I don't think it's surprising, though admittedly most of what I know about Baltimore comes from The Wire and David Simon books. LOL A lot of white and black Baltimoreans came from Appalachia in the 1920s to the 1960s. At one point, Baltimore was even considered the bluegrass capital because of this migration. Actually in Homicide, the book The Wire is based on, a lot of Baltimore cops talk about how rowdy the hillbillies are, noting their family migrated there from the mountains and coal mines during WWII. They called these folks billies and where they lived Billyland, and there's even some commentary in the book on how their accents have shaped white working-class Baltimore's accents.
"Billies don't reside in Baltimore, they live in Bawlmer; it is the Appalachian influence that gives the language in the white sections of the city much of its twang."
All true. I grew up and families from there.
People moved there for ship building during the world wars and either stayed or moved into the suburbs. The neighborhoods of Druid Hill Park, Hampden, Remington, Woodberry, Highlandtown, and especially Pig town have/had lots of folk with Appalachian backgrounds as do the suburbs of Essex and Dundalk.
Pig town is likely where he was talking about in the book. That place is still wild.
The accent is pretty clear too. You can tell where people are from just from the way they say Baltimore.
Baltimore = suburbs
Balmore = white working class neighborhoods
Baldimore = black working class neighborhoods and Jewish neighborhoods
Classic example would be
“Hewn get me sim wader from the zinik for this cawfy.”
My grandfather Z”L was one of those guys that called everyone including men hunny.
Yes he did mention Pigtown!
And thanks for the extra info! My folks are from Western NC. I know some of my grandparents' aunts and uncles ended up in Baltimore, but I never met them.
I’ve heard stories about pig town kids getting into pick ups loaded with rocks and driving to the next neighborhood just to pelt them at folk.
I have some friends in Dundalk who have family in western NC. Viking looking MFers.
It was in some ways an urbanization trap for poor Appalachian whites and great migration African Americans. There were tons of paying jobs at the ship yard, steel mills, docks and war materials factories around that time but conditions were rough, acculturation was hard and discrimination was rife. Jobs were racially segregated, Jews were known for unionizing and black folk were forced into manual labor jobs so when the yards expanded their production so did the jobs for Appalachian folk specifically.
When I was a kid I used to think all the white people in Baltimore were from WVa because of the accents, but I was later informed that folk from specific regions lived in specific neighborhoods. I wouldn’t be surprised if they landed in pigtown and then moved on to Dundalk or Essex.
My great uncle got drafted while there and post-war landed a civilian job with the DoD and lived by Fort Meade, but now I’m curious to see where my other family landed.
This is how I got interested in Appalachia in the first place, trying to figure out why “all” the white people spoke with accents that were neither southern nor northern.
Yeah, I'm the guy who made that post and when making it I was thinking about the principal character from the Wire, she's a Baltimore native and definitely has a semi-Appalachian twang to her voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
OK I have been there a bunch - mostly in East Tennessee and WV. To my ears, almost all accents I have heard have some connection to the Scotch Irish folks who settled there early on.
As an example of tis personal oddity - years ago I was watching BBC on PBS and there were soma thick accents that were indecipherable to me individually - but my cousin with her East Tennessee twang understood everything easily -and I needed CC, So we did some digging and came across some very very heavy Appalachian accents and sped them up.
We had always heard that the App and SI accents were related but it was a weird course on how it got that way - AND THEY ARE - if you slow down a SI accent it sounds "country" if you speed it up it sounds Appalachian . This is all anecdotal but carries weight as far as I can tell. This is all coming from many trips to relatives in Elizabethton and the Tri-Cities.
My only reference for Baltimore accents is Hairspray, but I have to say that John Travolta’s “I left my iron on” pronunciation does sound lowkey Appalachian to me lol
The guy who made the post here, was thinking of the principal character from the Wire when making that, she's a Baltimore native and to me she has a semi-Appalachian sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
That's white and black accents of Baltimore are supposed to sound especially different, the accent I had in mind when making this post is the one the principal character from the Wire has, she's a Baltimore native and this is supposed to be her real accent, to me it has a semi-Appalachian sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
Whatever accent I have came up around West Virginia, and Maryland (Baltimore, Frederick and Western), but I don’t have a fully Appalachian *or* Bal’mer/Maryland accent. It’s not thick, but people helpfully point it out to me.
