A Rich Cultural Heritage

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

I was raised by my Scot-Irish grandparents. After my father's death and my mother's departure (she caught the bus for Knoxville), I grew up in a remote little cove in Jackson County, North Carolina. It certainly isn't remote anymore. In fact, I was recently informed that I now live inside the city limits, but in the 1930's, my grandparents' farm qualified as remote. As a child, I walked out to bus stop and attended a school in which two classes, like the fourth and fifth grades, frequently occupied the same room. This is where I first discovered that my speech was frowned on.

I talked just like my grandparents. In addition to speaking with a pronounced nasal twang, I used words like "gant" for "gaunt," "stout"
meaning healthy, "peaked" meaning pale, "nuss" meaning "to pet or lavish affection on," as well as "plumb," "you'ens" and the explanation, "I swan!" Early on, my teachers advised me to make an effort to rid myself of both dialect and "archaic language." In effect, I was "weighted and found wanting."

When I attended college (now Western Carolina University), the efforts to change my speech became more intense. Since the majority of students at the college pursued a career in teaching, we were required to take a course in speech which was designed to banish "mountain talk." It wasn't totally successful, and for the next twenty years, I frequently encountered disapproval of my speech. However, in the '70's, I finally encountered a researcher from the Smithsonian who assured me that my banished mountain speech was actually the remains of "a rich cultural heritage."

Well, Neal Hutcheson's film, "Mountain Talk" achieves much the same end. Neal's interviews with folks living in remote sections of western North Carolina graphically records that same speech which is alive and well in Graham, Jackson and Swain. Not only is it a delight to listen to colorful fellows like Popcorn Sutton and Orville Hicks (as well as learned gentlemen such as Jonathan Williams and Dr. Karl Nicholas), but Hutcheson records these people against some of the most gorgeous scenery in Appalachia. I believe he interviews over 30 people...and they aren't "talking heads" either. Neal captures them as they pursue their lives at general stores, dances and social gatherings. There are gifted musicians, dancers and storytellers, too.
Everybody talks, of course--giving vent to that "rich cultural heritage."

I'm pretty proud to have been a part of this project. Anybody can find specific details about how to order this 57-minute video elsewhere on this website.

[Ol' John Brown]

JimTom Hedrick (featured in the film "Mountain Talk") was one of the first, before the Internet came about, to have a first name made up of two capital letters. Again, no one thought of him as Jim Tom Hedrick, we (the folks that grew up around him) think of him as "JimTom."

JimTom was always "different."

His speech or "Mountain Talk" is a lost art. He speaks with a dialect and with such a rapid pace that few can understand him. However, once you can pick up on the "Mountain Talk" or the dialect that he uses, you can learn a lot.

For one thing, he knows how to make an old timey still. Did he ever really make one or run moonshine? No one knows for sure.

If he has ever set the record straight, well, no one can say because his dialect and speech remains too rapid for 100% understanding.

How do I know so much about JimTom? Well, I lived across the road from him, his parents and relatives for some 18 years though understanding him sometimes still takes some intense concentration.

Looking back, I now realize that JimTom was (and still is) quite a character. He lives, pretty much where ever and however he wishes in an old school bus that he converted into a home. What he is up to now I can't say for sure, but he took the old bus most anywhere and set up camp wherever fancy struck. He traveled from the bus to town on an old yellow Moped to get his mail and to get from here to there.

Stories about JimTom in the area range far and wide. Some are true, some are questionable but all are not beyond belief. Some are told by JimTom Himself.

Some of JimTom's "legends" (true or false -- who knows) has inspired some of my fictional writing in recent years. Who knows? Maybe something that may or may not have happened to JimTom (only he knows for sure) will one day help to make me a famous writer -- or not.

Anyhow, get yourself a copy of the film "Mountain Talk" from Gary. It not only features JimTom, but it features Gary Himself as The Narrator and lots of stories related to the diminishing art of "mountain talk."

