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Coal Mines of the Appalachians

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  • Member since
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Posted by selector on Saturday, March 3, 2018 1:38 PM

I hope nobody minds me asking a distantly related question, but please humour a Canuckian from the white hills.

Is it appulay-sha, appulat-chia, appulah-sha, or appulay-chia?  I have attempted to see if there is consensus, local consensus, regional consensus, and it seems to be up to whomever's youtube video you decide to watch.

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Posted by rrinker on Sunday, March 4, 2018 10:05 AM

 It depends on where yoou're from. I Northerner like me doesn;t say it the same as someone from West Virginia who doesn;t say it the same as someone from say Kentucky. There really is no "Southern Accent" in the US - if someone was born and raised in the same general area their entire life, the accents are very distinct, and if someone is good at it, they can tell just what state that person came from.

                                    --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by gregc on Sunday, March 4, 2018 10:33 AM

my mom, from Pa, always said appa-lay-chian

when i got older i noticed that other would say appa-latch-ian (see wikipedia) and initially had no idea that they were talking about the same mountain.

greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Sunday, March 4, 2018 11:23 AM

selector

I hope nobody minds me asking a distantly related question, but please humour a Canuckian from the white hills.

Is it appulay-sha, appulat-chia, appulah-sha, or appulay-chia?  I have attempted to see if there is consensus, local consensu, regional consensus, and it seems to be up to whomever's youtube video you decide to watch.

 

As Randy and Greg have noted there is no one "correct" pronunciation, and the term Appaclacha is most comonly pronounced "Appulatch-sha", with no "i" sound before the "a" at the end.

And technically, that term refers to the unique cluture of the region, but many do refer to the region itself with that term.

The entire east cost of the US has a series of unique speach patterns which progress "gently" from Maine to Georgia among those who are long time natives of a given area.

As Randy noted, with experiance many can tell a Virginian from a those from Maryland or North Carolina, or a Bostonian from a New Yorker, or a southeastern Pennsylvannian from a those in western PA.

As Greg noted, people farther north in the region tend to pronounce the last "i", where people farther south do not.

It has a lot to do with the orginal groups who settles these areas, and who were well intrenched before lots of travel was common.

Being from Maryland, we are right in the middle of it. And having traveled the east coast extensively, I have learned most of the subtle differences.

Even locally, people native to Baltimore City speak differently than those just an hour or two away in western Maryland or Northern Virginia. 

Sheldon 

    

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Posted by selector on Sunday, March 4, 2018 11:56 AM

Thanks, fellas.  I guess, like any tourista, I'll just have to go by the raised eyebrows and partly witheld smirks when I pronounce names locally. Huh?

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Posted by rrinker on Sunday, March 4, 2018 1:40 PM

 Western PA from southeastern PA is easy. I drink (or rather don't drink) soda, my western PA GF drinks pop.

 I drink 'wudder' instead. Although naturally I don't hear myself say it that way. I only lived in Philly a couple of years so I never really picked up the whole "youse" thing, I say "you guys" And I guess my GF has been away long enough, she doesn't say much different other than the pop thing, her Mom is real bad with the "youins" 

 I can usually tell Texas from other Southern states, but I'm not good on the more subtle differences in other areas - Tennesee, Georgia, it all sounds the same to me. Florida sounds like New York, but I've never been to the more 'rural' areas of Florida.

                             --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by BigDaddy on Sunday, March 4, 2018 2:08 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL
Being from Maryland, we are right in the middle of it

This thread needs sound:  Baltimore speak

 

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

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Posted by selector on Sunday, March 4, 2018 6:27 PM

Funny to me, but I love how they're having fun with it as well.  As the old saying goes, "It takes all kinds."  But really, we alla same same.

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Posted by richg1998 on Sunday, March 4, 2018 6:40 PM

They are really "Hills" My former girlfriend from West, Virginia says they are hills.

Out West they have Mountains.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Sunday, March 4, 2018 6:47 PM

selector

Funny to me, but I love how they're having fun with it as well.  As the old saying goes, "It takes all kinds."  But really, we alla same same.

 

Yes, we know that we talk funny........

Sheldon

    

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Posted by selector on Monday, March 5, 2018 12:16 AM

What I meant, Sheldon, is that the video is funny. I should have made myself more clear.

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Monday, March 5, 2018 6:03 AM

selector

What I meant, Sheldon, is that the video is funny. I should have made myself more clear.

 

Selector, yes, it is very funny, we make fun of ourselves all the time about it. No one here is offended if that's what you thought?

Sheldon

    

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Posted by Doughless on Monday, March 5, 2018 7:27 AM

In Indiana, we called it Appa-LAY-sha.  And culturally, the hoots and hollers of hilly and wooded Southern Indiana qualified as Appalaysha.

Here in Georgia, we pronounce it "home"

- Douglas

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