Talk:Appalachian

pronunciation

• The pronunciation given seems problematic; everyone I know pronounces it either ˌæpəˈleɪtʃǝn or ˌæpəˈlætʃǝn. -- Visviva 05:50, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
  • Me too, m-w and dictionary.com give "hard ch" first, m-w also gives "soft ch". Added alternatives. Cynewulf 05:57, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

• The pronunciations given here are incorrect. Comments below moved to here from "commons:User talk:EncycloPetey#En-us-Appalachian.ogg" (@EncycloPetey). Nicole Sharp (talk) 13:57, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
  • Regarding "En-us-Appalachian.ogg," this is not the correct pronunciation. I myself pronounced this incorrectly for years as well, and the pronunciation given here is still very common by non-Appalachian Americans. It was not until I took a university course in Appalachian Studies that I learned the correct (endonymous) pronunciation. The correct pronunciation is "ap-ah-LATCH-an" not "ap-ah-lay-SHUN." The reason for this is in the etymology of the word. "Appalachia" (ah-pah-LATCH-ah) is a Latinate-spelled form of the name for the Apalachee (ah-pah-LATCH-ee) Nation, who cleverly misdirected gold-seeking conquistadors in Florida into getting lost in the mountains of Georgia, which later became known as the Appalachian (Apalach[ee]an) Mountains. The correct pronunciation for the region and the mountain range retains the same pronunciation, with the "I" being silent. Nicole Sharp (talk) 13:18, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
  • On a usage note, the exonymous pronunciation file given here can additionally have negative connotations of colonialism and exploitation: "Appa-LATCH-uh, with its gutturality and strong tongue stops is the chosen pronunciation of the majority of locals. Conversely, in the Southern Appalachian Region, the pronunciation Appa-LAY-shuh carries negative connotation of outsiders who literally controlled perceptions and definitions of Appalachia for centuries." [1] Nicole Sharp (talk) 13:57, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
• We do neither prescribe nor proscribe pronunciations. If a pronunciation is in use, then we present it. As you have pointed out: "the pronunciation given here is still very common by non-Appalachian Americans." As it is a common pronunciation, we catalog its use. It is not the place of Wiktionary attempt to change the language; we merely describe what the language is doing. If there is a pronunciation peculiar to a specific region, then that pronunciation can be added with a note about where it is used. --EncycloPetey (talk) 15:35, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
  • I would argue that the endonymous pronunciation is more than just merely an ethnolectal or regional variant, but is also the pronunciation used in academia for scholarly works in Appalachian Studies. As a student in Appalachian Studies, the only times I hear a preponderance of the exonymous pronunciation in academic work on Appalachia is actually by geologists to refer to the physical mountains, as opposed to the culture or the people (particularly since the Appalachian geological region is much larger than the Appalachian cultural or political regions). Nicole Sharp (talk) 17:14, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
  • For common use of the endonymous pronunciation in academia, here is the first video result listed in a YouTube Search for "Appalachian Studies;" the video is about the Appalachian Studies graduate program at the Appalachian State University Center for Appalachian Studies (note the pronunciation of the name for the state university): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVXSrBkTuTU Nicole Sharp (talk) 17:29, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
• It's great that a small specialized set of academia use their own jargon and own pronunciation, but that doesn't change anything I said before. --EncycloPetey (talk) 17:39, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
• I lived in Boone for almost half a year where Appalachian State University is located. According to most of the people there the word is Cherokee. They all pronounce it without the long 'a', e.g. Appa-LATCH-uh (the region) or Appa-LATCH-un (the name of the university). Usage of the long a is no more appropriate than it is for Miss Minnifield (sp?) of Jerry Clower fame calling Yosemite the way most people pronounce it than her ending it with the sound similar to the word might. If you have ever watched their football team even football sportscasters pronounce the word correctly. Check with the Cherokee (they didn't all go to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears) Native American tribe for how they pronounce the words. Common usage does not make it correct. Actually, the Cherokee did not live the whole length of the mountain chain that bears that name. They are just in the region of the mountains from north Georgia to eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina. The mountain chain actually extends beyond what it showed on the Smithsonian TV but from West Virginia northward they are called the Adirondacks which is yet another Native American word (but not Cherokee). They also do not use yall (contraction of the words you and all and is thus plural) there but the contraction you-uns. It comes from the Scottish ancestry of many of the white people in that area.

Hhhobbit (talk)

• For the URL for the eastern branch of Cherokee use:

https://www.bia.gov/regional-offices/eastern/cherokee-agency Give them a phone call and ask them how they pronounce the words Appalachia and Appalachian. For the western Cherokees in Oklahoma a URL is found easily. Ditto for Appalachian State University in Boone. With just a phone call they will promptly correct you not to use a long a for the a after the l. Hhhobbit (talk)

Which is all beside the point. People don't own the pronunciation elsewhere for the place they live- otherwise Paris would rhyme with R.E. (accent on the E.) and Berlin would sound like bare Lynn. Closer to home, most Americans would have trouble pronouncing New Orleans and Louisville the way the locals do, and someone like me from the west coast who managed to pronounce them that way would be suspected of mimicking Louisiana or Kentucky accents as a joke. The same goes for Noo Yawk (though New Yorkers vary quite a bit in their pronunciation,too). Of course, local names should prevail when the places aren't known outside the area: in my neck of the woods, for instance, no one from anywhere else in the US would know how to pronounce Tujunga or Cahuenga (hint: the "j" in Tujunga sounds like an "h", but the "h" in Cahuenga is silent). If somebody says that the last syllable in Los Angeles rhymes with cheese, I'll know they're not from around here, but I won't go on a talk page to argue with them. A language exists in the minds of the people who speak it, and if they collectively think a particular pronunciation is correct, it is. I wouldn't mind a usage note saying that the /æ/ pronunciation is considered the only correct one by people from the area, with some agreement from academics- since that's no doubt an accurate description. That doesn't mean that someone in Nebraska talking to someone else in Nebraska is wrong to pronounce it the other way. Chuck Entz (talk) 05:59, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Spanish translations

I found five different translations of the word "Appalachian" on Spanish Wikipedia: apalachano, apalache, apalachense, apalachiano, apalachiense. This seems like a lot so I am not sure if these are for different usages or if some might be mistranslations. Nicole Sharp (talk) 20:29, 18 December 2023 (UTC)