

  • I love it!! I'm from cali the way I speak do not have the character like most part of the US!

  • These people kinda remind me of Puerto Rican jibaros. I mean the similarities are shocking.

  • This is amazing. Language really is an organic and living thing.

  • POPCORN! :D

  • In a crazy time like this in our cities, its so refreshing watching this and I would love to visit the appalachians and be twenty years behind for a while.

  • Katniss and Peeta right thur.

  • A boomer?!, Oh, that's a Warf Rat :)

  • Soady water!

  • Gotta love old popcorn sutton

  • I'm of Appalachian heritage on both sides of my family. My granddad often uses the word JARENTLY (meaning generally)

  • Nice to see such character and variety in this country.

  • hope ya'll get that Texan drawl.

  • I am proud to live in the Appalachians. There are many different dialects here in the East Tennessee mountains. It's a wonderful place.

  • Horse at 2:12 is like whats up mah niggas..

  • Sounds like a mix of Irish,Lowland scot and english,Smashed together.

  • @JordoF6 That's exactly what NC Appalachian dialect is...rather how it originated.

  • Is the first guy Popcorn Sutton? That guy is a legend!

  • Hahahahahahahaha, ahhhhhh haha hahahahahahahahahaha.

    Fine folk.

  • wow, didnt know people still talked that way, thought it was some weird old fashioned way from cowboy movies, as dead as the old posh english

  • @geordieinjapan oh, you can find some very interesting accents in the USA. It seems like everyone from GB or Europe thinks all americans talk in only one of 2 ways,,,,,,,like george bush or a valley girl (california).......there are hundreds of American accents. In a country this large it is inevitable

  • its sounds weird to hear this bein called weird lol this is how me an my whole family talks. hey youtube from east tennessee!

  • Qualifies as a dialect?

  • These seem like such lovely people. I'd definitely like to visit Appalachia someday.

  • The phrase "si googling" cracks me up, its so funny!!! I wonder if this thick accent is what Suzanne Collins had in mine when she said Katniss in her book the hunger games had an Appalachia accent

  • Delightful video! I would love to spend some time with these people.

  • you are not 20 years behind the whole country. the rest justdont get it

  • I use plumb all the time

  • I live in Southern Illinois and i am lucky enough to travel all over and what i find about accents and dialects is they vary everywhere and even just a few miles apart. Most of the people here at home came from E. Kentucky, E. Tennessee to work the coal mines and we still have that strong dialect. Tire is pronounced tar, y'all is common as well as yuins as is yuins goin to town? We are also very Scotch-Irish.

  • @trucker5933 its called ulster scots which i speak hello from northen ireland.

  • @kidri0t Hello Back!

  • Yeah I like my moped!!

  • hillbilly white trash LOL

    Descende from the orange rats who populate the north of my country. exterminate this scum

  • @crotchdonkey

    They all originate right here in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire in the Scottish Lowlands, they have given the US half of its presidents compared to one Irish catholic.

  • @ScottishLegendftp of course they have given the US half their presidents......because they are white anglo saxon prod, like the presidents descended from the english. what is your point anyway? 

  • @crotchdonkey

    Nah, they are Ulster Scots not Anglo Saxon.

  • @ScottishLegendftp the ulster scots, who came from the scottish lowlands, were mostly anglo saxon. the highlands were populated mostly by descendans of the picts, who were gaelicised.

  • @crotchdonkey

    Not what recent DNA testing shows, all Scots are largely Pict Saxon and Norse, no Gael anywhere.

  • @ScottishLegendftp What about Welsh, i.e. northern Goidelic British? Southern lowland Scotland is like England and Wales, a mixture of Welsh, Anglo-Saxon, Norse-Danish and French-Norman-Flemish. There's some Pict in Lothian and Gaelic in Ayrshire and don't forget the Galgaels! Us English are just as Celtic as everyone else in Britain even if most of us are unaware of it. Lowland Scots called themselves Inglis until c. 1400 but not many would recognise Anglian in their ancestry.

  • @ScottishLegendftp well clearly there is gael somewhere, or else how would scottish gaelic exist? 

  • @crotchdonkey

    The Gaels settled on the uninhabited West coast islands, every time they tried to come inland the Picts and Saxons kicked their ass, ultimately they forged with the Picts, Saxons and Norse to create the first Kingdom of Scotland, however Gaels were in the minority.

  • @ScottishLegendftp There is evidence of gaelic encroachments into pictland. There are many placenames indicating gaelic influence. To say that Scots Gaelic was only spoken on the island is completely false.

  • I grew up in the hills of East Tenn and am Cherokee and Irish,I served during VeitNam and still sound southern with my accent proud of it being southern .With a degree and married 46 years

  • i love this accent!!!

