Talking Appalachian, page 8
Figure 1. Locations of participants in the West Virginia Corpus of English in Appalachia.
1. The perfective done occurs when a speaker uses the word done to show that the action of the verb is definitely finished (e.g., “I done played with it”).
2. a-Prefixing is perhaps the most widely known feature of traditional varieties of Appalachian English (e.g., “It’s a-snowing down south”).
3. For-to infinitives use the words for and to with an unconjugated verb (e.g., “Because the teacher was glad for us to come in playing music now and then”).
4. The demonstrative them occurs when a speaker uses the word them to replace these or those when pointing out a noun (e.g., “All them young ladies”).
5. Pleonastic pronouns occur when speakers use a pronoun to summarize a preceding noun phrase rather than just allowing that noun phrase to function on its own as the subject of the sentence (e.g., “All those young ladies, they wanted to hold him”).
6. The leveled was happens when a speaker uses the word was with subjects that would take were in other varieties (e.g., “Your dad and uncle was coming down”).5
7. The deletion of word-final t’s and d’s occur when words like best are reduced to bes’.
8. The -ing variable is the previously mentioned variation between two nasal sounds (e.g., “I was walkin’ to town”).
9. Vowel mergers happen when different vowels are pronounced the same (e.g., pin~pen, cot~caught).
10. The quotative be like emerges when a speaker uses the combination of be like to introduce a quote (e.g., “They are like, ‘You speak English so well’”).
These ten variables include two types of language variation. The first type involves the effects of surrounding sounds. For instance, the deletion of word-final consonant clusters and the merger of vowels are affected by other sounds near them. The second type of language variation is affected by grammatical qualities—that is, certain grammar environments enhance or restrict variation. For example, the only language environment that affects the -ing variable is whether the attached words are gerunds, progressive verbs, or adjectives. Gerunds are nouns formed by adding the -ing suffix to a verb (e.g., “Walking is fun”); progressive verbs are those in which the -ing suffix indicates an ongoing action (e.g., “I am walking”); adjectives ending with -ing modify nouns (e.g., “walking shoes”). These different grammatical contexts influence this second type of language variation. For example, when used as a verb, the word walking may be pronounced walkin’, but the same speaker may employ the final -ing sound when using walking as a gerund.
The WVDP has examined eight dialect features that are influenced by grammatical factors. Some of these features were analyzed because of their strong stigmatization both inside and outside of Appalachia, as well as their prominence in media stereotypes of Appalachian English speakers. The Hillbilly Bears television show, for example, has drawn international attention to the perfective done variable, which outsiders believe is common in Appalachia.6 Others were analyzed because of their rising frequency (e.g., the quotative be like).
Perfective Done
The perfective done is one of the most stigmatized features. In a WVDP survey, sentences containing the perfective done were rated as the most “nonnormal” by native Appalachians. Accordingly, Kirk Hazen, Paige Butcher, and Ashley King note that the perfective done is commonly used in “racist or otherwise socially demeaning jokes.”7
The perfective done construction began in the Middle English period. This dialect feature deals with a verb quality called aspect. Aspect can be neutral (“She swims”), progressive (“She is swimming), or perfect (“She has swum”). The perfect aspect refers to a completed situation, and the perfective done emphasizes such completeness (e.g., “I done washed the dishes”).
Michael Montgomery points out that the perfective done was used in the more southern Smoky Mountain English in the twentieth century, citing such sentences as, “We thought Pa and Ma had done gone to church.”8 There is no evidence, however, that the perfective done was ever widespread in West Virginia. This feature was used only once among the oldest speakers in our corpus and once among the middle-aged speakers.
a-Prefixing
a-Prefixing is another highly stigmatized language feature whose usage is fading from regular speech in West Virginia. Scholars generally agree that the prefix a- is a weakened form of the preposition at or on.9 This feature is most commonly used with progressive verbs; however, it can also be found with other verb types, such as past participles.10 In addition, a-prefixing most often occurs in words with syllable initial stress. Five centuries ago, this feature was used to indicate an action that was occurring at the moment of speech; for example, “she’s at washing” meant “she is washing right now.” Today, it has lost that meaning; at most, Montgomery notes, it “highlights dramatic action,”11 as in the Golden Girls scene quoted earlier.
Although it is a renowned Appalachian feature, scholars’ findings clearly indicate that a-prefixing has been on the decline since the 1960s. In our studies, only six of eighty-three speakers used a-prefixing in their interviews (and we had to search outside the WVCEA to find these instances). These six speakers produced an a-prefixed form only fifteen times. As a further indication of its decline, none of the speakers was born after 1947. We predict that a-prefixing will be used more often in performances of Appalachian speech than in unself-conscious speech by native speakers.
