What is the Correct Pronunciation of “Appalachian”?

What is the Correct Pronunciation of “Appalachian”?

Although we can all agree that the Appalachian Trail is a beautiful, wondrous footpath that extends nearly 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine, when it comes to something as basic as to how it’s pronounced, the room is split.

Conventional wisdom says that the Mason-Dixon line represents the division amongst the two common pronunciations, with northerners saying “a-puh-LAY-chuhn”, while southerners say “a-puh-LATCH-uhn”, but conventional wisdom must be taken at face value.

Despite the title of this post, I’m not actually here to find the “correct” pronunciation, but instead to discover which is more common. But– it should go without saying, the more common pronunciation is also of course also the correct one (sarcastic winky face) 😉

So let’s figure this out! How do you pronounce “Appalachian”? Vote below to let us know.

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Comments 140

• Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

  I agree one thousand percent with Melie Guzek.

  I just listened to a PBS nature show about “Grandfather Mountain.”

  The announcer or host used the “latch” pronunciation.

  I could tell that he was desperately trying to sound “in” or “cool.”

  I perceived something was amiss.

  And I was right.

  He was being silly.

  I am from Kansas. I was taught to use the “lay” pronunciation.

  “Lay” is right. “Latch” is for trendy sissies.

  Or hillbillies.

  Yes, I admit it. I used the term hillbillies.

  But I am exactly right.

  Have a Dovely.

  Sincerely yours,

  Caleb Boone.

  • I read your post. I perceived something was amiss. And I was right. You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. What an exhaustion to read an arrogant prick brag about being linguistically correct.

    Ya’ll come back now,
    Elisabeth Walt

    • Dear Elizabeth:

      I am a hillbilly.

      I live in a very countryfied area, in extremely sparsely-populated Western Kansas.

      Most of the counties in my area have fewer than two thousand people.

      I can smell a phony a mile away.

      Anyone who bends over backwards to say “latch” is a silly, stupid phony, who is trying to be native, local and cool.

      Real people, who really are genuine and authentic, don’t act like silly little children and don’t try to sound in or cool.

      They pronounce words the way all real people learned to pronounce them in grade school.

      I recall the same silliness when everyone in Washington, D.C. suddenly began to speak like an Arkansas hillbilly when Bill Clinton was President.

      It was embarrassing then.

      It is still embarrassing now.

      Have a Dovely.

      Sincerely yours,

      Caleb Boone.

      • Kind of like the pronunciation argument for “Colorado.” I’ve heard it with a short a, and with a long a. In that case, I tend to favor the version used most by folks who live there. As far as Appalachian…never heard the “LAY” version until I was in my early 30s. Well, I once heard Joe Strummer say LAY in a song, but assumed it was just his English accent. Grew up in SC, lived several years IN the Appalachians (Boone, NC), and I can say folks all over the Carolinas and Georgia say LATCH – as did everyone in eastern Tennessee. Never been to Kansas, so I couldn’t say how they pronounce it – but also not sure it matters how they pronounce it, as they aren’t exactly in the Appalachians anyway. 😉

        • Dear Buddy:

          I pronounce Colorado “coll-uh-RAH-doh.”

          I just feel so good when I say “App-uh-LAY-chun.”

          I am sure I am right.

          I don’t care what people say who live there. If they’re wrong, then they are wrong.

          And, they are wrong. It is even more sad to realize that they have been mispronouncing the very name of the place they live, lo these many hundreds of years. But that is true for so many hillbillies.

          It is akin to someone complaining about being arrested. He believes he should not have been arrested. Yet, he ignores the fact that just before being arrested, he split someone’s lip open or broke someone’s jaw with a good strong right cross. He overlooks that and argues the policeman was prejudiced against him because he was a hillbilly.

          Well, the policeman arrested him because he hit someone. He hit someone because he was a hillbilly. Therefore, yes, he was arrested because he was a hillbilly.

          So, yes, yes, yes! He was arrested, in truth and in fact, actually, because he was a hillbilly.

          So, yes, yes, yes, the policeman was prejudiced against him because he was a hillbilly, because, shocking-as-it-is-to-say, hillbillies are arrested more than non-hillbillies.

          I cannot say that often enough.

          Hillbillies are arrested a lot. Hillbillies do not look you in the eye. Hillbillies look down at the ground when you talk to them. Hillbillies do not use proper grammar. Hillbillies do not bathe. Hillbillies shoot guns a lot. Hillbillies attend tractor pulls. Hillbillies are usually in jail or prison a lot.

          And, I will say it again.

          Hillbillies cannot spell or pronounce their own names.

          Hillbillies cannot spell or properly pronounce the names of the places in which they themselves live.

          They live in Appalachia, which is properly pronounced only one way: “App-uh-LAY-chuh.”

          Have a Dovely.

          Sincerely yours,

          Caleb Boone.

          • Caleb – you are an idiot.

            • Dear Kentucky Woman:

              Well, I suppose you expect me to disagree with you.

              You are right.

              I disagree with you.

              I am not an idiot.

              A lady from Tennessee, a lifelong Tennessee resident, a real Tennessean, told me hillbillies are embarrassed to speak to Yankees or Northerners.

              She told me they feel inferior to Northerners.

              She told me they look down at their shoes and don’t look Northerners in the eye because they are embarrassed about being from the South, and feel uneducated and inadequate.

              People like that mispronounce words.

              People like that can’t spell words.

              People like that don’t know how to properly spell or pronounce the names of the places they live.

              And now, those few hillbillies who can read and write a little, are trying to justify these misspellings and mispronunciations by claiming they are regional differences, or provincialisms.

              I don’t think they are.

              I think they are, plainly and simply, evidence of all hillbillies’ poor education and upbringing.

              Have a Dovely.

              Sincerely yours,

              Caleb.

            • Caleb – just so you know, my KY family uses the Appa – lay -shin pronunciation for generations. I don’t have a problem with others who use the latch version. I have a problem with your attitude. I no longer live in the south – I live in Boston! Almost all of your generalities about hillbillies are in error. Sorry, you need to do more research. Unkind of me to call you an idiot – I apologize, I guess you are just not well informed. Stick to areas where you excel.

            • Dear Bostonian Woman:

              I will do more research.

              But I am certain my research will prove me right.

              Have a Dovely.

              Sincerely yours,

              The Late George Apley.

            • research is twice as nice when open minded Georgie!

            • Dear Bostonian Lady:

              I will be.

              Have a Dovely.

              Sincerely yours,

              Ernest and Julio Gallup.

            • haha

              Daniel Boone moonshine descendant?

            • Dear Kentucky Derby:

              No.

              My father’s family were German, probably named Bonn, changed to Boone in the New World.

              They were Old German Baptist Brethren, commonly known as Dunkards.

              Daniel Boone was probably associated with the Quakers, or Society of Friends.

              He was definitely not associated with the Dunkards.

              All this to say that the common surname Boone is a coincidence.

              The Dunkards are tee-totalers, or abstinent.

              My father’s father was the first to break away and not join the Dunkard Church, or “Old Order Church.”

              He became a United Methodist.

              And, humorously, of course, Daniel Boone was not a Methodist.

