As America celebrates 250 years, we're reflecting on how Americans may have sounded from the colonists to Confederados. Drawing on a prior episode with Dr. Valerie Fridland and research by linguists like Michael Montgomery, I'll discuss how settlement patterns, class, mobility, and political affiliations shaped regional speech, contrasting Scots-Irish and North Midland influences in Appalachia with London-oriented coastal Virginia, and discussing rhotic vs. r-less pronunciation and shifting prestige norms. I'll also touch on Michael Montgomery’s study of Confederado descendants in Brazil whose 1970s speech preserved 19th-century Southern traits.

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Jewelry from coal, river glass, and discarded books handcrafted in the central Appalachian Mountains

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Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain