Born in New Jersey on 1950, i learned Appalachia in school as appa-lay-chia. But I escaped to West Virginia in 1972 and immediately went to saying it the latch way. Now i can't get my mouth to say it the lay way.
Interesting that you said younger people seemed to be using latch more as I'm 79 and believe I've always said latch, since hearing it differently sounds weird. I grew up in Kanawha County WV, a county with interesting pronunciation unless you grew up there.
This is such good stuff. In another timeline I shoulda been a linguist just to study accents. The Brits, at least in their entertainment culture, seem to appreciate and observe their wild array of accents so much better than we in the US, but then they're all packed into a small island close together, where it's harder to pretend that the whole world talks like the people in MY town.
I'm from far south Georgia, and the accent of white people there sounded Appalachian-adjacent to me, in my memories anyway.
Born in New Jersey on 1950, i learned Appalachia in school as appa-lay-chia. But I escaped to West Virginia in 1972 and immediately went to saying it the latch way. Now i can't get my mouth to say it the lay way.
Interesting that you said younger people seemed to be using latch more as I'm 79 and believe I've always said latch, since hearing it differently sounds weird. I grew up in Kanawha County WV, a county with interesting pronunciation unless you grew up there.
This is such good stuff. In another timeline I shoulda been a linguist just to study accents. The Brits, at least in their entertainment culture, seem to appreciate and observe their wild array of accents so much better than we in the US, but then they're all packed into a small island close together, where it's harder to pretend that the whole world talks like the people in MY town.
I'm from far south Georgia, and the accent of white people there sounded Appalachian-adjacent to me, in my memories anyway.