              Now, this does not mean I do not like Oatmeal.

              I love Quick Quaker Oats.

              I was raised on them.

              “Cooks in one minute.”

              Have a Dovely.

              Sincerely yours,

              Caleb Boone.

            • Dear Kentucky Woman:

              I am probably not related to Daniel Boone.

              My father’s family name was Bonn, a German last name.

              They were Dunkards.

              Daniel Boone was associated w

            • No, he is just funny! 😸

          • Wrong….you sound like a very bigoted person and one who has no understanding of the origins of the Southern dialect. Educate yourself. App a latch en.

          • @calebboone must suck to be such an arrogant, ignorant human being. Lemme guess – you’re also a Trump supporter? You’re wrong – nobody cares how you learned in your grade school … they were wrong too. Your experience doesn’t equal the ultimate truth. -Signed someone from the Appalachians

          • Hey Caleb dude! While I served in U.S.Air Force one of my best friends lived in Cheney KS. He taught me they forgot to add another “s” to Kansas

            • Dear Caleb,

              Am I the only one who thinks you’re joking? You are joking, aren’t you?

          • You are completely 100% wrong.

            You are correct and just like the Cherokee the CH is pronounced CH like LATCH. Native American language and dialect doesn’t have a pronunciation for LAY as in a-puh-LAY-chuhn. What they do have is the pronunciation for LATCH as in a-puh-LATCH-uhn. So it is a phonical impossibility that Appalachian can be pronounced a-puh-LAY-chuhn pronunciation does not even exist within the native American language or dialect. And that is for which the mountain range is named after. Also if you look at Appalachian University I believe they would call themselves the correct pronunciation and they do. It’s a-puh-LATCH-uhn University.

            Look at it this way if you go anywhere in the world and say I want a Coke everyone pronounces Coke the same way. Now imagine going where you live right now and saying you want. KOOK or a COCKY. Every single person is going to look at you like you’re crazy because you’re not pronouncing it right. Imagine if you pronounce a man’s name John as Joan. and then you use the argument well I don’t care that his name is John just sounds better and that’s the way I pronounce it. still doesn’t change the factor mispronouncing the name.

            Appalachian and Appalachia are no different there’s only one correct pronunciation a-puh-LATCH-uhn.

            The only people who do not pronounce it correctly are those who do not live in the region. Once you’re north of the Blue Ridge’s (Pennsylvania) do you start to hear any mispronunciations. And what this comes down to is that most of the settlers in that region were Dutch German and due to their language they couldn’t pronounce it correctly. As people began to settle further west from these same regions they took with them the mispronunciation.

            Appalachian can only be pronounced one way just like Cascade or Rocky. Cascade and Rocky are not pronounced Cascode or Roockie. And if they were you’re only going to get laughed at or looked at with extremely strange looks for mispronouncing them.

            a-puh-LATCH-uhn is the only correct way to pronounce Appalachian.

            • That’s Appalachian State University, please.

          • Caleb,

            In your first post you sounded a bit like like an arrogant idiot, but after your post above you removed all doubt that you are absolutely an ARROGANT IDIOT! You must have had a traumatic childhood to be so bitter that you need lump large groups of people together (all hillbilly’s aka people of mountain heritage) and make blanket insults in an attempt to make yourself feel better! I was born and grew up in the AppaLATCHan Mountains, yes that is how we pronounce it, and we are the experts because we live in the heart of the Appalachia. I am well educated, well rounded and have been financially successful as well.
            I am not angry at your derogatory comments because your comments do nothing but show your ignorance and mean spirit. I pity you and hope that life will deliver you from such an uninformed and negative place. Best Wishes, Monica

          • First of all I don’t look to the ground when I talk. I’ll look you right in your eye’s that’s the way we are taught we don’t shy away we are friendly folk and we show respect. also to look away or down would show fear or inferiority and i’ll be damned!!! so if you come visiting its pronounced app-a-latch-uhn We don’t get it wrong we friggin live here! if it will help you remember i’ll look you straight in your eyes while I throw an APPLE-AT-CHA!!! and you must be the one my HILL BILLY brethren popped that smart mouth for lol he was arrested for hitting a sissy not for being a hill billy! come on back now ya hear

          • I’m from Cincinnati (Gateway to the south) Across (or as hillbillies say “acrost”) the Ohio River from Kentucky.

            Fourth grade geography told us “Appa-lay-shun.” Heard lately the latch way. I’m stickin’ with the original.

        • Dear Buddy:

          I understand your point.

          But I still think lay is right.

          I may be a Kansas Corn-Pone but I believe that when you strip all the extraneous layers of convention away, lay will prove correct.

          Have a Dovely.

          Sincerely yours,

          Caleb Boone.

          • Dear Caleb,

            You are without a doubt the dumbest, rudest person I have ever heard of. The natives of Appalachia are the ones who NAMED it, so however they named it is correct, which is the latch pronunciation. I would know, my family has lived their for many generations, though I now live in Kansas, like you. Most people here say it incorrectly, with the lay pronunciation, and they also say things like rut instead of root.

            Those who pronounce it Appa-lay-shun are just proving that they aren’t from there, while the natives and those that live anywhere near the mountain range say Appa-latch-un, which is how the first people to settle there and call it that pronounced it.

            When reading your comments, I started out trying to be open minded but that changed as soon as I read your rude, disrespectful, self-righteous responses when people tried to explain their opinions—which happen to be correct—with you. Many of my friends here in Kansas who have never lived anywhere near the Appalachians use the lay pronunciation, and it doesn’t bother me unless they adamantly believe that they are correct and everyone else is wrong.

            And I guarantee if you do your research, you will find that the latch pronunciation is correct, I have done my research to make sure and it has all proven that while both are ways to pronounce it, the correct one is latch.

            Sincerely,

            Josefina Manchini

            • P.S. I’m sorry calling you dumb, that was unkind. You’re probably just misinformed like Kentucky Woman said, but you are without a doubt rude, self-righteous and disrespectful. Please continue to do your research and be kind and open minded to everyone’s opinions

            • In the northern Appalachians we pronounce it “Appalayshun.” Southern people don’t seem to realize that the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Maine to Georgia. Don’t tell us we “don’t live there.”

          • “Actually, this is a very easy question to answer. The mountains should be pronounced “Appa-LATCH-uh” and here’s why:

            Typically speaking, use of a long a (ā) sound in nearly all Native American languages is almost non-existent – particularly in the southeast – including the now extinct Muskogean language spoken by the Apalachen people, for whom the mountains were named.

            So if the “Appalachian” tribe for whom the mountains were named did not have a long a sound in their language, then Appalachian’s Mountains would not either… meaning that the correct pronunciation is “Appa-LATCH-uh”.“

            • I’ve been trying to get that exact same point across for years to people who mispronounce Appalachian or Appalachia. It’s just like my explain to people if you say well his name is John but I pronounce it Joan. Doesn’t matter you’re not pronouncing it right period it would just like be ordering a Coke but instead of saying Coke you say KOOK. Again incorrect pronunciation.

              The word is derived from Native American language and thus should be pronounced as such.

