Caption: A photo from George’s childhood, showing Peter and George fishing.
D&E Student Blog: This blog post was written by a D&E student, Ana Ubalde, in the ENGL 101 course as a collaboration with Augusta.
We was going to fix lasagna for supper, but it’s too hot to bake, says my neighbor Marie. Too bad that it was hot, because she’s an amazing cook. Marie used to be my husband’s nanny, and she and her husband, Peter, not only cared for him, but shaped George’s personality greatly during his first five years. Now, I am pleased to spend time with them as well. Back in August last year, when we moved here, communication among us was hard. I am from Mendoza, Argentina, so English is not my first language. “They was gonna come visit but the weather got bad,” Marie would say, and I couldn’t help but get extremely confused. I kept asking George: why do Marie and Peter keep saying “we was” or “they was”? And he’d say, “it’s considered old fashioned English.” No way, I thought. They’re using the language wrong. My mind, a victim of a rigid style of learning a language, couldn’t understand that, in fact, this way of speaking was derived from an older version of English and has remained as a dialect in Appalachia.
In first grade, my English teacher taught me that “he,” “she,” and “it” go with “was.” “We,” “you,” and “they” go with “were.” And who was I to question her knowledge? To me, until last year, variations in grammar were simply “wrong.” As I started spending more time with my neighbors, I noticed that nobody was correcting their expressions, and so I had to reconsider my assumptions. Maybe they speak the way they do because there’s a heritage and identity they want to express. Maybe they refused to adopt academic forms because their expressions bring them comfort and a sense of belonging. Or maybe they just don’t notice it, nor find in them a sense of “shame.” Whatever their reason is to speak the way they do, it deserves respect. Language embodies and expresses culture. Now that I live in Appalachia, I’m learning about this dialect, its intricacies and uniqueness. To me, learning about the Appalachian dialect highlights the diversity of the English language and helps me better understand Appalachian people and honor the place where I live.
If Miss Margarita back from English class in Argentina could hear how people speak here, she would get rid of them English books along with her standardized teaching. Sometimes these differences may seem like grammatical mistakes. For example, here people sometimes say “be” instead of “are.” Them dogs be barking all night long, they won’t let me sleep, as Peter says. Or they may employ double negation: “I ain’t got no money.” Other times people have unique expressions. My favorite one is, “Holler if you need anything, sweetheart,” which Peter tells me while I walk out their porch and back home. These are just a few examples of many from Appalachian English.
One of the most important lessons I learned from my Linguistics class is that all dialects are valid, and they make languages vaster. Certain dialects receive more prestige than others, which is a result of power relations: “Societal pressures to conform to a standard language or the dominance of a particular dialect can lead to the decline or even extinction of some dialects” (“The Power of Dialects”). The Appalachian dialect has grouped people under negative stereotypes, “the illiterate ways,” as my English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor warned the class: “Ain’t” isn’t a word, it belongs to the uneducated. Yet this isn’t an authentic or fair representation of the Appalachian people. In fact, this repression of the dialect reflects broader cultural and historical oppression. In an article published in Yes! Magazine, reporter Ivy Brashear said that: “At the turn of the 20th century, the coal industry wanted to extract as much coal and wealth from the mountains as they possibly could. So, they worked with local politicians and national media makers to cast mountain people as either backward, ignorant, and dangerous, or as simple-minded folk in need of a strong hand.” Convenient, right? But I find it repulsive. Brashear adds that “When a place and its people are cast as lesser, it makes it a whole lot easier to justify taking everything from them.” Both the natural resources of Appalachia and the dignity of its people have been systematically taken advantage of and ridiculed over the years. Therefore, their dialect can also be seen as a form of resistance against their exploiters.
Amanda Hayes, an assistant professor of English at Kent State University-Tuscarawas, writes in The Politics of Appalachian Rhetoric that language always functions within a context. In other words, it connects us to our past and shapes how we think, experience and understand the world (58-59). As the scholar notes, this way of speaking has preserved their past and ways of incorporating knowledge. And, despite the initial challenges I faced to understand some of these expressions and accent, I now feel intrigued to learn more about Appalachians, because I can appreciate their traditions and folklore not only through what they say but also how they say it. And, I can incorporate more vocabulary that has significance for the local community.
