Appalachia Pronunciation

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sherry.

Where are you calling from, Sherry?

I’m calling from Ocean Beach, California.

Well, welcome to the show. We’re glad to have you.

Thank you.

What can we do for you?

Well, I wanted a pronunciation on a mountain range in eastern USA.

Blue Ridge.

Allegheny.

I think you both might be right.

Oh, good. That was easy.

Yeah, I was actually watching a fascinating program about this mountain range on KPBS, our local station.

Anyway, it’s bothering me because I have said it one way my entire life, and I’m no spring chick.

And then when I watch the program, and I tend to believe everything that is ever said on NPR or KPBS or public television.

You poor woman.

I know, and I was just really confounded to find I may have been mispronouncing it my entire life.

So here it is.

Well, spill it. Let’s hear it.

Which it is.

It’s either Appalachia or Appalachia.

Yes, yes.

Now the people being interviewed on the program or being seen on the television were living in Appalachia,

And that’s the way they pronounced it.

But the one woman in particular that was being interviewed a lot or featured a lot was not from Appalachia.

So either she adopted the local way of saying it or, you know, that’s the way it’s supposed to be pronounced.

Can you help me out?

Yeah, and that’s a lovely documentary, isn’t it, narrated by Sissy Spacek?

Yes.

Yeah, and beautiful scenery.

That’s God’s country there.

In that special, they do say Appalachia, don’t they?

They do.

Yes.

Which upset me.

Well, Sherry, you haven’t been saying it wrong.

I’ll tell you that much because I grew up saying Appalachia myself or Appalachia interchangeably.

But the more time I spent over there, I heard Appalachia.

And the thing is that Appalachia is a huge region, right?

The Appalachian Trail goes from Georgia to Maine.

Oh, and even up past Nova Scotia, I think Newfoundland or something like that.

Does it really? I thought it ended in Maine.

I probably mispronounced that, too.

Newfoundland.

Newfoundland.

I’ve been corrected on that one.

But you’re right that in the very core of it, the very center of it, you know, West Virginia,

Eastern Kentucky, western North Carolina is definitely Appalachia.

And you will be branded as an outsider if you say Appalachia for sure.

They will literally brand you.

They will find out the land.

But I’ll tell you something that will make you feel even better, Sherry,

Which is there are at least six pronunciations

That I can fish out of the various dictionaries I own.

For example, some of the pronunciations think

That the last syllable shouldn’t be a schwa,

That it should be ia, so Appalachia or Appalachia.

There’s a SH pronunciation versus a CH, so Appalachia.

Right.

There’s a variety of these things here.

And we have that lay or latch sound in the middle,

One or the other.

So you can mix these all up a variety of different ways.

And the only rhyme or reason that I can find, besides the one that Martha identified, which is in the center they say Appalachia, is that in the south they are more likely to say Appalachia.

And in the north they’re more likely to say Appalachia or Appalachia.

Yeah. As a matter of fact, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which is based in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, has a little sign in their office that says,

In about 40 miles, the Appalachia Trail becomes the Appalachian Trail.

So they’re sort of right there on the border of where Appalachian becomes Appalachian.

Well, thank you so much, guys. I sure love your show.

All right, Sherry. Well, thanks a lot for calling.

Well, thank you. Bye-bye.

Take care.

If you have a question about pronunciation, call us 1-877-929-9673

Or email your questions to words@waywordradio.org.