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Michael Ellis traces early humorous sketches and “literary dialect” techniques, evaluates their authenticity and usefulness as linguistic evidence, and considers the social impact of these portrayals. The essay also surveys broad trends in Appalachian fiction and the evolving choices authors make when depicting home-community speech.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-treatment-of-dialect-in-appalachian-literature/424803/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-treatment-of-dialect-in-appalachian-literature/424803.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"WPS_1790064749","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-09-28",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main purpose of this essay?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It describes literary depictions of Appalachian English since the mid-nineteenth century, explores what these “literary dialects” reveal about earlier Appalachian Englishes, and explains how they shaped popular ideas about Appalachian English.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which early work is cited as an example of an Appalachian literary dialect?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"George Washington Harris’s 1845 humorous sketch, “The Knob Dance—A Tennessee Frolic,” is presented as one of the earliest examples.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the essay discuss authenticity and linguistic evidence?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It raises questions about the nature of literary dialects, how authentic they are, and whether they can be used as linguistic evidence, given that written language imperfectly conveys spoken dialect complexities.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},424803,1791347898,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747859154,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Chapter Title: The Treatment of Dialect in Appalachian Literature  \nChapter Author(s): Michael Ellis  \nBook Title: Talking Appalachian  \nBook Subtitle: Voice, Identity, and Community  \nBook Editor(s): Amy D. Clark, Nancy M. Hayward  \nPublished by: University Press of Kentucky. (2013)  \nStable URL: [http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jckk2.13](http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jckk2.13)  \nJSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [support@jstor.org](support@jstor.org).  \nYour use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at [http://about.jstor.org/terms](http://about.jstor.org/terms)  \nUniversity Press of Kentucky is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Talking Appalachian  \nThis content downloaded from [76.77.170.243](76.77.170.243) on Tue, 14 Feb 2017 15:49:02 UTC All use subject to [http://about.jstor.org/terms](http://about.jstor.org/terms)  \nThe Treatment of Dialect in Appalachian Literature  \nMichael Ellis  \nStereotypes about Appalachian culture and Appalachian English have been around so long that it is hard to imagine a time when they did not exist, a time before there was even a distinctive variety of English in the region. Dialectologists, linguistic geographers, lexicographers, and sociolinguists have added considerably to our knowledge of Appalachian Englishes in the twentieth century and beyond, but how Appalachian varieties developed and what they were like in the nineteenth century are only beginning to be understood.1 However, long before the first linguistic studies were published, many Americans thought they were already familiar with the language of the southern highlands and had formed opinions about it—usually negative. The purpose of this essay is to describe literary depictions of Appalachian English since the midnineteenth century, explore what these “literary dialects” tell us about earlier Appalachian Englishes, and, finally, reach some understanding about how these literary dialects contributed to popular notions about Appalachian English.  \nIn the summer of 1845, George Washington Harris published the first in a series of humorous sketches in William T. Porter’s Spirit of the Times. The sketch, titled “The Knob Dance—A Tennessee Frolic,” is one of the earliest examples of an Appalachian literary dialect.2 This story is about a dance party at Jo Spraggins’s house in southern Knox County, Tennessee. It is recounted by a character named Dick Harlan and is presented in a  \n163  \nThis content downloaded from [76.77.170.243](76.77.170.243) on Tue, 14 Feb 2017 15:49:02 UTC All use subject to [http://about.jstor.org/terms](http://about.jstor.org/terms)  \n164 Michael Ellis  \nmanner intended to represent the way Dick talked: “The supper is made up by the fellers; every one fetches sumthin; sum a lick of meal, sum amiddlin of bacon, sum a hen, sum a possum, sum a punkin, sum a grab of taters, or a pocket full of peas, or dried apples, an sum only fetches a good appetite and a skin chock full of perticular deviltry.”3 This literary dialect, which Harris also used later in his Sut Lovingood stories, was no doubt influenced by the techniques employed by his literary antecedents to represent a wide variety of rural or frontier speech. These mid-nineteenth-century literary dialects would, in turn, influence several generations of writers who sought to portray the spoken language of the southern highlands, an influence that would last into the early twentieth century.  \nThe number of books published over the past 150 years with Appalachian settings and characters is staggering. In his 1961 doctoral dissertation, Cratis Williams lists more than 260 individual writers ","cbCaijg9z3P61igT","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijg9z3P61igT","pdf",267885,21,"English","# The Treatment of Dialect in Appalachian Literature\n## Purpose and historical background\n## Early examples and literary influence\n## What is a Literary Dialect?","[{\"question\":\"What is the main purpose of this essay?\",\"answer\":\"It describes literary depictions of Appalachian English since the mid-nineteenth century, explores what these “literary dialects” reveal about earlier Appalachian Englishes, and explains how they shaped popular ideas about Appalachian English.\"},{\"question\":\"Which early work is cited as an example of an Appalachian literary dialect?\",\"answer\":\"George Washington Harris’s 1845 humorous sketch, “The Knob Dance—A Tennessee Frolic,” is presented as one of the earliest examples.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the essay discuss authenticity and linguistic evidence?\",\"answer\":\"It raises questions about the nature of literary dialects, how authentic they are, and whether they can be used as linguistic evidence, given that written language imperfectly conveys spoken dialect complexities.\"}]","The Treatment of Dialect in Appalachian Literature | PDF",1790635396,32]