We ought to craft a written language for Traditional Appalachian. It would be its own language, like Scots.
Some features:
It would have its own orthography, with its own logic.
It would have a full range of modes, from poetic to technical—yet its primary purpose would be to serve as a worthy vehicle for Appalachian tales, poetry, and song.
The Appalachian language would not be proscriptive. It would be descriptive. Yet it would provide a systematic way of writing the sundry varieties of Appalachian speech.
We need a non-governmental Appalachian Language Council made of Appalachian storytellers, authors, and scholars. The ALC would serve as a steward and voice of the Appalachian language.
We need an Appalachian Dictionary which compiles all the words in Appalachian vernacular records and literature. Appalachian sayings ought to be included too. The Appalachian public would be welcome to contribute words and phrases for future editions.
The focus would be on the Upper South and Lower North (in other words, Midland) varieties of Appalachian speech. A decision would be made as to what extent to include speech varieties—such as from the Southern Tier of New York and from the Mississippi Hills—which extend into the Appalachian Homeland, but which come from a different "speech stream" than the Southern and Central highlander speech.
We need a nice map showing exactly where the Appalachian language is spoken now, or was spoken prior to modernization.
The Ozark speech would be included. From the perspective of the Appalachian Culture, Ozark would be considered a variety of the Appalachian language.
We need a clear perception of the phonemes of Traditional Appalachian speakers. How would the "sound organism" of Traditional Appalachian be mapped if it were the only kind of English in the world? We sense that it might have a phonemic structure nearly as different from generic American speech as is Jamaican creole or Scots.
We need an accessible but thorough Appalachian Reference Grammar to serve as a guidebook for Appalachian language scholars and artists.
We need a rendering of the New Testament into Appalachian.
We need renditions of key regional literature into Traditional Appalachian, such as the Jack Tales, the Silver John cycle, and Cold Mountain. Not only the character dialogue, but also the narrator's voice would be in the Appalachian voice and script.
We need translations of venerable and modern classics of English and world literature into Appalachian, from Homer to Harry Potter and The Hobbit.
Besides descriptive and unadorned representation of living Appalachian speech varieties, the Appalachian language movement would also craft a poetic High Appalachian variety for use in belles-lettres. This would be our equivalent of the Scots Lallans literary mode.
High Appalachian would be an artistic synthesis of the most traditional and singular features of the local Appalachian varieties. This poetic variety of Appalachian would be open to further elaboration by extending known features of Appalachian word formation. High Appalachian writers might also openly adorn the language with fitting Elizabethan English words, though if such words gained currency in the language, they'd be marked as "literary" in the Appalachian Dictionary. Conscious and intentional cultivation of the language is no different than how French and Icelandic are purposefully crafted.
We don't intend to foist the cultural language into government (public) schools, but instead to offer the language for free cultivation by individuals and organizations within non-governmental milieux.
Just as most books in Scotland are written in English instead of Scots, so would English continue to be the practical language of Appalachia. But we'd have our own Mountain language to serve as a vehicle for an independent Appalachian identity and cultural renaissance.
Resources for Appalachian Language:
Appalachian English by Michael Montgomery with the University of South Carolina, is one of the foremost sites about Appalachian language. Montgomery is publishing a gigantic dictionary of Appalachian English, thank goodness! In Michael's own words: We have designed this site to encompass a multi-state region including West Virginia, though the main focus is on the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. That is because the site presents a remarkable set of recordings of great historical interest made there in 1939. You can read about them and the man who made them, and you can listen to the accounts of bear hunts and other topics while you read and follow along. The site features much more, however, and we hope there's plenty for everyone. I want to assure you that the dictionary you have been calling for is on the way. As you will read, it will be a big one -- over a thousand pages, with a good number of sources from West Virginia.
West Virginia Talk by E.M. Smith
Appalachian English on facebook
"It ain't no southern accent, it's an Appalachian one, an' I's proud to speak it" on facebook
A welcome in the Appalachian language
Two translations of a German folktale into Appalachian: Tennessee speech and West Virginia speech
Searching for an Appalachian Accent short film
P.S. All the materials necessary to make an adequate Appalachian Dictionary are already in the Concord University library in Athens, West Virginia. Anyone could compile all the words from the glossaries in the Appalachian English section, plus the Appalachian words from the DARE (Dictionary of American Regional English), in the reference section. The person wouldn't have to be an academic. This compilation alone would serve for now.
Response:
In May 2014, a scholar of the Appalachian tongue stumbled across my website and shot me an email:
Dear Mr Traverse
I came across your website in searching for the term "Appalachian homeland" and have spent a little while visiting. The section on Appalachian language especially interested me, because I have been working on this subject for my entire academic career of 30+ years. You may know my website, created through my home institution (the University of South Carolina). Because I am a native of East Tennessee, most of my work has focused on the Smoky Mountains. I co-edited the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English (U of TN Press, 2004) and have been hard at work ever since on an expanded version, the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English, due at the press by August 1. This will be a volume of around a thousand pages and will will feature many thousand terms, all with dated quotations, from the territory of West Virginia south to North Georgia. A very large number of these come from tape recorded interviews, which I think will truly bring the language to life. I have to admit that my coverage of West Virginia is not as thorough as I'd like, simply because I am not as familiar with sources to quote as I am of those from Tennessee and North Carolina. However, I want to assure you that you plea for an comprehensive, historical Appalachian Dictionary is shortly to be fulfilled.
Professor Emeritus of English and Linguistics
University of South Carolina
http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/index.html
In September 2017 I received another kind note:
Dear Sir,
I contacted you one day two or three years ago after finding your website Oh Appalachia while googling for the term "Appalachian homeland." Since that point I've enjoyed looking in on it from time to time.
At the time I mentioned that a hefty dictionary was on the way and that I would be in touch with a progress report. You will find that report at a page of a new website I want to tell you about, called Appalachian English:
artsandsciences.sc.edu/appalachianenglish
We have designed this site, launched a week ago, to encompass a multi-state region including West Virginia, though the main focus is on the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. That is because the site presents a remarkable set of recordings of great historical interest made there in 1939. You can read about them and the man who made them, and you can listen to the accounts of bear hunts and other topics while you read and follow along.
The site features much more, however, and we hope there's plenty for everyone. You will see at the Links page of the General Interest section that we've listed your website. I will be adding a note to it stating something along the lines of "a site that advocates 'cultural independence' for the region" that would help to steer visitors your way. If you would kindly link our site to yours, we would be grateful.
I want to assure you that the dictionary you have been calling for is on the way. As you will read, it will be a big one -- over a thousand pages, with a good number of sources from West Virginia.
Faithfully yours, Michael Montgomery
Professor Emeritus of English and Linguistics
University of South Carolina