You may be asking yourself what does marriage, living in the mountains,music, and stories have to do with the way I speak?
The categories listed above are a few of the contributors to the Appalachian accent being connected to the dialect of the immigrants that first settled the region.
Marriage helped to preserve not only the dialectal accents but also the traditions that were passed down from generation to generation.
Geographical location ties in with marriage because of the small local pool to choose a bride. The positive side is that no new language was introduced and customs were preserved.
Lastly, through music and storytelling not only was the accent preserved but also the history of what happened.
Thus, all three of these point tie in to promote an oral culture, which contributes to the preservation of accents.
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