Marital Influence In Appalachia

The role that marriage played.

When two people join together in marriage they both have an effect on the language that their child will speak. Thus, marrying locally helped to preserve the oral language of the Scottish immigrants. Furthermore, in local marriages the traditions were also preserved and passed down through the generations.

Geographical Influence

Natural Barrier

Every natural barrier comes with pros and cons, and the appalachian mountains are no exception. For the purpose of the paper we are going to focus on the pros of the mountains.

How the Mountains Helped

1. They helped the individuals who lived there preserve the same accent for years

2. Contributed to the passing down of traditions through local stories and music, which helped to support a mainly oral culture.

The Emphasis of Oral Culture Revealed

In two parts, music and stories.

The video above demonstrates the dialectical writings of Robert Burns and shows the shortening of the vowels done orally and visually written on paper. Furthermore, the dialect demonstrates the shift between oral vowels and how the written English retained how the vowels sounded.

The living art of storytelling is another key feature that helps to link the Scottish traditions with those that have been passed down locally for generations. Individuals not only heard the stories of their fathers but also retold the stories with the same dialectal emphasis allowing for the preservation.