              Just because you feel like it should be pronounced this way or you were told it’s pronounced another way doesn’t make it right. if you look at the Cascade mountains in the Rocky mountains there is only one way to pronounce those mountain ranges correctly. The Appalachian mountains are no different.

              a-puh-LATCH-uhn is the only correct way to pronounce Appalachian.

          • Caleb. Just before receiving a college degree I took a class entitled “Local Historical Explorations.” While I attended a full blooded Cherokee Native American told us there wasn’t a long “a” sound in the Cherokee tongue. He called our beautiful Blue Ridge mountains the “Appa latchen” mountain.

        • While attending an event @ Elizabethton TN Fort Sycamore Shoals. The speaker was a full blooded Cherokee native. He said Appalachia is a Cherokee tribe word. He said there wasn’t a long “A” sound in the Cherokee language. He said it had to be pronounced “Appa latcha” I have a friend from Cheney, KS. and he doesn’t talk like you!! The only good thing about Kansas is Omaha is there. Don’t believe me? Just ask the Wizard!!! Of course just like all the rest of us he doesn’t know where Kansas is either.

        • Have been listening to radio reports about all the flooding in Kentucky. Two different news guys on two different news guys used”lotch”-like botch. I thought,”What the heck is THIS?!? I’m from Chicago,and I’ve always used (and heard) “lay”. Oh,well ,different strokes for different folks,I guess!!

        • I grew up in Baltimore at a time when many West Virginians came down to work in the shipyards. They all used the Lay pronunciation and it’s the only one I’ve ever heard for the past 60 years until a couple of years ago.

      • Caleb:

        HAHA that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard – a hillbilly from Kansas? Kansas is probably the flattest state in the whole country! Hillbillies don’t live on the plains, that’s why they’re called HILL billies. I was born and raised in the mountains of the Appalachian State, western North Carolina, and lived for 2 decades in deep in the Mountain State, WV. You have no idea what you are talking about and you pretty much disqualified yourself when you said you were from Kansas. I don’t care how countrified you might be, the lifestyle is 100% different when you live in the mountains out in the holler and make do out there. Hillbillies as I’ve known them all my life in Appalachia don’t have huge pastures or fields or flat horizons. They usually have a place in a holler that is isolated from the rest of the world. A holler, if you don’t know, is an Appalachian term for a steep valley with a road or a creek at the bottom.

      • You are from Kansas so your opinion isn’t relevant (jk). I am from the Cumberland Plateau which is in the Southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. I have always said ’latch’ and I am pretty sure I will always say ‘latch’ and if that makes me cool and hip the so be it! Haha

      • I am a hillbilly from the mountains of Western North Carolina. With a great name such as yours Caleb, how can you be so wrong?

        The ONLY way the name Appalachian is pronounced around here is App-uh-LATCH-un.
        I graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.
        It is my humble but correct opinion that anyone from Kansas (famous for being the flattest state in the union) calling themselves
        a hillbilly seems conspicuously ironic. Perhaps the term ‘redneck’ or ‘country’ would be a better choice for your self description than hillbilly.
        Or perhaps I am mistaken and you do live in the hills.

      • You are in Kansas. I actually LIVE in the AppaLATCHun mountains in NC. You dont know shit.

      • I’m English. Never been across the pond, and still live within half a mile of where I was born in rural Hertfordshire.

        Totally agree with everything you said Caleb.
        My eldest son walked from Georgia to Washington up the Appalachian trail, and he didn’t see or hear any latches!!
        Incidentally, Les Claypool and Trent Reznor are probably my favourite Americans, after Big Don Trump of course, but that’s probably a conversation for another time 🙂

      • Okay Caleb, let’s just get technical here. Look in your dictionary for the definition of hillbilly. It states” a Michigan potato farmer. I come from a few generations of them. Be careful who you belittle with your false definition of yourself. I’m betting you’ve never set foot in Michigan. So there.

      • I like you, Caleb. I agree with you too. While people who live there, for the most part, use the “latch” pronunciation, most of the country used to use the “lay” pronunciation until relatively recently. It does sound like a lot of people now are using the,”latch” version to try to fit in. It feels affected and insincere as if it were forced. I am no hillbilly but I grew up a country girl in California. Cheers! 😸

    • I’ve always heard Appa’lay’shun. I’m a southerner. Now recently I’m hearing Appa’latch’uhn. Both pronunciations coming from various speakers on NPR. Since I have a habit of speech it will remain Appa’lay’shun.

      I cannot fault Zach for his interest in cultural language differences because it’s a fascinating subject.

      Elisabeth: The correct word you were looking for is not “prick”. It is “prig”. Either one can be an insult but one can be construed to have Freudian overtones.

      When it comes to discussing cultural differences it’s good to have a thick skin.

    • I can’t LOVE your comment enough, Elisabeth!

    • In that area with lots of people from Scotland you do not use yall (or y’all if you will since it is a contraction of “you” and “all”). The proper word in that area is you’uns. The people at Appalachian State University will give you the correct pronunciation which you and I know. It is with a short a and it IS a Cherokee word. Some idiot northener pronounced it wrong, citing a Native American tribe in Florida of all places which will perpetuate the wrong way of saying it for eternity. Sigh.

  • You say you are from Kansas so have you ever actually been to the Appalachian Mountains? I grew up in North East Tennessee and I never heard anyone say the lay pronunciation until I moved to Texas. I can’t stand when I hear people tell me I am wrong when I was the one who grew up there and they haven’t even seen the place in person. I don’t know where you got the idea that latch is for “trendy sissies” and “hillbillies” but almost anyone from the southern part of the Appalachians will tell you it is the latch pronunciation. You can’t say everyone who says latch are “trendy sissies” or “hillbillies”.

    • Dear Flame Star 1:

      I have visited Tennessee many times over many years.

      My sister lived in Adams, Clarksville and in the extreme northeast corner of Tennessee for a total of about twenty years.

      I have spent many long, leiisurely visits in Tennessee to see her and her family.

      I know exactly what I am talking about.

      Tennessee hillbillies will do whatever they can to not speak proper English.

      They do this because they are ashamed or feel inferior to people from north of the Line.

      Whenever I go to Tennessee, no hillbilly will look me in the eye: they look down at the floor in shame.

      And, their speech is slurred and garbled.

      I asked a lady who was a lifelong Tennessean about this. She was a lifelong Tennessee State Employee in a Government Retirement Benefits Administration Office in Nashville.

      She told me I was exactly right.

      She told me Tennesseans all feel inferior to Northerners.

      She told me they intentionally do not look Northerners in the eye or speak up because they are ashamed of their poor education, poor diction and hillbilly accent.

      She told me she had experienced this personally, all her life long.

      She was about sixty years old.

      I am certain that the “latch” pronunciation is the result of Tennessee hillbillies’ failure to speak properly, which stems from their overwhelming sense of shame in the presence of those more well-spoken or better educated than they.

      That is the simple, direct and correct explanation for the “latch” pronunciation, and the countless other sloppy, incorrect hillbilly pronunciations, habits and customs which prevail in hillbilly-populated areas of our country.