Many times, stereotypes towards people in Appalachia misrepresent the truth of their experiences. My neighbors created a beautiful family: they had two daughters, Lisa and Georgia, and each of them had one kid. These wonderful beings not only developed exceptionally in life, but they have also attended (or are currently studying) at prestigious schools such as MIT and Stanford University. Yet one day I had to hear my brother-in-law, Nathan, say: “I can’t believe they came from Marie and Peter, who are the most country people out there.” And I wondered about the connotations associated with the word “country.” Was Nathan implying that they shouldn’t have been able to raise a family that valued higher education? If so, why? A possible explanation is the stigma which these people are usually associated with. For Hayes, “Appalachian speech, typified in terms like ‘I seen’ and ‘we/they was,’ was perceived as reflecting a lack of education, an ignorance of correct English and by extension, correct social values […] This dialect wasn’t being seen as a dialect, it was just a mistake” (52). As the author points out, people from Appalachia were seen as lacking proper education and manners.
Moreover, in today’s American culture, the term “country” carries a lot of baggage where there’s an increasing political divide between those who live in rural and urban areas. What each sector values can be radically different and worsens the polarization between them. Nadine Hubbs, a cultural historian and professor at University of Michigan, explains in Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music that “Members of the working class have a high school education, maybe some college, and are employed in service jobs or manual labor. The upper middle class, while growing, has also been consolidating—its members, marrying partners with high levels of education like their own and living in affluent neighborhoods among people like themselves” (31). This evidence helps us demystify the stereotypes associated with people from rural areas. To use the word “country” as an example, it implies that they’re not going to seek an education but that’s wrong. The perception of formal education as a means of reaching status and power contrasts with the prejudice faced by those who don’t attend college and are considered to develop a lifestyle where education “isn’t relevant.” And Marie and Peter are a clear example of that, despite the stigma around being country, anyone can raise families that will prioritize and promote the benefits of high-quality education.
As I consider these factors, I think of my personal experience with the Appalachian dialect. When you learn a new language, you create certain expectations and have some confidence that one day you’ll be able to easily communicate in a foreign country, often ignoring the difficulties that we might encounter. Those can usually be the dialects that sometimes feel like decoding a message while having a conversation. At times I think to myself, where did all the years I spent studying English go? Then I remember that speaking a language is a continuous activity; it never ends. The benefit of being exposed to this regional variation is adding several expressions and words to my vocabulary, which only makes it broader and allows me to communicate better with more people. Not to mention how good it can make someone feel if a foreign person learns their local sayings. For some, it can be special. As an immigrant, having an immersive experience where I live is vital to develop a sense of belonging. I don’t imply that I will speak Appalachian English, but I will make the effort of understanding the community better. Through using and studying of a language, I learn to honor this place that has welcomed me with open arms. I honor Marie and Peter who show us nothing but uninterested, genuine love and have never made me feel different for having an accent. I honor their history, of the ones that I now call “family.”
*Note: Pseudonyms have been used in place of real names throughout this article.
D&E Student Bio: My name is Ana Ubalde and I am from Argentina. I am 28 years old, and after a long break I decided to return to school and finish my degree in Communication at Davis & Elkins College. Living here has shown how generous and caring of a community Elkins has and I’m enjoying every second in this beautiful West Virginia town.
Works Cited
Brashear, Ivy. “The Lies We’re Told About Appalachia.” Yes! Magazine, 12 Nov. 2019, www.yesmagazine.org/issue/building-bridges/2019/11/12/the-lies-were-told-about-appalachia?utm_source=chatgpt.com. Accessed 28 Jun. 2025.
Hayes, Amanda E. The Politics of Appalachian Rhetoric. West Virginia University Press, 2018. pp. 52-59.
Hubbs, Nadine. Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music. University of California Press, 2014.
“The Power of Dialects: Linguistic Diversity and Its Importance in Society.” xpertno, 23 Apr. 2023, www.xpertno.com/sift/the-power-of-dialects-linguistic-diversity-and-its-importance-in-society. Accessed 28 Jun. 2025.