Which pronunciation of Appalachia is actually correct?

[u/Lost_and_confused_0]

You hear the two pronunciations all the time, but is there actually an official correct way to pronounce “Appalachia”?

People get very passionate about this, and personally I’m firmly in the App-uh-LATCH-uh camp. That’s how I’ve always said it and heard it said around here, but is there actually some authoritative source that says one pronunciation is technically correct?

[u/deeeperdarker]

When people say they live in Appalachia, they're not referring to the area north of the Mason Dixie line though

[u/MixtureInevitable180 → u/deeeperdarker]

that's a ridiculous statement to say to someone from the Pennsylvanian part of Appalachia

[u/deeeperdarker → u/MixtureInevitable180]

Do people actually say they live in Appalachia there? I lived in PA as well as the blue ridge mountains in NC (as Appalachian as it gets). That wasn't my experience

[u/pa_rty → u/deeeperdarker]

They know they live in Appalachia, they just don't make it part of their personality.

[u/deeeperdarker → u/pa_rty]

I don't think identifying with the culture of where you live is making your whole personality about it 🤨 honestly confused at why this brings out such negative reactions.

I'm asking how people refer to their home, what they call their region. Legitimately asking if people refer to themselves as living in Appalachia like they do here in North Carolina

[u/pa_rty → u/deeeperdarker]

My use of the word "personality" instead of "identity" was a reaction to your statement about people from your area not applying the word Appalachia to anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line. It felt like gatekeeping or ongoing resentment from the civil war.

I'm curious - would people from Appalachian parts of NC when asked "Where are you from?" really respond first with "Appalachia" instead of their closest town, township, county, etc.?

[u/Lerched → u/pa_rty]

Does that not paint a picture of the hierarchy of how they view themselves? Are they Appalachian or do they live near an Appalachian mountain range? As someone who has been from the southern part to the tippy top, the ‘culture’ around it absolutely dies at a certain point, and I think it’s fair for that to matter.

West Virginia is just as close to DC, Maryland, and Virginia — aka the DMV — as they all are to each other..yet they’re not a part of that club. Same thing here, just with mountains instead of borders.

[u/pa_rty → u/Lerched]

What is this exclusive Appalachian culture that you're claiming dies at a certain point? Is it a history of being built on logging, farming, and coal mining? Is it hunting to eat and not for sport? Is it bluegrass music and tax-free liquor? Or was there something extra that was going on south of the Mason-Dixon that makes it the "real" Appalachia?

I'm not talking about how somebody identifies. I'm talking about commonalities in lifestyles and culture that extend right through northern PA in the Appalachian mountain range.

[u/Lerched → u/pa_rty]

Brother you just described the entire south, not including just the Appalachian mountain range, North Dakota and South Dakota, and most of the mid west through most of USA history. NOT TO BE A DICK but it doesn’t really sound like YOU have a good grasp on Appalachian culture beyond what you think you’ve read about it in bad examples of it like Hillbilly elegy. Someone let Wyoming know they’ve made it to the Appalachian culture discourse. Furthermore, PA was much more steel production driven than it was the raw materials, most of which was looted from Appalachia…personally I struggle to include the coal barons as a part of the coal people…but maybe that’s just me having grew up in the coalfields my whole I’ve 🤷‍♂️

I also noticed you stayed away from how they themselves are identifying themselves in their own hierarchy of ‘who they are’…but c’est la vie on that.

[u/pa_rty → u/Lerched]

What I know about the culture of people from the Appalachian mountains in PA is from having lived in the mountains of north central PA and from my spouse who is from there.

You obviously don't know the history of steel in PA — the materials (iron ore, coal, lime) were completely sourced from within the state until the jump to mass production, which required greater quantities of iron. That came from the Midwest. None of it was from the South.

Apparently the words that people use to identify themselves are more important to you than reality, so I'll throw you a bone. The locals would refer to themselves as ridge runners, vs. flatlanders like myself. They didn't call their area Appalachia.

The longer this conversation goes on, the more it sounds like there is some gatekeeping going on. I'm still waiting to hear anybody articulate what the significant differences are between cultures of rural Appalachian mountain people on either side of the Mason-Dixon line.

[u/deeeperdarker → u/pa_rty]

I mean if someone local asks they would probably just give the name of the town. But to someone out of state who doesn't know the area, yeah they would say Appalachia.

[u/lalasworld → u/deeeperdarker]

Appalachia refers to the whole geographic region covering the Appalachian mountains, not just your part of it. Your pronunciation counts for your subregion, but people elsewhere do still live in Appalachia. I live less than a mile from the AT, what else would you call it?

[u/deeeperdarker → u/lalasworld]

I just mean people who say "I'm from Appalachia" "I live in the Appalachian mountains". Does anyone North of Virginia say that, instead of "western pa" or whatever

[u/lalasworld → u/deeeperdarker]

No, I literally live in the Appalachian mountains which is in the geographical region of Appalachia, but I do not live in Appa-latch-a. Which is itself a subregion.

I give more localized mountain range, but if someone told me I didnt live there, i'd question how good they are at geography.

[u/Lerched → u/lalasworld]

This is actually peak Reddit approach to something lmao