Appalachian Word Usage

This month about got away from before I remembered to post the Appalachian Vocabulary Test so I don’t have any videos for you, but don’t worry the videos will be back next month!

Take the test and see how you do!

1. No count: low quality. “He ain’t never been no count. Why even when he was a shirt-tail boy he was mean as the Devil.”

2. No such: no such thing; not anything. “I don’t know about the rest of the people down there at the store but me and my house don’t stand for no such at that going on!” or used in a surprised manner: “I’ve never seen such! Have you?”

3. Notion: an inclination. “The other day I took a notion for a walk and started out the back door headed for the woods. I didn’t stop till I reached the top of the ridge.”

4. Noways: in any way or manner at all. “I wasn’t going to be able to go with the rest of them noways so come on in and sit a while.”

5. Neumony fever: pneumonia fever. “Lord I can’t believe you was playing outside without your toboggan on in this cold. You’re going to get neumony fever if you don’t get in here and warm by the fire.”

All of this month’s words are beyond common in my area of Appalachia. What about where you live?

Tipper

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33 Comments

  1. I read a book one time which put in narrative form letters from a married woman who moved to Missouri about 1835 back to her sister in New York or somewhere. In one letter she told about some “no-accounts” that just lounged on their front porch, doing nothing. One such man was named “Lawrence”. So, after a while, they began calling people “Lawrence” to indicate a lazy, no good for nothing lout. This is ironic because I have a brother named Laurence!

  2. All but the last are still in use in my life! I learned very young — from the older folks — that pneumonia was “the old person’s friend.” Nowadays, that is no longer true. They pop you in the hospital and shoot you full of antibiotics — no matter how old and frail you may be. We kids used to call it p-neumonia and thought that was very funny.

  3. Tipper,
    There were some men working outside in this cold where I was shopping…and one had just a t-shirt on with a long shirt. I told him to go get his coat on for he was goin’ to catch “neumony fever”, I do this for fun sometimes! Guess he weren’t from around here and answered with a puzzled look and said, “Catch what”! The other guy just laughed an said, “Yeah, he needs to get his coat on!”
    Heard them all and use them when the occasion arises…
    Thanks Tipper,
    PS…Like someone else said..no such come out as no sech….

  4. wanda – it’s epizootica
    Are you sure spancule isn’t pronounced “spank you” as in “If you do that again I’m gonna spank you, you little $#!+?
    Did Grandpa have catarrh?

  5. Heard all of them but the only one I hear anymore is no count. And only by older people.
    And, that would be, “Im so no count anymore”.
    I may have sent this before and am sorry if I repeat but my favorite is ‘JEET’,
    which is short for ‘did you eat?’
    I call it a Lake Logan word but Im not sure how far and wide such talk went.
    I didn’t actually use it except as a joke.
    Thanks for continued information and fun on this site , Tipper.

  6. I know them all and use them all frequently except neumony fever. I have slight variations also.
    “No such” sometimes comes out as “no such of” As in “people claims they seen them UFOs but I believe there ain’t no such of a thing” and is sometimes pronounced “no sech”
    “Noways” is sometimes used without the s. “He thought he was gettin back at me by not lettin me ride with him but I wudden rilly wantin to go “noway.”
    I’ve known of “neumony” without a fever. They call it walking “neumony.”

  7. In my new novel, The Runaways (Not yet published) I used some Appalachian dialect. Here’s three:
    Faired off – The weather has cleared. As we came out of church the weather had faired off.
    Galoot – A description of an undesirable character. Shut up you big galoot.
    Slap Dab broke – No money at all. “I’m slap dab broke.

  8. Yes to all but neumoney fever. My grandpa had a lot of expressions for sickness–having the spancule or the epizeudis. I’m going to look them up and see if they were actual illnesses.

  9. Tipper,
    Just the other day I was talking with my friend, Monte Kit, and I asked him if he remembered sitting on ole Hub Holloway’s porch. Hub came out and talked with us for some time, and he warned us not to get too close to him, cause he was just getting over Pheumony Fever. He allowed he had to quit drinking for a spell to get over it.
    Where we lived, drunks and Moonshiners were on both sides of us but they never bothered us at all. …Ken

  10. Notion and no count still used. So many of your vocabulary tests remind me of the older dear folks who are no longer with us. The expression about Pneumony Fever was used many years ago. I remember how common Pneumonia was also. This brings back an old term often repeated from doctors of the day. They would say it is not ketchin:, and often would place victims in wards in hospitals. Later I learned many types are communicable, and it was probably better toremainat home if possible.
    Dad had a way of making many things sound funny. Years ago with kids running in and out of the house leaving doors open in Winter he would say, “Close that Pneumony hole.” Thanks, Tipper, for my favorite vocabulary tests.

  11. i am familiar with all but number 5. did not recognize that one… i giggled this morning when i got a text from my brothers wife saying she was fixing to go shopping… another word you will know.

  12. I love the vocabulary tests! I heard all these growing up and my mother still uses most of them. And “neumony fever” made me laugh. I haven’t heard that in years and years but it took me straight back to my grandmother.

  13. Use them all except pneumony fever. We just said pneumony.
    I have to laugh because I never thought I was talkin funny until you brought it to my attention.

  14. Use “no count”, “notion”, and “noways” (or “noway”) as is.
    Insert “a” into to such thing so that you hear “sucha thing”; don’t recall hearing “such” by itself.
    Often heard “neumony” or “neumony fever” in the not too distant past; hear “neumony” alone from time to time now. Just realized that oftentime when folks say “pneumonia” around here there is such an emphasis put on the second syllable that it sounds like “nu – MOAN – ya”. The more emphasis, the more serious the condition.

  15. Every one of the words are as common here as they are where you live. Well, probably not here where I live but they are very common in my house. There’s no sichy thing as being corrected when I am talking to my relatives.

  16. My mother, born in 1912, called pneumonia “the old people’s friend” because it carries us off peacefully. When it killed an uncle, she said “he died of the new-mown-hay.”

  17. I use them all but Neumony Fever. My Granny on my Mom’s side, would use it a lot, especially if you got caught outside in the Winter with out your coat, ” I can hear the door open now and her sticking her head out an hollering, you Boys get in here and get your coats on or your liable to catch neumony.

  18. 5 for 5 today.
    We often use ‘noway’ in ‘noway nohow’. Or in reference to some project. “That ain’t noways gonna’ work.”
    Sometimes we use ‘notion’ for ‘idea’ as in “I don’t have no notion.” Or we turn it into an adjective. “He was plumb notional. Couldn’t tell five minutes together what he would take it into his head to do.”
    ‘No such thing’ has the idea of ‘nothing even like that’ such as in spirited defense of a friend. “I know him and he never said no such thing.”
    Now if we can just get through this upcoming neumony weather.

  19. Tipper–All are familiar, although I’ve always heard the last one just as “pneumony” without fever being added (and these days I don’t hear it nearly as much as the other four and don’t personally use it, although I do use the others).
    Jim Casada

  20. Yep, I know all of those expressions very well. These are all very nice representations of our colorful language, you know, the ones that outsiders don’t have any idea what we are talking about!
    I just love our language, it’s like secret code!

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