      I love the hillbillies and wish them well, but I also do understand the truth behind their customs and I have offered my opinion here to correct the erroneous impression left by the above article.

      Sincerely yours,

      Caleb Boone.

      • The way Southern people speak is closer to the original American’s dialect. Know your history? Are you trolling us or is this your actual opinion?

        • Dear Ben Collins:

          This is my opinion.

          I personally typed all my letters in this discussion from scratch on this website.

          I don’t agree that Southerners’ accents most closely mimic true Colonial American speech.

          Many early American Southerners were Irish and Scottish.

          Their accents would be different from the speech of most of the original Colonists.

          Now, surely, there were many accents throughout the Colonies, and the South. I refer to the accents of the majority of the original Colonists. I think those accents were different from the accents of the majority of the free men who populated the American South.

          I confess that I don’t care for hillbilly accents.

          I also don’t agree with the conservative-spirited country-music-inspired glorification of hillbilly speech and beliefs. I think that is silly and fake. We have had to put up with it for about three hundred years and I am weary of it.

          This suggestion that the “latch” pronunciation is correct is merely one of the hundreds of millions of promoted hillbilly-related beliefs, customs, practices and conventions which Southerners will not let go.

          Have a Dovely.

          Sincerely yours,

          Caleb Boone.

          • Well don’t ever come to Bristol, Tennessee, then. We’re proud of our heritage and the incredible and beautiful human culture we create today in this region. Our land is one of loving thy neighbor while minding your business. Our people are survivors and proud. We don’t have a stereotype, either, here – it’s a land of diversity and diverse opinions and viewpoints and accents.

            • Dear Ben:

              For about ten years, my sister and her family lived in Adams, Tennessee about fifty miles outside Nashville.

              Adams is a town of approximately three hundred people about eighteen miles outside Clarksville, Tennessee. I have visited that area many, many times.

              The Trail of Tears passes within five miles of my sister’s house. We hiked there with her children.

              But I will say that whenever I visited, no hillbilly would look me in the eye. They were all depressed and they looked down at their shoes or at the floor.

              I spoke to a lifelong Tennessean, a lady who was about sixty years old, and she confirmed that all Tennessee hillbillies are ashamed of themselves and they look down when speaking to Yankees or Northerners. She confirmed that all the stereotypes about hillbillies are true. She was a dyed-in-the-wool lifelong mature, intelligent, Tennessean.

              I love hillbillies and I want to help them.

              But first we all must recognize the stereotypes are true so we can deal with the problem.

              Have a Dovely.

              Sincerely yours,

              Caleb.

            • Hi Caleb. My name is David, and I’m a so-called “hillbilly” from Tennessee who uses the “latch” pronunciation /ˈæpəˈlætʃə/ as opposed to the “laish” pronunciation /ˈæpəˈlɛɪʃə/.

              A “hillbilly”, as defined based on the Random House Dictionary, is “a person from a backwoods or other remote area, especially from the mountains of the southern U.S.” Collins English Dictionary takes it another step by saying a hillbilly is “generally (derogatory) an unsophisticated person, especially from the mountainous areas in the southern US.” And just for clarity’s sake, “sophisticated” is defined as “altered by education, experience, etc. so as to be worldly-wise; not naïve.”

              Going down the list… I’m not from a remote or backwoods area. I grew up just outside of Nashville, then lived in Knoxville for several years, and then relocated to Miami, FL. As for sophisticated, I have indeed been shaped by education and experience—three college degrees spanning ten years, in fact, my PhD dissertation addressing the sociological implications of Anglican church music on current American practices of choral composition. I now teach college courses on classical music theory as an adjunct professor, at the ripe old age of 29.

              I am many things, but a hillbilly is not one of them. In fact, it is *because* of my alteration via education (sophistication by definition) that I’ve come to prefer the pronunciation /ˈæpəˈlætʃə/, seeing its cultural significance and its history. I would actually argue that it is truly the unsophisticated individual who insists the pronunciation /ˈæpəˈlɛɪʃə/ has no linguistic significance outside of hipsters and hillbillies. And many academics in my social circles would agree with me.

              But what do I know? I’m just a Southern hillbilly who talks funny, I guess.

              Best regards,

              David

            • Dear David:

              I am a singer. I am a tenor and have been classically trained. I am the only member in the history of the Fort Worth, Texas Boys’ Choir to have been admitted to the principal performing choir immediately at the conclusion of my first impromptu or informal audition. In college in Topeka, Kansas I sang as a soloist with and member of every vocal ensemble and choir in my college. Although I was not a music student, I was invited to sing in every annual music department honors recital (evening public performance to a full concert hall audience of 2,500) after my freshman year. I studied and sang the Lieder of Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Schumann and the oratorio arias of Handel, Mendelssohn and many others in college, and have continued to do so for over thirty years, after graduation from college. I continue to sing as a Lieder and Oratorio soloist in performances at the local university.

              I thought it would be good to accentuate my musical background. I also was a paid cantor and section leader in an Episcopal Parish Church, Saint David’s, during college in Topeka, Kansas. I sang for the Sometime Archbishop of Canterbury in that church.

              I apologize, but I must disagree with you.

              The lay pronunciation must be right.

              It feels so right, and it sounds so clean.

              Have a Dovely.

              Sincerely yours,

              Caleb.

            • Well Ben, what if Caleb goes to Bristol, TN? Born and raised in the south and I, for one, am tired of our “heritage”. Grew up in the Jim Crow era.

          • Just shut up you bigot.

            • “Hillbillies” aren’t embarrassed to talk to educated people, Yanks, northerners, and whomever else you think we believe has intellectual superiority over us. We just think they’re jackasses (like you) and would much rather not. If you’d like to visit Bristol, I’ll gladly look you in the eye and tell you you’re an ignorant jackass.

              Bless your heart,

              Morgan

      • Caleb,

        Again, I must say you are an uninformed arrogant idiot! Maybe the lady from Tennesse that you referred to feels ashamed and inferior which is sad. She most likely felt that way because she was talking to condescending, rude YOU! I can tell you that too assume that ALL people with Southern accents feel that way is beyond ridiculous! I am from the mountains of North Carolina and I have never felt like that. By far, most Southerners are VERY PROUD of our heritage!
        Along with your ignorance, you are an AGITATOR, I think that is really what your rude rant is all about. You are inadequate and insecure and weak so you insult others in order to make you feel better about yourself. You are a first class hater. What you are saying here tells people more about you, than the people who live in the Appa LATCH ian Mountains!
        You really need to get back on your meds.

  • I assure you, there are times and places when it matters how you say a word, when it matters that you are in your homeland or you are an invader. And should you dare to actually ask and wonder, just for the sake of argument, would the origin of the word actually be a way to know who is the enemy? To know who — if they were there — would have sympathized with the Trail of Tears? Who still to this day believes as those Men did, who might just not have any sense of time or history or humanity?

    So let me ask you this, if you can for a moment imagine being somewhere other than where you are now, what if, just for the sake of augment, you were helpless and staring at a sharp arrow notched in a tautly strung bow aimed straight at your throat, held in the very capable hands of a Cherokee and you were asked,

    “How do you say the word A-p-p-a-l-a-c-h-i-a-n?” The letters spelled out carefully for your previously deaf ears…

    I think we both know the answer.