  • I can't watch this without smiling. :)

  • @ NCLLP Thanks for the post, I am from Asheville,N.C. and have lived in florida for 30 years now. I miss the talk and the mountains. Plan on moving back soon!

  • i've shared this video with my friends - maybe now they'll understand why i "talk funny". :)

  • hehe "plumb tuckered out". yeah :) my grandmother was fond of "i'll git to it dreckly".

  • suzanne collins (the hunger games author) said that katniss had this accent in the books

  • @hallelujiah101 yes she did but she got a lot about appalachia and coal mining and the people wrong.

  • Well I'm actually from Thailand but I spent a year as an exchange student in NC. I was surprised how local talked to me at first and had hard times understanding. It's just the same that they didn't understand my thick Thai accent. But you're right, those people are nice, honest and willing to help. I love Appalachian region and I love southern people :-)

  • @TheLittleStarlight: Glad you enjoyed your stay. Come on back anytime!

  • @PooPoo2U Thank you very much :-) I always dream of going back to North Carolina every day. I really miss the mountains and the nature ^_^

  • I, too, was born and bred in East Tennessee and I appreciate my hometown area. After moving away for 5 years, coming back reminded me of how hard-working, honest, and lovable the people here are. Maybe the language is hard for the "yanks" to understand, but it makes perfect sense to me. Like canisabc, I graduated magna cum laude and I'm intelligent. However, I've found IQ does NOT a "smart person" make. The *hillbillies* here have more common sense than a whole lot of "educated people".

  • Up there it's si-gogglin'. Down here it's all kittywompus.

  • Definitely Southern, no way out, even if it's also based in Nothern leaning states such as Pennsylvania.

  • was that GOOBER ?

  • Aye Law,I guess I am not the only one who knows all these phrases! I grew up in Candler,NC.Not far (10 miles?) from where this was filmed =) When we lose these elderly folks,we will lose a part of our heritage :( I am 29,and my Granny is 85 and I love her dearly. I will miss her when she goes.

  • I LOVE HIM! =) Pops we miss you darlin :) Daddy misses talking to you :( So do I pops =)

  • DON'T BE A PECKERWOOD and just make fun... Heard a Brooklyn accent lately?

    KEEP THE OLD SKILLS ALIVE! READ THE FOXFIRE MANUALS AND MAKE SUMPTHIN'. .... You can find them over yander in thuh libary. They are written exactly as they were dictated by our old "mountain folk" ,which makes them great..

  • Home sweet home :)

  • great folks!

  • 1:03

    FUCK DA POLICE!!

  • I think all get a bad rap actually somewhat, anyway I think it would be awful to compound them with southerners anyway their mountain folk, not planes folk, mountain folk.

  • Sounds like some of the old timers that live around me in western north carolina. Mountain folk.

  • im jelous of all you folks living in the appalachias and the south, i get the impression you guys keep your old values and culture, not conforming to the rest of the country which is shit, (Id know im from california) you guys get a bad rap from the media and shit... i just tell em to shut the fuck up

  • That one guy at 6:10 looks like Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites.

  • Appalachian english has been researched and found to be derived from Ireland.

    Then they traced the accent all around USA and found all southern accents comes from the Appalachian mountain area even what you hear from truckers and CB radio talkers. LOL The video is on PBS. After watching it was I like....WELL I BE DAMMED! LOL

  • My grandmother talked like this. She died in December. When I was a kid sometimes I'd ask my Dad, what the heck was she saying? lol. We miss her.

  • Thank GOD I was borne and raised in this part of the country. I wish it could stay like it was when i was growing up. But it is getting worse every year.

  • My mama always said hit for it, others she said ..haint for aint, dope for soda water, ye for you, fer meant far, yander for yonder, fer topper meant people who lived on the top of the mountain, poke meant sack, yore meant your, so many others I have forgotten through the years...I long to hear her sweet Irish talk again...I miss her ...and the mountains of Tennessee where my great great Irish grandparents first settled long ago. I love the fresh mountain air and simple way of life...

  • sounds like australian

  • im not an american nor an English native speaker; however, i love the way Appalachian English sounds.

  • Music to my ears!

  • Wonderful! I live in the mountain region of Maryland a stone's throw from West Virginia. We have many dialects within our state but the western region is in the Appalachian chain and we use many similar words as those displayed in this video.

  • I thought they only used poke in the North east of England! Nice to see it is used on the other side of the Atlantic too.

