Appalachian Heritage Language in the 21st Century

FAIN: FT-53404-05

Kirk Hazen
West Virginia University Research Corporation (Morgantown, WV 26506-6201)

This project explores Appalachian English to assess and qualify changes in Appalachian society as it is transformed at the turn of the century. To understand such effects on Appalachian society, this study examines the sociocultural patterns of Appalachian English through the grammatical and phonological systems of native Appalachians. The resulting monograph will fill a 28-year gap in scholarship. Support of a summer stipend would enable the completion of the quantitative analysis which forms the cornerstone of this project. Human language is systematic in its operation, and modern dialect study takes advantage of this natural patterning by making qualitative social and linguistic assessments based off of quantitative generalizations.