    • Dear Ben Collins:

      I understand your point.

      But we are not on the battlefield now.

      We are in the America of the Twenty-first Century.

      I have spent many hours researching Native American Genealogy for my clients of Native American Descent. I have a very long-time client who was a Pottawatomie Ceremonial Dancer.

      I don’t think anyone would kill me for using a long a to pronounce Appalachian.

      Have a Dovely.

      Sincerely yours,

      Caleb Boone.

      • The Native American tribe the region is named for didn’t have a SH in their language or dialects. http://www.native-languages.org/apalachee_guide.htm.

        • JS Leonard- This is the point I was waiting for someone to make. This article explains it nicely: https://peopleofonefire.com/origin-of-the-word-appalachian.html. As the article explains, Colonial era maps referred to the mountain chain as the Apalache, Apalatsy or Apalachen. The term Apalachen or the modern spelling, Appalachian, is the plural form for Apalachee, the group of people.

          A-puh-LAY-chuhn is a bastardization of the original pronunciation, which explains why Caleb is such a big fan of saying it this way. I agree that this is an acceptable pronunciation, but to say it is the only correct pronunciation is to choose to ignore the origins of the word.

          Regarding the hillbilly stereotype that our friend prefers to cling to as justification for his bigoted opinion, I am from Illinois, have lived the past 15 years in South Dakota and recently moved to Cleveland, TN. I visit small towns in the region from Georgia all the way to Kentucky with my job and can assure you, no one is looking at their feet in shame for being a southerner. These are some of the most genuinely friendly and social people I have met anywhere, and all that I have had the pleasure of speaking with are proud to call this beautiful place their home.

          You get what you give, and if the behavior that Caleb has shown while trolling this comment section is any indication of how he behaves in the real world, it’s no wonder no one wants to make eye contact with him.

  • Caleb, I have to assume that you’re just trying to be provocative. Because it isn’t “hipster” to pronounce it the way we all heard it growing up in those mountains. I’ve always been told that people from the Appalachian, even points north, pronounce it as latch and people who aren’t from there use laytch.

    Plus, it’s a Cherokee word and they don’t have the long a sound.

    I’m probably being redundant to other replies but I can’t read the later comments on my phone.

    • “It’s a Cherokee word and they don’t have the long a sound” – the best point here. There you have it. 🙂

      • We know what English speakers can do to the pronunciations of words from other languages. We also know that regional differences exist in the US where the same words vary in pronunciation from region to region as do certain cultural norms. I know someone from the Appalachian region of PA. He thinks West Virginians are the lowest form of life he’s ever met. He doesn’t have a high opinion of the folks in his home town either.

        Me, I’m from North Georgia but eventually moved to Florida. Great mix down here and you have learn to get along with a lot of different people from everywhere. After a while your own regional identity is not that important.

        So here we are folks having a To-may-to/To-mah-to war. We’ve been Balkanized.

  • Dear Caleb,

    I went to Appalachian State University, in BOONE North Carolina, and not only is your comment reductionist, shallow and rude, it’s flat out wrong as the running results of the poll show clearly. Further the namesake of the mountainous region descends from the appalachee Native American tribes, and the pronunciation is “App-uh-Latch-an”.

    I studied neuropsychology there and I’m about as far from an uneducated hick or hillbilly as one can get. Have a beautiful day in Kansas, having no skin in the game there and being wrong as you are.

  • Living in these mountains my entire life, born and raised with people who have been here their entire lives going back for Lord knows how long, you’ve got the “lay” and the “latch” mixed up. Appa-latch-ian is how it is said here, and Appa-lay-shun is what those followign the trend tend to say. Or at the very least, those in the northern Appalachians.

    • Here in North Central Pennsylvania, I have never heard anyone say it laych and definitely not latch. We say layshan. Right or wrong that is how most everyone pronounces here. I have, for my entire 39 years of life, been taught to say it that way. So I would not say it is a “trend” to say it that way. I am not being trendy.

  • Hi Caleb,

    I just saw your post and thought I could explain better the linguistic history of the mountain range instead of relying only on loose cultural assumptions. The Appalachian mountain range is named by Hernando de Soto after using Appalachee Indian guides and then generalizing this tribe with the Cherokee nation who lived in the present day southern Appalachian mountains. Due to this colonized name for their land, the Cherokee ended up taking it on and pronouncing it in terms of their native alphabet which leads to the pronunciation of app-a- LATCH- uh. I am a Cherokee tribe member, and we refer to it in our own native terms, as we see it as a sign of respect for our native land as opposed to the anglicized version that later came with the formation of the American colonies. This is similar to the pronunciation of Nevada, as it became anglocized as well.

    If you want more information on the historical background of this area, Appalachian State University and East Tennessee State University both have extensive linguistic studies of this area.

    Thanks!

    Amy Burton

    • Great post and best answer. 🙂

    • This! All day long.

  • I married a man from Boone, NC.

    I was used to saying “a-puh-LAY-chuhn”, and I was very quickly corrected by locals. I was told that the correct pronunciation is “a-puh-LATCH-uhn”

  • The voice of the Appa LATCH ens… WATA Boone (North Carolina)

  • Wrong. I’m from southern Appalachia. We say Appalaycha.

  • It’s up to people who live in Appalacia how to pronounce the name of their mountains and home. If they say latch, it doesn’t matter what I grew up with in PA or CT!

    • What if you grew up in the northern Appalachians? They do run from northern Alabama to Canada afterall. This dichotomy exists people who live within the region.

  • Since Hillbillies are the indigenous people of the Appalachians …… when in Rome …. it’s “Latch” and it’s not being trendy, it’s what we’ve always called it.

  • Damn Yankees. Wrong as usual

  • Call Appalachian State University at (828) 262-2000 and listen to how the phone is answered!

    • GREAT ANSWER…… CALL APPALACHIAN UNIVERSITY AND LISTEN!!!

  • Appalachian is pronounced a-puh-LATCH-uhn. People who say a-puh-LAY-chuhn our entirely 100% incorrect.

    The reason for this is It’s a native American word. Every single native American language from east coast to West Coast from the Canadian border all the way down into Mexico do not have the pronunciation of LAY as in a-puh-LAY-chuhn. What they do have is the pronunciation for LA as in the LATCH in a-puh-LATCH-uhn.

    doesn’t matter where you’re from and doesn’t matter if it’s well that’s how we pronounce it it’s incorrect. It would be like calling John, Joan you’re from a certain place. Doesn’t matter where you’re from the simple fact is it’s not Joan it’s John. Appalachian is the exact same way.

    Appalachian University would not call itself a-puh-LATCH-uhn University if that was not the correct pronunciation.

    And yes it’s a massive pet peeve when people mispronounce APPALACHIAN & APPALACHIA (a-puh-LATCH-uh).