  • I thought they only used poke in the North east of England! Nice to see it is used on the other side of the Atlantic too

  • Many Southern Appalachian words are straight from Old English; 'hit' in place of it. Poke is from Chaucer. I recognize these words since I am from the Southern Appalachians, but I never heard 'si-gogglin'

  • im from vienna, austria and i cant understand anything

  • I understand everything said in this video, and I'm a Marylander by birth and raised.

  • we use the word "dope" where i come from too, it means something completely different though!

  • Best part of this video by far: "yeah I like my moped" *takes off on moped.*

    At any rate, sweet dialect. Sounds cool.

  • I live in East Tennessee and I love stepping out on my back porch in the morning and looking over to the misty Smokey Mountains. I was born and raised here and I love my southern accent and it doesn't make me "stupid" or white trash. I am a college student majoring in chemistry with an emphasis in pre-medicine, I currently have a GPA of 4.1 and when I was in the sixth grade I had a reading level that matched a college senior's and I speak just like the people in the video. I love our accent.

  • @canisabc

    Well, I am a northerner with a 2.6 GPA. I am not stupid, just lazy.

  • @canisabc not to burst your bubble but most "real" Universities don't allow for a GPA to be above 4.0... an "A" is an "A" at least at UT Knoxville... might be different at a non-accredited place or a community college

  • @Choraligame It's okay, your right. I go to WSCC and they don't post our grades until way after the semester has ended. I calculated the 4.1 from the scores my professors gave me. I don't have a problem admitting when I am wrong and I miscalculated. It's my 2nd semester and I didn't know about the 4.0 GPA cap. My grades were posted and my GPA is actually 3.9, which I will be bringing up before I apply to ETSU. You go to UT?  I like the campus but it's still a little bit to chaotic for me.

  • @canisabc I am an older guy i live in middle tennessee close to you probably and i love our accents as well and especially the old timers like the grandparents and such alot of my family still living that simple life me on the other hand i try to live as modern as possible being stuck in a small town it is hard though LOL like idk what i would do without my internet and my pc but then again it would be great to be off the grid entirely

  • Comment removed

  • @canisabc You have a 4.1 GPA? What grade scale is that based on? If it's an 11 point system, you would have a C-..... ?

  • @peachesnpeaches Most likely canisabc goes to a school that uses by a 5.0 scale. Most, if not all Universities in the region he/she mentioned use that specific system. It would, in other words, be more like an A.

  • @canisabc how do you have a 4.1 in college?!

  • @TbredGrits91

    I don't. I corrected my statement. I am new to the world of college and I calculated my gpa just like I would have in high school. I calculated it as a weighted gpa and I shouldn't have done that. I now realize how stupid I have made myself sound. lol I wish I could edit that comment.

  • @canisabc I understand! I'm southern as well and I always feel like people think we're stupid.

  • @canisabc You go to the heights!!! Never stop. Proud of your accomplishments and your love of your people.

  • Comment removed

  • I understand every word :) I'm Texan -- we have some similar ways of talking :)

  • chewing gum - english ...

  • can anyone tell me what the guy said from 3:43 to 3:55?

  • Comment removed

  • @nocs111 He says something along the lines of :

    They'll stand back and look and they'll say "that thing's si-gogglin'." They'll say "I want you to look." and say "what is it?" if you're building some kind of a building and say "that's si-gogglin' right yonder." And the same if that old road is going up yonder. They'll say "'that thing's si-gogglin."

    He's basically just saying that people use the term "si-gogglin'" to describe poorly built/ crooked buildings or winding roads; anything crooked.

  • I have a few relatives that sound like this. I have weened myself from speaking like this for the most part, but it still comes out a bit when I get pissed off at someone.

  • Durp

  • Interesting...where i live in the UK we say eving a a gog or gleggin at for having a look at. You folks should just value this. Here dialect changes lots in the space of 20 miles, so it's maybe in us to pick up on the differences and adjust to what folks are saying. It's what folks think that counts, not the way they say it.

  • @kingsindiandefence yeah, it was the same way here before "roads" and the "21st century" came along. here in the mountains it was so isolated, that people one one side of a mountain spoke a little different that folks on the other side of the same mountain, and people that lived up in one "holler" (slang version of the word "hollow", as in a small sheltered valley) spoke a different dialect than people in another holler. (and anybody that says that there is a "correct" english..i say BULLSH*T)

  • do these people even know how to read? they sure don't sound like it.

  • Comment removed

  • @mike7743 not called for ........ this is part of America ---- respect it

  • @Yizlanu fuck off.

  • @mike7743 bravo good old standard American english :)

  • @Yizlanu lol, I'm humbled by your sense of humor.

  • @mike7743 What does speaking a regional dialect have to do with someone's ability to read?