--olJB

[Neal]

This is a subject that everyone I know in the mountains has been interested in. When I was first doing fieldwork in the mountains I was hesitant to say that what I was interested in was the dialect, as if i was saying, "You talk weird." I quickly found out not to be shy about it, that most Mountain People were well aware that they talked differently, or at least their parents had, and they could talk about it with great clarity and humor. It seems they had already discovered it was a part of their heritage, before many linguists and videographers were there to confirm it for the rest of the world.
Recently there was a bad review of Mountain Talk in the Asheville Citizen-Times. I think Rob Neufield was looking for more of a catelogue of mountain terminology, particularly the words he remembered. I was more interested in looking at the dialect as a window into the culture. I had also given up any idea of being somehow comprehensive, clearly an impossibility. As Gary mentions in the film, you only have to go 20 miles down the road to hear words and phrases you never heard before. And new words and phrases are being invented all the time. I think that inventiveness is a far bigger part of the Scots-Irish bearing on the language than the older words and such that have actually survived, but those add a lot of flavor too, and of course usually carry fond memories of one's relatives.
Neal

[Ol' John Brown]

Wow,

You are touching on some very signifigant points! ;D

Some of these dialects very nearly bridge into a new language.

Or do they?

For example, someone from an entierly different region may be unable to understand the dialects at all . . . just as most folks can't understand true Old English spoken in its (as close as we can aproximate) true form.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there are many forms of "English" that vary drastically from "the now accepted standard."

My best example is a place in Graham County known as "Yalla Creek" though some say "Yellow Creek" others say "Yalla" is correct because the idea of a creek being "yellow" is ridiculous. . . no one really knows where the name comes from.

Anyhow, the dialect spoken here is very rapid and very hard to understand, even for the other folks living in the county.

But let's dive into a dialect of dialects . . . I know I have already spoken at length about JimTom Hederick (appearing in your film "Moutain Talk") but bear with me for a moment for the subject's sake. JimTom and a small group of the Hedricks speak a dialect that is so unique that only he and other Hedricks could seem to readily understand it or at least be able to "listen fast enough to catch it."

It seemed to be a cross between the Yalla creek and the Deep Snowbird dialect.

But who knows? This is a great example of the diversity that lies in the Appalachian area.

Ol' JB

[Neal]

Yeah, I'm pretty much convinced that a lot of particular dialects travel family lines, there's that much diversity. I've been doing some work on the coast lately. There is a lot of similarity between Appalachia and the coastal islands, in that each island has its own peculiar brogue, much as the mountain dialects change from valley to valley, or one end of yalla creek to the other. The linguist I work for tells me there's no significant differences between Harker's Island, Cedar Island, Core Banks, Ocracoke, Wanchese, Hatteras... But the folks down there can tell exactly which one of these places someone is from as soon as they start talking. To me it all sounds the same.

But it isn't.
Neal

[erdajean]

My old yurs perked up at the mention of "Yalla"Creek, which in the Robbinsville vernacular is "Yaller" -- but of course Robbinsville is Uptown so what do we expect?
There are certain characteristics about Yaller Creek speech, one of the most notable being the use of a single pronoun that covers all bases. As in, "Miss Teacher, thur (he) flung a rock at thur (me). What'r thur (you) goin' to do to thur (him)?" Well, maybe memory makes it more pronounced than it was. But there is no doubt that this is a little pocket of supreme dialectical distinction. Long may it wave, in the age of the Valley Girl.
Erdajean

[Neal]

I don't think your memory has exaggerated; I think the dialect is still extraordinary, even if it is fading. Not to dress it up unnecessarily, but its like Shakespeare, in that it all flows and makes sense when you hear it spoken and, personally I miss a lot of the details but I recognized that I had heard that thur-thur construction now that you point it out.

Neal

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

Sometimes, the words are not from the 17th century. They are totally original. Kids used to say "Sigh-dang!" as an explanation. I don't think that is from anywhere but Jackson County. "Aye Gawd, I been laid up with my back. Hit's stove up." "Gollymanders, Sass! Whar you been?"
Gary

[Ol' John Brown]

"Yamakesureanwripedownaboutemlailsrite-er."

