1 Hans Kurath, A Word Geography of the Eastern United States (Ann Arbor, 1949); Craig M. Carver, American Regional Dialects; A Word Geography (Ann Arbor, 1987); Robert F. Dakin, “South Midland Speech in the Old Northwest,” JEL 5 (1971), 31-48; C. Williams, “Appalachian Speech,” NCHR 55 (1978), 174-79.

2 Virginia Gazette, 22 Oct. 1772; Bridenbaugh, Myths and Realities, 169.

3 An early description of backcountry speech ways—so early as to capture the language of the immigrants who had arrived in the 18th century—was made by the American traveler Anne Royall, after a visit to the region which she fancifully called “Grison republic,” and is now the state of West Virginia:
   “To return to my Grison republic,” she wrote, “their dialect sets orthography at defiance, and is with difficulty understood; for instance, the words by, my, rye, they pronounce as you would ay. Some words they have imported, some they have made out and out, some they have swapped for others, and nearly the whole of the English language is so mangled and mutilated by them, that is hardly known to be such. When they would say pretence, they say lettinon, which is a word of very extensive use amongst them. It signifies a jest, and is used to express disapprobation and disguise; ‘you are just lettinon to rub them spoons—Polly is not mad, she is only lettinon.’ Blaze they pronounce bleez, one they call waun, sugar shugger;‘and is this all it ye got?’ handkerchief hancorchy, (emphasis on the second syllable); and ‘the two ens of it corned loose’; for get out of the way, they say, get out of the road: Road is universally used for way; ‘put them cheers, (chairs) out of the road.’ But their favorite word of all, is hate, by which they mean the word thing; for instance, nothing,‘not a hate—not wann hate will ye’s do.’ What did you buy at the stores ladies? ‘Not a hate—well you hav’nt a hate here to eat.’ They have the hickups, and corp, (corpse), and are a (cute) people. Like Shakespeare they make a word when at a loss: scawm’d is one of them, which means spotted.” Anne Royall, Sketch of the History, Life and Manners in the United States (New Haven, 1826), I, 53; for other early descriptions of this dialect see “Skitt,” [H. E. Taliaferro], Fisher’s Rover (North Carolina) Scenes and Characters (New York, 1859); and Ralph Steele Boggs, “North Carolina Folktales …,” JAF 47 (1934), 268-88.