#AC News ESCOM Wins- 4Now
2 messages in this thread
.. although it does seem that some people have an affection for that regional
speech pattern. The one referred to below is a bit north of the Carolinas:
"That particular voice may sound vaguely Southern or Southwestern, but it is
specifically Appalachian in origin. It originated in the mountains of West
Virginia, in the coal country, in Lincoln county, so far up the hollows that,
as the saying went, "they had to pipe in daylight". In the late 1940's and
early 1950's this up-hollow voice drifted down … into all phases of American
aviation. It was amazing. It was Pygmalion in reverse. Military pilots and
then, soon, airline pilots … began to talk in that poker-hollow West Virginia
drawl, or as close to it as they could bend their native accents".
–Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff.
–Jim
Great movie (yes, I know it was a book first)!!!
Actually the "real" Appalachian up-hollow accent is charming in an old
Appalachian farmer, but the English I'm talking about is just plain BAD, not
18th century (Appalachian accent). You hear it on all the daytime sob sister
shows. Obviously Rhodes scholors don't frequent them.
Gracia, on AutoPilot from Cooleemee, NC