This is an example of a 'Yalla Creek' one word sentence that my line supervisor (form Yalla Creek obviously) used one time when I was working in the Stanley furniture factory in Graham County . . . being from 'middle Snowbird,' just 15 or 20 miles away, it still took me 4 tries to understand her. She had just loaded a fresh dip of snuff and this didn't make the translation any easier . . . (no laughing matter really, it was very common for the ladies in the area.)

Finnaly, after she started jumping up and down, pointing and speaking as slowly as Yalla Creek dialect will allow . . .

"Ya-makesure-ta-wipe-downaround-em-lails-riteder!"

The pointing helped and the context (I was cleaning the excess varnish from the freshly sprayed dressers on the line) and I understood what she was saying . . .

"Be sure to wipe (the varnish from) these rails (around the dresser drawers) right here (pointing and jumping up and down.)

The image of the frustrated lady jumping up and down 'trying to get me to understand plain English?' is pretty comical to me but not why one might think . . . no, she wasn't dumb or backward, she just spoke differently than me -- she spoke Deep Yalla Creek English, I spoke Middle Snowbird English.

In fact, by then, she had probably forgot more about furniture manufacturing than I will ever hope to know. Once you could understand her, the one word sentences proved very efficient in an indusrtial setting where everything is moving as quickly as possible (time is truly money here.)

By the way, to compaire dialects, at the time, I would have said, in the very slow, low and easy (from the Cherokee influence) Snowbird dialect:

"Now. . . You be sure, n' wipe dowwwwn 'n' rouuuund 'ese rails, riiiiight arouuund in-year."

This is why there were very few "Snowbird" line supervisors and quite a few "Yalla Creek" line supers. Her order took her 2 seconds flat; mine would have taken (yes I timed them) about 16 seconds . . . 8 times as long . . . as far as 'normal English?' (is there such a thing?) such an order takes by my best guess, 8 seconds to give.

So maybe the folks on Yalla Creek have always been in a hurry? Seems logical because 'daylight just don't stay back in them woods any longer than it has to' rumour has it that it wasn't piped in until sometime during the Civil War . . . and just forget about cable TV -- they just got the rights to have a shipment or two of wind a couple of years ago!

But seriously, (well kind of) daylight is a bit shorter on Yalla Creek because the mountains are very steep and the places that are 'flat-ish' enough to live are sandwiched between the steep ridges. In addition, the forest here is located on what we call 'wet ridges' which means that it is very old, very thick and very damp . . . a great place to find Ginsing by the way -- a friend and I actually found a 5 prong plant (very rare and very old) here one day but that is another long but comical story.

My point is (yes I have one, and finaly am getting to it) that if you are farming and daylight is limited even in Summer, you have to make the most of your time. Thus, the rapid one word sentences? Just a theory of mine.

Now, back to Snowbird where I and the Cherokee lived at the time. We lived on 'dry ridges' where the mountains were much less steep, the woods were thinner and we got more hours of sun. We were still way back in the woods so cable TV still isn't there but we have been getting shipments of wind regularly for some time now. I hear that they now even get to show the moon on special occasions!

With more daylight to farm, tasks are not quite so pressing; thus, the speech and everything else is slower paced. Anyone out there ever heard of "indian time?" When a Snowbird Cherokee shows up an hour or two late for an event, he or she will tell you that they are on "indian time."

Yes, I know, the term "indian time" may not be considered "politically correct" or even downright rude by today's touchy-feely word police; but, the term has been used by the Snowbird Cherokee for longer than "The Oldest Cherokee Ever Known" (the late and wonderful Maggie Wachachia -- Maggie, where ever you are forgive me if I have not spelled you last name right) can remember. Maggie was a dear aquaintance of mine; she was fun to visit, I was very young at the time, and she was facinating. She used to let my Dad (he was Cherokee as well) wander around her land and collect Buckeyes. One of her most prized posessions was an autographed picture of the once popular pro wrestlers "Chief Wahoo MacDaniels."

