A Dialect Turned Inside Out Migration and the Appalachian Diaspora

Migration to economically more prosperous areas has been an attractive choice for many Appalachians. This paper traces the effects of migration on language variation within one Appalachian family. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of phonological, morphological, and lexical variables, we draw distinctions between family members who remained in West Virginia and those who migrated to Ohio and Michigan. The data come from interviews with nine members of one southern West Virginia family. Aside from migration status, education is the most influential factor in language variation patterns for migrant and non-migrant speakers. Our findings indicate that Appalachian migrants negotiate their sociolinguistic identities by drawing on the norms both of their family members and of their adopted homes. This phenomenon is not isolated to one family; economic conditions have fostered the introduction of external sociolinguistic norms into Appalachian communities for at least seventy years.