For-to Infinitive
Another fading dialect feature is the for-to infinitive. The WVDP examined four types of this variable as defined by Michael Montgomery and Joseph Hall in the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English. All types include for and an infinitive form to—sometimes in combination with nouns (e.g., “Would you like for me to check your oil?”), and sometimes contiguously (e.g., “I had to pick up chestnuts for to buy what we had to wear”).12
Like a-prefixing, usage of for-to infinitives is limited. There were only fifteen instances in our corpus, and of these, only three were the more stigmatized types of for-to infinitives. The contiguous for-to version, which is the most strongly stigmatized, did not appear. This feature occurred almost exclusively in speakers born before 1947; only one speaker born after 1947 used the for-to infinitive. We can conclude that the for-to infinitive is in its twilight in West Virginia.
Demonstrative Them
Demonstrative determiners are words that modify nouns, often providing information about the noun’s quantity or proximity. For example, in the sentence “You can have these apples or those oranges,” one can infer that the speaker is talking about apples nearby and oranges farther away. The demonstrative them occurs when speakers use them as a demonstrative determiner (e.g., “We bought them Jeeps”) instead of these or those. At the start of the twentieth century, scholars in England noted that speakers so frequently used them as a demonstrative determiner that those rarely appeared in speech. There is no general consensus on the history of demonstratives in the English language, but the first written instance of the demonstrative them did not appear until the Early Modern English period (1596).13
Figure 2. Usage of the demonstrative them, by age and sex.
Although the demonstrative them continues to be the dominant form for many different English speakers around the world, it has become highly stigmatized in the United States. Not surprisingly, its usage seems to be diminishing in West Virginia. As can be seen in figure 2, the older speakers had the highest rates, especially older males. The decline of the demonstrative them was dramatic during the twentieth century, but it is holding on at low levels in West Virginia. The demonstrative them may still be used for social meanings, such as solidarity, or to express a rural identity. Our observations of some rural communities inform us that the demonstrative them is holding steady at its reduced rates.
Pleonastic Pronouns
In contrast to the preceding stigmatized features, which are on the decline in West Virginia, the use of pleonastic pronouns is holding steady. Pleonastic pronouns occur when a speaker follows a noun phrase with a related pronoun—for example, “Now Jerry, he messed up his hand.” Here, the pleonastic pronoun he restates the sentence’s subject. Pleonastic pronouns occur in several varieties of U.S. English, including some standard ones. In those varieties, pleonastic pronouns summarize preceding long noun phrases, whereas in vernacular dialects, pleonastic pronouns can also occur following short noun phrases.
Overall, pleonastic pronouns are not prolific, but they are not disappearing either. Both younger and older speakers use them. Our study found that this variable occurred most often when the noun was animate (e.g., a fish versus a doornail). In fact, of ninety-nine instances of pleonastic pronouns, only ten referred to inanimate subjects. This dialect feature seems to be gender related: it was used by nineteen females and twenty males, but females used the feature 54 percent more than males did (sixty instances versus thirty-nine). As a distinguishing characteristic, these speakers used pleonastic pronouns more often when the noun phrase in question was three words or less. For example, a speaker from Boone County stated, “And my mom, she works.”
Leveled Was
Although it is one of the oldest language variation patterns in English, predating Old English, usage of the leveled was declined dramatically in West Virginia during the twentieth century. The leveled was refers to use of the verb was for every subject, whether singular or plural (e.g., “They was like any other parents”). Historically, subject-verb agreement was much more extensive than it is today; English used to have several different suffixes for the verb to mark whether the subject was singular or plural. Now, the norm has become one past-tense form for both singular and plural subjects (e.g., “I walked”; “we walked”). The verb be is an anomaly, however, as it maintains the singular and plural past-tense forms was and were.14 Leveling verbs such as was to a single form helps resolve the asymmetrical patterns of subject-verb concord in the English language.
The results of the WVDP show that usage rates of the leveled was range widely (see figure 3). Some speakers never used it, while others used it nearly every time they could. Similar to the long-standing -ing variable, the leveled was is old enough that it is distributed across the entire social spectrum. The oldest speakers produced the leveled was significantly more often than younger speakers, however, indicating a decline in usage: 54 percent for the oldest speakers, compared with 8 percent for the youngest speakers.
Figure 3. Usage of the leveled was, by age and sex.
The WVDP found that the leveled was persists as a vernacular feature, despite schools’ continuing efforts for standardization. In part, younger speakers have camouflaged the leveled was by producing contracted forms such as “We’s there last night.”
T, D Deletion
Deletion of a word’s final t or d is a prevalent linguistic variable in West Virginia and in all Englishes around the world: for example, west side becomes wes’ side, or buzzed in becomes buzz’ in. Both the t and the d are coronal stops.
