What did you think of this episode?

As America celebrates 250 years, we're reflecting on how Americans may have sounded from the colonists to Confederados. Drawing on a prior episode with Dr. Valerie Fridland and research by linguists like Michael Montgomery, I'll discuss how settlement patterns, class, mobility, and political affiliations shaped regional speech, contrasting Scots-Irish and North Midland influences in Appalachia with London-oriented coastal Virginia, and discussing rhotic vs. r-less pronunciation and shifting prestige norms. I'll also touch on Michael Montgomery’s study of Confederado descendants in Brazil whose 1970s speech preserved 19th-century Southern traits.

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*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: talkingappalachianpodcast@gmail.com or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

What did you think of this episode?

Author Valerie Fridland is the author of the new book Why We Talk Funny: the Real Story Behind Our Accents (Viking, 2026.) In this fascinating episode that launches Season 4, we'll talk about the Revolutionary-era origins of our American accents, how mainstream American English arose as the 'prestige' dialect, the shibboleth (which explains the hostility people feel about 'latch' versus 'lay' in Appalachia, and Virginia's complex linguistic landscape.

A professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada (that's ne-va-da as in "cat"), Fridland is also the author of Like, Literally Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English. She's also originally from the South, so she gets it when we talk about how important accents can be to speakers.

A bonus episode on the histories of Y'all, You's, and Yinz is available to paid subscribers here, on Facebook, and on Patreon.

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: talkingappalachianpodcast@gmail.com or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

What did you think of this episode?

"Kil't" lettuce is an Appalachian delicacy. In this encore episode from Season 1, we discuss how to make this delicious summer salad and why people use -t at the end of the word instead of -ed. We'll also hear clips from storyteller Ray Hicks, who illustrates this Appalachian English pronunciation. So, get your onion, bacon grease, leafy greens, and intrusive -t ready because summer's on the way!

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: talkingappalachianpodcast@gmail.com or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain