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Mispron uncial ion ”
There's a long list of words that outsiders are familiar with, but Appalachian folks pronounce very differently. One of the most common archaic pronunciations is "hit." In the Blue Ridge foothills, as well as West Virginia, it’s not unusual to hear something like "Hit don’t pleasure me and hit don't pain me.”
“Hit” is a perfectly good word, Mrs. Dial told us. In Old English, “hit” was the third person singular neuter pronoun. The Scots used "hit” for emphasis.
Another common pronunciation is "et”, traceable to early English. According to our lecturer, even Queen Elizabeth II would say "I et dinner early." “She spells it A-T-E,” said Mrs. Dial, “as I’m sure our people do."
Scotch pronunciations are frequent. "Boosh" for bush, “feesh" for fish, "whar” for where, and "narrow” rhyming with "tomorrow" are all holdovers from the Scots.
Chaucer would have said "fence postes" and "bird nestes." "Jonee" and "Noee,” the Biblical characters, were called those names in Shakespeare’s time. Queen Elizabeth I would have said "He was pizened" or “I jined the club”, just as the mountain folk say today.
"It was very courtly language," Mrs. Dial said.
‘Rotten Grammar”
modern schoolteacher
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