Appalachian English

Appalachian English is a dialect of English that is spoken in the Appalachian Mountains region. Research suggests it is one of the most different dialects in the United States from the others.^[1]

Since the 1930s, much research has been done to figure out where the dialect came from. One theory is that the dialect is a remnant of Elizabethan (or Shakespearean) English that has been preserved by the region's isolation.^[2][3] Another theory suggests that the dialect developed out of the Scots-Irish and Anglo-Scottish border dialects that were brought to the region by some of its earliest settlers,^[4] who were from the border of Scotland and England, in the British Isles.

Recent research suggests that Appalachian English developed as a uniquely-American dialect, as early settlers adapted English to their unfamiliar frontier environment. That is supported by the many similarities between it and Colonial American English.^[5]