  • HA! I understood every word. Damn I love the south.

  • this accent is freakin legendary!

  • I have lived all over place. I chose to come back to KY. Like she said, I'd just as soon be in hell with my back broke than live in any of the places I've lived. When I was living and working in California, New York and Chicago, I kept my KY accent. They made the mistake of assuming that my accent denoted low intelligence, their assumption resulted in my financial gain and their loss.

  • I think my ears are bleeding now.

  • accent does not determine intelligence.  It just is that usually the thicker the accent the less education they have. Most people that go into higher education try and lose the accent in order to be more marketable

  • @michael28150 accents may get more marketable in the future... uniquness is great... BTW this accent is awesome! :-)

  • Did you know that "Mountain Talk" is the closest root of Shakespearean English? It completely changed my conception of the notion of an unclean language.

  • @theatopera Yeah, did you also know that Shakespearean English has its roots in how SOME black people speak otherwise known as ebonics...that usually surprises most people.

  • @mxzyspitlik

    Ebonics was invented (yes, invented, prior to that black Americans spoke exactly like their white neighbours) in the 1900's. Claiming Shakespearean English was influenced by it is is an anachronism.

  • @theatopera No, because it's not true. That's just a myth. There's nothing wrong with it either though.

  • Mom and Dad moved from NE Indiana down to central KY, She hated to go,thought people would be backwards, Both mom and dad couldn't believe how nice and helpful the people in KY are,

    Both wished they would have moved down 40 years ago,

    Great folks in the south,

  • I could understand everything these folks said, but that's probably because I was watching them say it. When I lived in West Virginia, I had some real difficulties understanding certain people on the telephone. I guess it just takes getting used to.

  • I've "purt neer" lost the dialect I grew up hearing my older family members speak, but the music of their language will live in me always. RIP Great Aunts Bertie and Frances. 

  • Lol --I hadn't thought of "Si-gogglin' " in years! In the area of eastern Tn. where I grew up we add the letter H to words that don't usually have it --as in H'yonder,H'ain't & H'it. Yonder ain't and it. :-) And of course H'ain't isn't to be confused with a haint..which is a ghost or spook.

  • I think I'd fall in love with these people lol! I love their accents!

  • I have a Upper Midwest accent. Most commonly known from the film Fargo. However, my accent is very weak compared to the folks that live in Northern Minnesota. Any woman or man over the age of 50 and living north of St. Cloud has a very deep "Fargo" accent.

  • As an Appalachian and an English as a Second Language teacher, I sometimes use this to illustrate the diversity of English dialects. Really, I think that the Appalachian dialect, like much of the region, is maligned by the rest of the country and the local culture should be studied more.

  • Its popcorn.

  • Well done to the documentary maker. This stuff could have been lost or forgotten. Most envious of those people and their lifestyles. Who else here is willing to admit it?!

  • My whole family is from this region, and I understood every word. At least these people say what they mean and are who they say they are. What you see is what you get. Too bad the rest of the country isnt like them.

  • My whole family is from this region, and I understood every word. At least these people say what they mean and are who they say they are. What you see is what you get. Too bad the rest of the country isnt like them.

  • I tried for a job and i it was bilingual and the wanted to know what i spoke and i told them southern and english / i didn't get the job dangit

  • I haint seed nary better-un than this. Thank ye Kindly.

  • A lot of my relatives speak like this, but they aren't Appalachians. I guess they just have a really deep southern accent. I have one, but it's not as nuanced.

  • it seems these people are real southerners :)

  • My entire family is from the Appalachians(me excluded).

  • that looks like the life

  • I grew up in cabin creek, WV & of course I understood every single word! The majority of my family speaks just like that & I tend to do so when I'm drunk or sleepy lol. Watching MTV when I was younger caused me to purposely change the way I spoke as well as English class. Don't get me wrong now** I still adore my people!

  • Plum, Poke, Stout,Yonder, are all words spoken in England in past times. My Grandad would say "look yonder" "A pig in a poke" Interesting. I wonder how Americans spoke 300 years ago ?

  • Couldn't get nothing. I'm from Russian (native Russian) and interesting in English and it's accents.

    I wanna tell u, that's it so f**** hard to recognize the meanings of familiar words!

    Can somebody help me to handle with that, plz?

  • 7 peckerwoods

  • Sody water<3

  • My dads family are hillbillys.

    Mamaw is real country she was born in a two room log cabin with no electricity.

  • They talk like that in Swannee county Florida too.

  • my mom's family is from Fentress, Tennessee, they sound like that too, even though i'm not sure if Fentress county is on the Appalachians

  • @nitrate88 - Barely but yes. Fentress County is on the western edge of the Appalachians.