    My family was one of the first families to settle the region in North Carolina. The vast majority of those who settled the region came in through Virginia and they were Scots Irish as were my family. The pronunciation changed the farther north you went as you got away from the Appalachian range. The mispronunciation begins just on the other side of the Pennsylvania border. From that border south is pronounced correctly. In more than likely it was because of those settlers that were in Pennsylvania or German Dutch and they could not correctly pronounce Appalachian.

  • What is this one sentence per paragraph (line break) thing you do. Did they teach you that in elementary school, too?

  • So in Boone North Carolina there’s a university named Appalachian State, pronounced Apple latch chun. The Appalachian trail, however is pronounced Apple lay chin. Now you know. By the way attendant Appalachian State University in Boone North Carolina and have lived in North Carolina all my life, so again now you know. We

  • So in Boone, North Carolina, there’s a university named Appalachian State, pronounced Apple latch chun. The Appalachian trail, however is pronounced Apple lay chin. Now you know. By the way I graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and I have lived in North Carolina all my life, so again now you know. While most of us do mispronounce the trail name, it doesn’t mean we don’t know it’s correct pronunciation. Most people screw up the name of our beloved college.

  • you, sir, are a moron.

    Respectfully.

  • Lol I literally live 5 minutes from App-a‐LATCH-un State University. My husband and I both graduated from that college. It’s always been pronounced App‐a-LATCH-un. If you actually lived in the area, you would know that. Pronounce it however you wish, but locals from my area are going to laugh at you and point and say “tourist” if you call it “Appa‐LAY‐shun” anywhere near Watauga County.

  • This hurts my head. This whole post hurts my head. Why don’t we refer to the ACTUAL pronunciation and let everyone pronouncing it like you just be wrong. The guy that sounds like a sissy (nice slur btw) is right and you are just an idiot from Kansas

• I grew up in Maryland during the 1960s and 70s and everyone said LAY. I’m not changing now.

  • To those who wrongly believe there is not a correct way to pronounce Appalachia, here is your argument:

    1. The word “Appalachian” is spoken in two ways.

    2. The ways they are spoken are divided (roughly) by region.

    3. Both spoken ways are “acceptable” or “should be accepted” — there is “no harm” in accepting both, it is “OK” to speak it either way (although you make the conjecture that “majority rules” and therefore it’s really “better” to go with the way you learned to speak it).

    Hopefully you agree with these statements so far.

    What seems clear is that the ORIGIN of the word has no bearing on your argument. The only origin that is relevant is the region it is spoken in. If the first time you hear it is one way, that’s the right way.

    This is the fundamental question — what is the origin of any word and any pronunciation? Should that matter in any regard or should we simply speak however we see fit and as long as we are understood, it’s all good?

    I’ll argue on your behalf, with:

    4. It does not matter how a word was spoken in the past. All that matters is how it is spoken in the present.

    5. If a word was spoken one way in the past and a different way in the future, that is part of an “acceptable” form of the evolution of language.

    The thrust of my counter argument, and my defeat of your logic is as follows: “It does not matter to you NOW how the word is spoken.”

    You see, it is the present tense that is so fundamental — the present tense that you claim is such an informative authority on the rightness or acceptableness of language pronunciation.

    So let me tell you a very short story in order to frame my own point. During the Colombian revolution, the occupiers could never quite figure out the correct way to say the word “Francisco” no matter how hard they tried to blend in as spies and land-takers. A famous general once rounded up a bunch of suspects and asked them to loudly pronounce the word. Any true local easily expressed the subtlety. All the rest were summarily thrown into the river to drown.

    Time and time again, history tells of of occupations and conquerors, where the locals know exactly how things are said and how to tell who is an outsider and who is an authenticlocal.

    “The locals cringe when they hear Appalachia pronounced differently than they way they would speak it.”

    I assure you, there are times and places when it matters how you say a word, when it matters that you are in your homeland or you are an invader. And should you dare to actually ask and wonder, just for the sake of argument, would the origin of the word actually be a way to know who is the enemy? To know who — if they were there — would have sympathized with the Trail of Tears? Who still to this day believes as those Men did, who might just not have any sense of time or history or humanity?

    So let me ask you this, if you can for a moment imagine being somewhere other than where you are now, what if, just for the sake of augment, you were helpless and staring at a sharp arrow notched in a tautly strung bow aimed straight at your throat, held in the very capable hands of a Cherokee and you were asked,

    “How do you say the word A-p-p-a-l-a-c-h-i-a-n?” The letters spelled out carefully for your previously deaf ears…

    I think we both know the answer.

    • You are incorrect. The notion that a word is correct just because that is the way it is pronounced in a region is politically correct BS.

      Appalachian is pronounced a-puh-LATCH-uhn. People who say a-puh-LAY-chuhn our entirely 100% incorrect.

      The reason for this is It’s a native American word. Every single native American language from east coast to West Coast from the Canadian border all the way down into Mexico do not have the pronunciation of LAY as in a-puh-LAY-chuhn. What they do have is the pronunciation for LA as in the LATCH in a-puh-LATCH-uhn.

      doesn’t matter where you’re from and doesn’t matter if it’s well that’s how we pronounce it it’s incorrect. It would be like calling John, Joan you’re from a certain place. Doesn’t matter where you’re from the simple fact is it’s not Joan it’s John. Appalachian is the exact same way.

      Appalachian University would not call itself a-puh-LATCH-uhn University if that was not the correct pronunciation.

      And yes it’s a massive pet peeve when people mispronounce APPALACHIAN & APPALACHIA (a-puh-LATCH-uh).

      My family was one of the first families to settle the region in North Carolina. The vast majority of those who settled the region came in through Virginia and they were Scots Irish as were my family. The pronunciation changed the farther north you went as you got away from the Appalachian range. The mispronunciation begins just on the other side of the Pennsylvania border. From that border south is pronounced correctly. In more than likely it was because of those settlers that were in Pennsylvania or German Dutch and they could not correctly pronounce Appalachian.

      “Just because” that’s how you pronounce Appalachian doesn’t change the fact there’s a correct pronunciation.

    • Up to this point I was tracking you pretty well. But your last post has so many holes in it that I am having a hard time discerning where to begin. Must have flunked your logic class. Wouldn’t put you on the debate team. We’d get our a**es kicked.

      From everything I’ve read I would say it’s safe to say the proper pronunciation is “Appa-latch-un. No semantics, word twisting, or psycho-babble will change my mind. Don’t waste your time responding because I’m outta here.

• Grew up in WNC (San Fran Hayco!) and live in Tallahassee- we have Apalachee (A-puh-LATCH-ee) Parkway in Tallahassee – and I grew up in the a-puh-LATCH-uhn mountains.

  • The Appalachian mountains were essentially named thusly because of the Apalachee people.

    • You are correct and just like the Cherokee the CH is pronounced CH like LATCH. Native American language and dialect doesn’t have a pronunciation for LAY as in a-puh-LAY-chuhn. What they do have is the pronunciation for LATCH as in a-puh-LATCH-uhn. So it is a phonical impossibility that Appalachian can be pronounced a-puh-LAY-chuhn.

  • I grew up in a hollow southern Appalachia. We all say Appalaychan. No, we most certainly don’t say Appalatchan. Only people not from Appalachia say that.

