Thar be Folklore in them hills...

"The land is so steep you can skin your nose walkin' up it!" ~Appalachian sayin'

I'm taking an English Language class right now, and for one of our assignments, we have to do a dialect report on a variety of English: I picked Appalachian English, and in my studying found some interesting things that I think are relevant to American folklore:

1. Many of the stories we hear from certain regions really lose their flavor if they aren't told in the proper setting and with the original accent. At some point, the context of folklore becomes more memorable than the folklore item itself. And this is for stories that are still being told in English, our native language! Imagine how different an experience it would be to hear and understand a Native American story told in a Native American tongue with Native American signs in an authentic setting, as opposed to reading the mispelled Wikipedia version in English.

2. There are words and structures in the Appalachian dialect which an outsider would consider to be old-fashioned, out-dated, or perhaps simply wrong. However, the very fact that these are regularly used and understood without any problem among the speakers themselves indicates their unity as a high context group in folklore. It's fun to imagine the esoteric/exoteric factor at work here too: Sometimes I wonder what they must think of us with our "high-falutin' city talk." Isn't language another aspect of folklore? Why, then, do we judge people on some of their folkloric traditions and not on others? Why is it okay for us to eat different foods and like different movies, but we have to correct people when they say something ungrammatically correct?

3. Why aren't there any well-known actors or actresses who actually speak the Appalachian dialect? Why don't we have more movies about the Appalachian people?

If you want to learn more about the Appalachian dialect, I highly recommend this website. I also had fun reading "Christy" early this semester.