MOUNTAIN WORDS

Perhaps the most extensive and authoritative research into Appalachian speech has been conducted by Cratis Dearl Williams, whose papers are held at Appalachian State University. See Cratis Dearl Williams Papers. Another valuable resource may be found in the work of  Harold Farwell, Jr and J. Karl Nicholas, eds., Smoky Mountain Voices : a Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech Based on the Research of Horace Kephart, published by the University of Kentucky Press, 1993.

whang leather

"A man said to me of three of our acquaintances: 'There's been a fray on the river--I don't know how the fraction begun, but Os feathered into Dan and Phil, feedin' them lead.'  He meant fray in its original sense of deadly combat, as was fitting where two men were killed.  fraction for rupture is an archaic word, rare in literature, though we find it in Troilus and Cressida.  'Feathered into them!'  Where else can we hear today a phrase that passed out of standard English when 'villianous saltpetre' supplanted the long-bow?  It means to bury an arrow up to the feather, as when the old chronicler Harrison says, 'An other arrow should haue beene fethered in his bowels.'" (1913, Kephart, Horace.  Our Southern Highlanders, p. 288.)

Elizabethan English?  Writers who think they know, have said that our people have been sequestered in these mountains so long that they speak the language of Shakespeare and of Chaucer.  It is certain that we sometimes say 'hit' for it and 'taken' for took; that we also say 'plague' for tease, and when we are willing, we say we are 'consentable.'  If we are asked if we 'care for a piece of pie,' we say yes if we wish to be helped to some; and if we are invited to accompany anyone and wish to do so, we almost invariably say, "I wouldn't care to go along," meaning we do not object.  We also say 'haint' for am not, are not and have not, and we invite you to 'light' if you are riding or driving.  We pack our loads in 'pokes,' and 'reckon we can't' if invited 'to go a piece' with a passerby, when both he and we know perfectly well that we can if we will.  Chaucer and Shakespeare may have used these expression: we do not know....On the other hand we have Webster for our authority that 'hit' is the Saxon for 'it' and we know ourselves that 'taken' is more regular than 'took'; Webster also give us the primary meaning of 'plague': anything troublesome or vexatious; but in this sense applied to the vexations we suffer from men, and not to the unavoidable evils inflicted on us by divine providence; white 'tease' means to comb or card, as wool; to scratch, as cloth in dressing, for the purpose of raising a nap; and to vex with importunity or impertinence."  ....Being, in our own estimation, at least, 'as well as common,' in this respect as in many other, 'we still manage to understand and to be understood'; and claim that when we 'want in,' we generally manage to 'get' in, whether we say 'get' or not.  Still, in these respects, we may 'mend,' not improve; and who shall say that our 'mend' is not a simpler, sweeter and more significant word than 'improve'?  But we do mispronounce many words, among which is 'gardeen' for guardian, 'colume' for column, and 'pint' for point....'Mashed, mummicked and hawged up,' means worlds to most of us.  Finally, most of us are of the opinion of the late Andrew Jackson, who thought that one who could spell a word in only one way was a 'mighty po' excuse for a full grown man.  (1914, Arthur, John.  Western North Carolina, pp.266, 267.)

Moonshining

"Moonshining - Before railroads were constructed in these mountains there was no market for the surplus corn, rye and fruit; and it was considered right to convert these products into whiskey and brandy, for which there was always a market.  When, therefore, soon after the Civil War, the United States government attempted to enforce its internal revenue laws, much resistance was manifested by many good citizens.  Gradually, however, illicit distilling has been relegated to a few irresponsible and ignorant men,; for the penalty inflicted for allowing one's land to be used as the location for a still, or to grind corn or malt for illicit stillers, or to aid them in any way, is great enough to deter all men of property from violating the law in this regard.  Moonshining is so called because it is supposed that it is only while the moon is shining that illicit stilling takes place, though that is erroneous, as much of it is done during the day.  But, as these stills are located, usually in the most out-of-the-way places possible, the smoke arising during the day from the stills attracts attention and final detection. (1914, Arthur, John. Western North Carolina, p.272.)

"'Their corn at that time [Civil War] brought only from 25 to 40 cents a bushel; apples and peaches, rarely more than 10 cents at the stills.  These were the only crops that could be grown in their deep and narrow valleys.  Transportation was so difficult, and markets so remote, that there was no way to utilize the surplus except to distill it.  Their stills were too small to bear the cost of government supervision.  The superior officers of the Revenue Department (collectors, marshals and district-attorneys or commissioners) were paid only by commissions on collections and by fees.  Their subordinate agents, whose income depended upon the number of stills they cut up and upon the arrests made, were, as a class, brutal and desperate characters.  Guerrilla warfare was the natural sequence.'"  (1914, Kephart, Horace quoting Ellwood Wilson, Sr. in Our Southern Highlanders, pp. 165, 166.)