  • A lot of these words are just southern words. My parents were from GA and they both used words like this. I had to laugh at "poke" because my mom still uses that word to this day. But their ancestors did come from this are (NC) so I guess some of that moved with them. (And my granny always used to call Coke "dope." lol)

  • My grandpa was second generation Kansas farmer with family from County Cork, Ireland, and he'd always say "het up" instead of "heated up." Example: We're gonna het up some supper an eat.

  • yall come n go with us will watch the snake feeders n gather ramps n poke salad

  • God Bless you Popcorn

  • I dwell mostly in L.A., but there's just something refreshing and comforting about these folks.

  • @Wpatri04 I agree. Wish I was there but as a local not an outsider. Kind of comforting to think about their ease with being behind these chaotic times.

  • My mom and dad are from Kentucky. I understand every word they say.

  • @awm4151 My dad's family is from Kentucky, and I understand them too.

  • @awm4151 I'm from Romania , I'm living in Charlotte NC. I wasn't even born in the US and I still understand every word they say.

  • hill billy

  • @10:12 He makes a good point. I live in a large city. I don't like my neighbors, don't associate with them. I don't want to get to know people and they don't want to get to know me, but I'm happy this way because people stay the fuck out of my business and I'm more than happy to stay out of theirs.

  • Poke.. that is interesting. The Icelandic word for bag or sack is 'Poka', pronounced almost the same.

  • @TimmYayhooray Supposedly our use of "poke" stems from a hardened pronunciation of "pouch". (see the ch/k exchange between English "cheese" and Frisian "tsiis", vs German "käse" and Dutch "kaas")

  • You know this isn't all that far off from accents you hear in newfoundland, canada.

  • Lots of folks in Oklahoma talk exactly like this. Pretty much all of my older relatives sound almost identical.

  • @sanjuancb Yes, that's it! I JUST commented, saying the same thing (leaving out the Oklahoma part), but my folks are from Oklahoma too, and they sound identical to the Appalachian accent.

  • @kittykatt1311 Arkansas,Oklahoma and east Texas were settled by many ppl. From the mountains. So, yes it is a very closely related dialect. :-)

  • I am stunned by the judgment of the people writing these messages. What makes people think that speaking Appalachian sounds uneducated? I speak "Hoosier" with a smattering of Appalachian. However, people listen to what I say, not how I say it, and I am quite successful in my line of work (I'm a social worker, but still, I am in administration). People do notice that I speak differently, but they don't focus on that. If ya'll are judging people based on their accent, how close-minded!

  • @ayboyer: You´re right. Don´t judge people by the language/accent they speak. I like how people speak English differently. Greetings from Germany!

  • @ayboyer you are a social worker how hard is it to be

    "successful in your line of work" and yes they sound like hillbillies. They say it in the documentary. All of these people are hicks and should be pumping my gas.

  • @Kathari199 Appalachia produces statesmen, astronauts, MDs, and PhDs. I and my husband are both scientists (biology and chemistry). I was Phi Theta Kappa in college and maintained a 3.75 GPA. I speak Appalachian, Queens English with proper diction and dialect, Hebrew, and Spanish. I also performed in Master Works Chorale. Yet you feel we should pump your gas because of DIALECT? So, will that be regular or high octane Your Haughtiness? To borrow a fav phrase from the UK...Oh do piss-off!

  • @aranelinya Phi Theta Kappa is the junior college honor society. Did you mean Phi BETA Kappa?

  • @NoOptionsAvailable No.  I meant Phi Theta Kappa. I was a single mother of three, having lost my husband some years earlier, and paying my own way through college. So in the interest of fiscal prudence, I did my first two years of college at community before transferring to a four (plus) year institution. I pledged to Phi Theta Kappa because of their devotion to scholarship, leadership, fellowship, and most importantly to service. I am still a very big fan of volunteerism to this day. =)

  • @Kathari199 Oh, I see now. I visited your channel, investigated your comments around you tube and now I understand. You are just a sad little troll in need of attention. Okay then here's a big ole' Appalachian bear hug fer ye! *MWWWAAAHHHH!!!!* (hug) Now quitch-yer bitchin and grab some swirl or jump in yer limo an don't let the door hit cha in th' arse. Toodles Troll! This conversation is ended.

  • @Kathari199 - so you judge yourself to be better than these fine folk just because of the way you talk? It don't matter... we'd change your flat tire and feed ya just the same, so's you can be goin' about your business. We got no use for ya here. And I'll allow we're a happier bunch than where you come from.

  • @FridayTN Okay...just so a guy from out West can understand..."allow" means what here?  "Guess?"