Summary myth 9

In the Appalachians They Speak like Shakespeare

People believe that in isolated places in the Appalachians the people there still speak “Elizabethan” or “Shakespearean”. The Shakespearean English idea was formulated and promoted by people born and bred outside the mountains, first by educators and clergymen and later by journalists and travel writers. They wanted to change the bad image of the mountain people to a good image. There is no prove that the people still speak like this. Shakespeare and Elizabeth 1^st lived 400 years ago and the southern mountains have been populated by Europeans for only half of the length. The settlers who came to America during Elizabeth 1^st life died or didn’t stay at one place. All languages change. Even the isolated ones change, so the Shakespearean also had to change in all those years.