The deep dialect in
some areas of Tennessee, for example, is the closest surviving remmnant to
Elizabethan English. It is one of the few areas where words such as neer
(as in neer do well), nary, and poke (rather than a bag or a sack) are still
in common usage. This dialect has been preserved in the more isolated
regions where until fairly recently there was little or no outside the area
contact, and now it is generally used primarily by old timers.

My wife is from the middle of West Virginia (Buchannon) and will still
sometimes slip into words like poke, nary, rise (instead of hill), etc. - she
is 45 and we moved to Pennsylvania 20 years ago BTW. Her parents used these
words more frequently and younger family members still living there also use
them more frequently.

Dave Hall