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Research shows modern Appalachian language is not so different after all.
By JOHN CUTLIP
SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Rural West Virginians just don't talk right.
But studies show that no one in America does either.
Language expert and West Virginia University professor Kirk Hazen knows that the state has the same lingual diversity as any other. The problem is that many people do not look past its unique speech patterns because of media stereotyping.
He has contributed to a book, "Talkin' Appalachia," a collection of research that examines special speech practices of Appalachians.
The results show that West Virginia is not so different after all.
Since 1998, Hazen and his students have broken down talking habits in the English language. They studied uncommon speech practices, such as adding an "a" to the beginning of a word, and compared them to how individuals pronounce words in Appalachia.
"Help me with reddin' up the house."
The pronunciation of the word "redding" in the example is alveolar, a fancy name for losing the "g" sound in an "ing" word.
Variety of usage
Hazen said differences in speech like this are widespread in West Virginia. "But that does not mean that everyone in the state speaks that way, nor is it unique to us," he said.
In fact, he explained, the phrase "red up a house" is specifically common to Southwestern Pennsylvania, an area just on the edge of Appalachian America.
Hazen's most recent study was shown at November's New Ways of Analyzing Variation Conference in Columbus.
The research showed that unique speech habits in the English language were just as common in West Virginia as they were in other parts of the United States.
"Occurrences in which a speaker drops the last consonant sound at the end of a word, such as the 't' in 'past," happen all over America," Hazen said.
The study, an Empirical Assessment to Modern Appalachian English, includes other unusual speaking habits. A-prefixing, pronouncing a verb as "we will go a-walking," and pleonastic pronouns, unnecessary pronouns in a sentence such as the word "he" in the sentence, "my brother, he went to school," were found to be common West Virginian traits.
Presentation
The study by Hazen and WVU undergrads Ashley Wise, Ross Israel and Kylie Edmond was submitted to "Talkin' Appalachia" and will be featured in the upcoming Sen. Rush D. Holt History Conference, an annual gathering that focuses on current events.
Hazen, director of the West Virginia Dialect Project at WVU, has access to many resources, such as the library of books lining his office in Stansbury Hall. He recommended reference materials such as the Dictionary of Smokey Mountain and the Dictionary of American Regional English to help decipher some of the phrases used by Appalachia natives.
"If someone were to tell you to 'red up a house,' they would want you to start cleaning," he said. "And if someone gave you directions 'as the crow flies,' they are giving you distance over a straight line, not road distance."
Other pieces, such as Walt Wolfram and Donna Christian's "Appalachian Speech" published in 1976, have also added to his own research.
An entry in the book includes the phrase, "They raised what they eat," for example, which means someone is hard working. Another section documents speakers not using plurals, like in the word "pound" in "Ten hundred pound of nails."
"The book is good, but it's outdated," Hazen said.
New outlook
He hopes the upcoming book "Talkin' Appalachia" will be a more modern answer to understanding Appalachian language and culture, even though the roots of the trend date back to the turn of the century.
Hazen said West Virginia was beginning to build a reputation as the nation's hub for illiterate mountain folk and hillbillies around 1890, even though the state was just as rural as Pennsylvania or Ohio. Popular media like the Snuffy Smith cartoon from the 1930s, which portrayed a poor hillbilly family, only added to the hype, he said.
Professor Ronald L. Lewis, a historian from WVU, has been studying the effects of stereotyping and media on the state's history. The stereotyping has progressed over the years, reaching a climax during the extensive media coverage of the Sago Mine disaster on Jan. 2, 2006, Lewis said.
"When something big happens in rural Central West Virginia, such as Sago, it becomes the rest of the nation's picture of the state," he said.
An Ohio native, Lewis grew up in a coal mining family and studies why the Appalachians that represent the stereotype of West Virginia do what they do. "For example," he explained, "a native holding onto economically failing property is representing his family and defending his pride, even though it may be financially foolish. They don't do things wrong, just differently." Lewis is to be honored for his work in the Holt Conference.
"Talkin' Appalachia" is still in its preliminary stages, and no release date is available. It is to be published by the University of Kentucky Press, Louisville, Ky.

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