"Glen" wrote in message thlink.net...
Interestingly enough, there is a secondary principle which states that if a
language group is so isolated so that it is not touched by other linguistic
influences, the language can tend to become static. 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. There are
several projects underway by several universities to record and save the
speech patterns for future study.

If you ever get the opportunity you should listen to a recording of
Ray Hicks telling stories. Ray was one of the finest storytellers
ever, but it took a few minutes to get used to his North Carolina
Appalachian accent. At first you might think the accent is put on but
once you catch on to it you realize that he was just not affected by
any outside influences.

When I go back to Sunfish, Kentucky, where I was born, you can tell a
remarkable difference between the accents of people born before and
after World War II. (You remember WWII, don't you? It was in all the
papers.) People younger than about 55 sound more like Dan Rather and
less like Little Jimmy Dickens.

Dick Durbin