    • NO!!! I live in Western North Carolina ……. a 15 minute drive from APPALACHAIN UNIVERSITY and we don’t say AppaLAYshun!!! As an earlier post suggests (and provides the phone number) CALL APPALACHAIN UNIVERSITY AND LISTEN TO THE ANSWER ON THE RECORDING!!! Don’t post incorrect information, speaking for all APPALACHAIN dwellers when you are WRONG!!!

    • I’m sorry. I have a hard time believing you grew up in a *holler in Southern Appalachian and say App-a-LAY-chuh. That would be very unlikely and extremely strange. The difference in the pronunciation of the word almost exclusively comes from a divide in the southern Appalachian and northern Appalachian regions.

• I, too, am from extremely western Kansas, and am embarrassed by Caleb’s arrogance. I know a number of fantastic people from Tennessee and would look to them for pronunciation of their local landmarks. We have a river in Kansas that we, as a state pronounce differently than all the states around us. But that’s the way pronunciations go. When I get to go East, I will respectfully call it what the locals call it, and switch when I should.

• Appa-la-shin

  • This is historically incorrect and actually by saying this way you are being unintentionally anti-native american.

• When I say phone people think i say Foone. We are all obviously saying the same thing it just comes off differently with diversity in accents. Just accept it people!

• Most thru-hikers will tell you it’s a north-south thing, with the dividing line roughly on the Mason-Dixon line. As a Pennsylvanian, I have fond memories of backpacking with southern friends and having friendly arguments about how to say Appalachian, grits vs. oatmeal, etc., etc.

• To those who wrongly believe there is not a correct way to pronounce Appalachia, here is your argument:

  1. The word “Appalachian” is spoken in two ways.

  2. The ways they are spoken are divided (roughly) by region.

  3. Both spoken ways are “acceptable” or “should be accepted” — there is “no harm” in accepting both, it is “OK” to speak it either way (although you make the conjecture that “majority rules” and therefore it’s really “better” to go with the way you learned to speak it).

  Hopefully you agree with these statements so far.

  What seems clear is that the ORIGIN of the word has no bearing on your argument. The only origin that is relevant is the region it is spoken in. If the first time you hear it is one way, that’s the right way.

  This is the fundamental question — what is the origin of any word and any pronunciation? Should that matter in any regard or should we simply speak however we see fit and as long as we are understood, it’s all good?

  I’ll argue on your behalf, with:

  4. It does not matter how a word was spoken in the past. All that matters is how it is spoken in the present.

  5. If a word was spoken one way in the past and a different way in the future, that is part of an “acceptable” form of the evolution of language.

  The thrust of my counter argument, and my defeat of your logic is as follows: “It does not matter to you NOW how the word is spoken.”

  You see, it is the present tense that is so fundamental — the present tense that you claim is such an informative authority on the rightness or acceptableness of language pronunciation.

  So let me tell you a very short story in order to frame my own point. During the Colombian revolution, the occupiers could never quite figure out the correct way to say the word “Francisco” no matter how hard they tried to blend in as spies and land-takers. A famous general once rounded up a bunch of suspects and asked them to loudly pronounce the word. Any true local easily expressed the subtlety. All the rest were summarily thrown into the river to drown.

  Time and time again, history tells of of occupations and conquerors, where the locals know exactly how things are said and how to tell who is an outsider and who is an authenticlocal.

  “The locals cringe when they hear Appalachia pronounced differently than they way they would speak it.”

  I assure you, there are times and places when it matters how you say a word, when it matters that you are in your homeland or you are an invader. And should you dare to actually ask and wonder, just for the sake of argument, would the origin of the word actually be a way to know who is the enemy? To know who — if they were there — would have sympathized with the Trail of Tears? Who still to this day believes as those Men did, who might just not have any sense of time or history or humanity?

  So let me ask you this, if you can for a moment imagine being somewhere other than where you are now, what if, just for the sake of augment, you were helpless and staring at a sharp arrow notched in a tautly strung bow aimed straight at your throat, held in the very capable hands of a Cherokee and you were asked,

  “How do you say the word A-p-p-a-l-a-c-h-i-a-n?” The letters spelled out carefully for your previously deaf ears…

  I think we both know the answer.

  • You need to learn the language. The Native American tribe the region is named for didn’t have a SH in their language or dialects. http://www.native-languages.org/apalachee_guide.htm. If theyhad no SH the n there can be no SHUN, BUT they did have CH as in Chair. Learn the language learn and.know the correct pronunciation. a-puh-LATCH-uhn is the only way to properly pronounce it. Any other way goes against the language.

    • I’m with Leonard. Thank you.

• An answer in song form to my fellow southern Appalachians who wax pompous and self-righteous on this issue: https://soundcloud.com/dulciferous/appalachian-shibboleth

• I am a native born North Carolinian from the Southern Piedmont Region of the state. EVERYTIME time I hear actors on NCIS and other popular shows and news programs pronounce Appalachian I cringe. At least pronounce it like we do: “App-uh-latch-un”. The school by that name was known as Appa”LATCH”ian State Teachers College for many years and is now known as Appa”LATCH”ian State University. Please respect the “when in Rome” rule when referring publicly to that area of our state.

  • I lived in western North Carolina for years. Never heard anyone say Appalatchun…never not once. Everyone says Appalaychan.

    • Well Jenny, if you lived here and NEVER heard anyone pronounce it AppaLATCHin, you must have NEVER left your home. I live 15 minutes from APPALACHAIN University and locals always say AppaLATCHin and when we hear it pronounced any other way, we know they are from somewhere else!!!

    • Literally the most shocking statement I’ve heard this week. I simply don’t believe you.

• Celeb, you’re an uneducated moron. I dont care where you’re from, you are pronouncing it incorrectly.

• I think this says it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCqWrsAZ_o

• The hills are in eastern Tennessee. Clarksville and Nashville are more to the west……it’s flatter there, really. How can a Kansan be a ‘hillbilly’ when all of Kansas I’ve seen (granted, not all of it) is flatter than a flitter.

• Speaking as one who grew up there, neither pronunciation you have is correct.

  Everyone I know has always pronounced it “a-puh-LAY-Kuhn” or ”

  a-puh-LAY-ken” — the latter being closer to the way our school teachers taught us to say it.

• Was in grade school in Goldsboro NC back in the 60’s. When we studied the state of North Carolina and it’s history and geography, Appalachian was pronounced with the LAY sound. My teachers were life long North Carolinians.

  Until very recently, I have never heard the word pronounced with the LATCH sound. But, it’s pretty much how all of us grew up hearing and saying the word.
  My mother pronounced Washington with a WARSH sound, I pronounce it with the WASH sound; even in our own household we disagreed on a pronunciation. So I guess, each to his/her own.

  • Well there you go ROCKY, you lived in Goldsboro!!! The flat lands, not in the APPALACHAIN MOUNTAINS! And maybe you had a Yankee teacher too! Who knows…. I’m sorry but you are wrong!