The factor that most influences whether the final consonant is reduced is the sound that follows it. This influence is true for English-speaking communities around the world. If the following sound is a consonant, the rate of deletion is 90 percent; if the following sound is a vowel, the rate of deletion is only 30 percent. For example, best buddy is reduced to bes’ buddy three times as often as best apple is reduced. The second most influential factor for West Virginia speakers is the quality of the sound that precedes the final consonant in a word. For example, words such as best, containing [s] before a word-final [t], are twice as likely to have their final consonant reduced than are words in which [k] precedes the final consonant, as in packed. Among individual speakers in our study, the rate of t or d deletion ranged from 46 to 87 percent. In other words, all speakers used it to some extent, but some speakers used it nearly twice as often as others. Because the lowest rate is still quite high, it seems that people do not employ this dialect feature to mark social differences. For other English dialects, final consonant deletion is socially diagnostic, especially before vowels. For these West Virginia speakers, however, this dialect feature has attracted little social attention.
-ing
Another stigmatized feature prevalent in West Virginia is the previously mentioned variation of -ing. The stigmatized variant occurs when a speaker uses an alveolar nasal [] instead of the velar nasal [n] in producing the -ing suffix (e.g., “Nobody’s tellin’”). This variable is partially the result of a sixteenth-century spelling merger for two separate suffixes—the -ende suffix for progressive verbs, and the -inge suffix for gerunds. Modern [´n] comes from the -ende suffix, and modern [´] comes from the -inge suffix. Today, -in’ is used more frequently in informal speech. Speakers in our corpus had a significantly higher rate of -in’ use in casual interviews than in the more formal reading passages.
This variable is common in Englishes around the world and was common in our study (we found nearly 7,000 instances).15 With such an old language variation pattern, usage varies greatly across speakers, with rates ranging from 1 to 96 percent. This range is a perfect example of how speakers use vernacular variants in specific ways to develop their own style of language. As one might predict based on the history of -ing, these speakers used -in’ more for progressives (e.g., “I was walkin’”) and -ing more for gerunds (e.g., “Walking is fun”), as can be seen in figure 4. These numbers point out that the gerund context is the most socially sensitive one.
Figure 4. Usage of the alveolar -ing (-in’) in progressive and gerund contexts, by economic class.
The WVDP found that -in’ was slightly more common among women (53 percent) than men (51 percent). It was also more common among southern West Virginians (59 percent) than northern West Virginians (46 percent).16 Those with no college experience tended to use -in’ more often (67 percent) than those with some college experience (45 percent). The highest use of -in’ occurred among speakers in the working class (see figure 4). For most communities in the United States and England, higher rates of -in’ are found among men in lower socioeconomic classes.17
Vowel Mergers
Vowel mergers occur when a speaker produces one vowel sound for two traditionally different vowels. Although the mergers appear to have originated in different places, they are now beginning to overlap in some parts of the United States, including West Virginia.
The WVDP investigated two vowel mergers in West Virginia: the front-lax merger and the low-back merger. The front-lax merger happens with the vowels in pit and pet. When they occur before nasal sounds, the two vowels are pronounced the same (e.g., tin~ten). The front-lax merger is traditionally a feature of the southern United States, but it is spreading out geographically. Previous studies indicate that the front-lax merger is stigmatized when associated with speakers who are less formally educated.18 The low-back merger occurs when the vowels in cock and caulk are pronounced the same (e.g., cot~caught). The low-back merger started in Pennsylvania and then expanded and stretched throughout the West. This merger is also spreading across West Virginia and Kentucky and regularly passes without social notice.19
West Virginians increasingly have both front-lax and low-back mergers. In a study of forty speakers who read specially crafted word lists, 10 percent had only the front-lax merger, 10 percent had only the low-back merger, and 48 percent had both vowel mergers. Having both mergers is most common among speakers with some college education who are female or are younger than twenty-five years. Given these social trends, having both mergers will likely become the norm in West Virginia.
Quotative Be Like
A relatively new dialect feature, the quotative be like, has made its way into West Virginia over the last few decades. Quotatives are used to introduce quotations: for example, “They were like, ‘You speak English so well,’” versus, “They said, ‘You speak English so well.’” It is believed that the quotative be like was originally used to introduce inner monologue and began on the West Coast. Now the quotative be like can introduce both inner monologue and direct speech. This feature has expanded very quickly around the world, and speakers have readily adapted it to suit their needs.20
The quotative be like is still under investigation by the WVDP, but several trends are clear. First, speakers’ use of the quotative be like ranged from 0 to 94 percent, demonstrating a highly variable community pattern. The speakers who used the quotative be like most often were uppermiddle-class, younger females from the northern part of the state who had some college experience. People with these social attributes have more connections to speakers and identities outside of Appalachia and, as a result, have imported and adopted the quotative be like variant more readily. The change was rapid in the final quarter of the twentieth century, with less than 1 percent of the older speakers using be like, 43 percent of the middle-aged group, and 65 percent of the younger group (see figure 5). Usage of say as a quotative (e.g., “She said, ‘I’m not going’”) dropped from 70 percent to 13 percent across the same age groups. Similar to vowel mergers, the results of the quotative be like study dispute the idea that Appalachia is an isolated speech community with an old-fashioned dialect.