Anyway, she got a kick out of using the term "indian time" so if it was cute to her, screw polotical correctness for the sake of folklore. The whole political correctness thing has went too far . . . but I digress, i have went off and a couple or three tangents.

Well, come to think of it, I have stayed on the subject of a rich cultural heritage. Appalacian culture has so many facets that it is easy to get side tracked.

It is indeed very rich.

Ol' JB

[Randy]

Great film, good website.
A 70-ish man from the Little Canada community in Jackson County told the story about a snowy day when he and his brothers went sledding down a long hill and hit the rail fence at the bottom 'head fo'm's'.' Rhymes with comas. The word was 'foremost'.

A usage that people said in Jackson County in the early 60s that you don't necessarily hear anywhere else was a variation on the word 'always' that sounded like the plural of 'aw' as in 'aw shucks'. The sentence might go:
I aws said a poor man wudn't meant to have nothing.

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

Randy,

Yeah, that is the word my grannie used. I tried to capture her speech when I did my plays, "Birdell" and "Nance Dude." To me the word was "allus" for "always," like "My daddy allus said thet thangs has been bad but they are gonna git worse."

Stick around, Randy, we need you.
Gary

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

Then, there is "atter," like "atter a while, he jist quit.
Gary

[countryrag]

I became entranced (and sometimes befuddled) by Appalachian speech after moving to the region twenty-some years ago.

There's a section (Country Talk) of my website devoted to its color. That doesn't deal with pronunciation but embedded metaphors and special words. Just heard a new one: "hippins" for diapers.

The isolation (disappearing) of hamlets and hollers allowed speech to become and stay for a long time idiosyncratic. Now, at least where I live, influx from the city and workers travelling to the city are making inroads against "native" speech.

[The Folks @ TanneryWhistle.com]

Well, since I worked for the Cherokee tribal government for 15 years, I can vouch for the fact that you don't have to go to Snowbird to hear about "Indian time." When the notorious "Made by the Cherokees" Moccasin Plant opened in Cherokees, the owner had a daily problem with workers on "Indian time." The workers got up, ate breakfast and came to work without looking at a clock and arrived too early or too late. (Usually, too late.) When I started going to conferences in Washington, Phoenix and Albequerque, the BIA stayed frustrated because the members came drifting in about 10:30 and rarely came back after lunch. that was supposed to be because of Indian time, too, which indicates that it was common in every tribe in the U. S. Of course, the real reason was, the BIA was there with flip charts and magic markers to talk to the tribal representatives about "self-determination" - a concept that all Native Americans heartily dispised. What everyone decided to do was to go to the conferences, stay late in the bar and do some sightseeing - all on the BIA's expense account. No one was going to willingly participate in a policy designed to withdraw all Federal support from health and education.
Gary

[June]

I am so glad to read these messages. I was raised in Blairsville GA (real close to the NC & Tennessee line). I have lived in the Atlanta area for 35 years but everytime I go back up home (most of my folks still live up there) , I still revert right back to my old dialect. There's times down here at work ( I work at the Atlanta Journal/Constitution) that people still laugh at something I will say; sometimes it just comes out. I had a teacher once that told us "don't ever lose your way of talking, cause you have the purest form of old English & Old Scotch/Irish language this side of the ocean today"; she also told us it best not to marry out of the area cause we had the purest celtic blood this side of the ocean" but Mama used to tell us kids; make sure you marry out of the mountain area cause you might marry kinfolks if you marry up here. Mama was from Ringgold, GA which is close to Chattanooga. But when I read some of the messages on this website I was just so happy to hear some of the old words; my daughter Alice told me when I read them to her over the phone; "well Mama I thought that those were just part of our language cause that's the way I talked all the time" When she married her husband who was from Florida, he was often correcting her way of talking, little did he know that she talked a lot of Old English.