• I always thought it was Appa-LAY-kin with a hard ch like in the word ache. So I guess I was wrong all around lol. Anyone else thought it was pronounced with a hard ch? I feel kinda dumb now bc I’m in my 40s and consider myself well read and rather well educated in basic pronunciation. Oh well…

  • No, I grew up in Appalachia and never heard anyone say the ch with a hard K. Never, not once. It’s App-a-lay-chan, with the ch like church.

    • Well there you go again JENNY, SPREADING MISINFORMATION! People from the heart of Appalachia pronounce it AppaLATCHan!

• End of the day, it doesn’t matter where you heard whichever pronunciation or how long you’ve lived in a certain area. It’s redundant. If you want the true pronunciation, look at the native language. As every southern should know, Appalachian is Cherokee. There is no “long a” in Cherokee, so they would never say “lay”. Instead, they use the “latch” pronunciation. All in all, arguing online will get you nowhere. Take that information and do what you want with it. At least you know now.

• I agree with Fuck You above.

• What a total waste of good energy.

• They are both correct. If you pronounce it with a “Lay” by all means continue to do so. But understand when you do so while in the Southern Mountains you immediately identify yourself as an outsider. Those of us who were raised there and pronounce it with a “Latch” understand that those who pronounce it with a “Lay” are not stupid, just ignorant. I have heard all the agreements about how I am to stupid to pronounce where I live, and so on. The bottom line, when all is said and done, we want you to continue to pronounce it with a “Lay”. We instantly know that you are a stranger, probably look down your nose at us, are an outsider, and more than likely cannot be trusted. So in your arrogance and ignorance, when in the Southern Mountains and talking to the locals and using “Lay” to pronounce the region they live in, you are giving away your misconceptions and doing more damage to yourself than you know. This video is the best explanation of I have seen of this:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCqWrsAZ_o
  Just to clarify, it is the region you live in, not the state. If you are from NC, TN, VA, KY, WV, GA and say “Lay”, then you are nore than likely not from the Mountains or, you are looked at as “Puttin on Airs”.
  Lastly, I don’t mean this to be insulting but, I found it very entertaining that someone from Kansas called themselves a Hillbilly. I don’t think they quite understand the term.
  https://www.usu.edu/geo/geomorph/kansas.html

  • Wrong. Grew up in southern Appalachia. Never heard anyone say Appalatchan…never, not once. The only time I heard that pronunciation was on TV.

    • No Jenny you are wrong. I grew up and still live in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and NO ONE from here says AppaLAYshia. I live 15 minutes from Appalachian State University, please tell the entire campus including the educators that they are ALL mispronouncing it. Hahaha.

      • I grew up in the Appalachians too and never heard “latch” until 2015. I even jokingly called them the Apple Nation Mountains. It’s okay to accept that there are regional differences in pronunciation, and since the Appalachians take up such a large area (they extend all the way into Canada), it is inevitable that people within the various regions within that range will pronounce it differently.

    • Were you homeschooled? Never properly educated in a school system? That’s the only explanation for this.

• I just want to thank you for clarifying the pronunciation. I grew up North and thought all said it with a “lay”. I’m listening to an American Revolution book on Audible “American Revolutions” by Alan Taylor and I was getting bugged by his pronunciation of Appalachian with a “latch”, assuming he was wrong, it sounded so odd to my ears. It an interesting distinction.

  What I find sad is the anger of opposing views expressed in the opinions above (I stopped reading after a few). Our diversity of speech, dialect, and pronunciations are something we ought to celebrate in our country. Lots of regions are losing their distinct sound because of of media. It seems a foolish waste of energy to to get angry over and immediately makes me doubt the angry person’s intellectual capabilities.
  But your comparisons were aptly put.
  Thanks.

  • I am in complete agreement with you!

• There are very few things that can get under my skin faster than hearing someone pronounce Appalachia with the long A. Latch, people, AppaLATCHa

  • Look up chian pronunciation. It is pronounced chee-un. So the correct is Appala cheeun

    • Not to be confused with shee-un

    • That’s ridiculous, many letter combinations get pronounce in different ways. Look at ough.

• Ha ha!! I find this very comical. It irks ME, when I frequently hear the “latch” version. And, many dictionaries (such as “Webster’s II” and “Webster’s New World” Dictionary list the “long A” version as either the only, or the second option in the way of pronunciation. Now, relax, folks…this is ONLY in response to the woman who INSISTED that the “latch” version is the ONLY one. Ultimately, tolerance probably should reign, no? Hell, a lot of words are pronounced differently in different areas of the country. Besides being a doctor, I do a number of voices and dialects. ..and there is a huge diff. in how “Standard American English” (like in Broadcast Radio) (versus, say, in a Texas dialect, or even British dialects) words like “here” or “wine” are pronounced. ; )

• Being a descendant of both those who came over on the Mayflower and those who founded the State of Franklin which was the predecessor of the State of Tennessee, I feel compelled to comment on what I have read here. When one discusses with authority a subject of which they have little or no knowledge with no facts or research to back up their comments they tend to display for all to see that they are both foolish and ignorant. This seems to be your situation. Many of the words you consider incorrectly pronounced in the southern dialect are actually from the original old english pronunciations of the words. The Appalachian Region particularly in North Carolina and Tennessee are consider to be the closest to the original pronunciations even more so then in England. In regards to your comments suggesting Southerners to be slow witted, ignorant, uneducated hillbillies with inferiority complexes….well…I have to refer to all the famous writers, orators, scientists, artists, musicians, athletes, researchers, singers, actors, doctors, lawyers, Miss Americas, and Miss USAs that have come out of the South. While I do not profess to have the exact figures, but I would guess that per capita the South has had more people of note then the rest of the country combined. In the South being humble, well mannered, and gracious is considered to be well bred. On a last note if Southerners were in and out of jail as much as you suggest there would be a jail on every corner. Your lack of knowledge is astounding so you opinion on anything let alone the pronunciation of a word is highly suspect. I suggest you study and research your topic before you blast your thoughts on the internet in the future. As you may or may not know the internet last forever….who wants to look foolish forever?! I will leave with a Jeff Foxworthy quote that seems quite appropriate at this point…..”Here’s your sign!”

• I can’t seem to get this comment in its proper location so I will state that I am replying to Ben Collins.

  Up to this point I was tracking you pretty well. But your last post has so many holes in it that I am having a hard time discerning where to begin. Must have flunked your logic class. Wouldn’t put you on the debate team. We’d get our a**es kicked.
  From everything I’ve read I would say it’s safe to say the proper pronunciation is “Appa-latch-un. No semantics, word twisting, or psycho-babble will change my mind. Don’t waste your time responding because I’m outta here.

• I have never encountered the phrase, “Have a dovely.” CalebBoone.

  Many plums, lovely dovely Guinevere, Lovely Guinevere, many plums! QUEEN. What else shall I put in it, royal Arthur, royal Arthur? KING.

  Fairy Operettas – Page 76 (Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards)

  Many cheers, let’s have a beer chummy dummy Caleb. Many Cheers! Appalachian ! What else can you say royal Kansas, Royal Caleb, “king”.

  Fairy Tales Page 107 (Hillbillies Rule)

• Yoooo shoutout to Caleb who doesn’t know how to pronounce appa-LATCH-ia. Go back to Kansas Dorothy