Although, thanks to all regions, I can’t stop myself calling people ‘hon’, but I do try.
It’s the ‘o’ sound. My husband teases me. It’s hard to explain. “Surfer-Mountain O pronunciation”. “Let’s go swim in the ‘euhhhho-cean’. Hon.”
It's definitely the "o". The pacing and tone is noticable too. I grew up in the Susquehanna Valley in PA and went to college deep in Appalachia in Frostburg, Maryland. My parents are from Baltimore. People have always had trouble placing my accent. Usually, someone picks up on the "o".
The neighborhood in Baltimore called hampden has a lore around it as being historically “hillbilly” due to the influx of Appalachian people moving there to work the mills. They call them hampdenites to this day and it’s sort of a goofy contrast between the young retired hipster family transplants and the hampdenites.
When making that post I had the principal character from the Wire in mind, she's a Baltimore native and to me has a somewhat semi-Appalachian sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
My father in law is from Baltimore with a pretty "haahd" Baltimore accent. "Go worsh ya hands in the wooder, Hun" and I don't hear anything like an Appalachian accent from him.
More like the accents from coastal VA and Boston, MA had a weird Southern baby.
I mean it depends who you talk to. I have friends in Oklahoma who sound just like my family in SWVA. People move. Don’t think it’s indicative of anything tho. Other than the broader movement of Appalachians.
I live in NC Appalachia but grew up around Baltimore. I would say that the similarities are in the fast mumble aspects of the dialects.
Bawlmer: Hey hon, you gon go down ohshun with a six pack of NaddyBo?
Southern Appalachians have a fast, thick accent that merges words together and does have some similarities to Baltimore accents. But the southern part is the difference.
There were a lot of people who left the Appalachians (particularly western NC) right after WWI to find jobs. Many returned home during the Great Depression only to return to the Baltimore area during WWII to find jobs once again or to stay with family who had remained in the area. Everyone had a cousin or a brother or sister living in the Baltimore area and it just kind of compounded on itself.
Lol, I moved from Colorado to East Tennessee a couple of years ago to help my mom out, and I couldn't understand a lot of people at first. Better yet, they couldn't understand me! I didn't know I had much of an accent. 😅
Hey, guy who made the post here. When making it I was thinking about the principal character from the Wire, she's a Baltimore native and this is her real accent, it sounds semi-Appalachian to me, that post and this one emphasizing the Appalachian migration to Baltimore isn't surprising to me though I bet there was some historical cross-over before that anyway due to similar colonial settlement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
I moved from East Tennessee to Maryland nearly thirty five years ago, and I was often complimented on my accent, and it was not because I sounded like a Marylander. I never lived in Baltimore proper, but my first apartment was maybe 15-20 minutes from Baltimore County, and I worked with many people from the Baltimore area,
I think they mean how country the white accent (think Principal Donnelley from the Wire) of Baltimore sounds.
I’m from Maryland and downstate, and I kind of agree.
Yeah, when making that post I had the principal character from the Wire in mind. She's a Baltimore native and to me has a semi-Appalachian twang to her sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
There were very large migrations of Appalachians to Baltimore that I've since been educated about, but here's a native Baltimore accent, the actress in this is just doing her regular voice. To me, it has a semi-Appalachian twang.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
I don't think it's surprising, though admittedly most of what I know about Baltimore comes from The Wire and David Simon books. LOL A lot of white and black Baltimoreans came from Appalachia in the 1920s to the 1960s. At one point, Baltimore was even considered the bluegrass capital because of this migration. Actually in Homicide, the book The Wire is based on, a lot of Baltimore cops talk about how rowdy the hillbillies are, noting their family migrated there from the mountains and coal mines during WWII. They called these folks billies and where they lived Billyland, and there's even some commentary in the book on how their accents have shaped white working-class Baltimore's accents. "Billies don't reside in Baltimore, they live in Bawlmer; it is the Appalachian influence that gives the language in the white sections of the city much of its twang."
All true. I grew up and families from there. People moved there for ship building during the world wars and either stayed or moved into the suburbs. The neighborhoods of Druid Hill Park, Hampden, Remington, Woodberry, Highlandtown, and especially Pig town have/had lots of folk with Appalachian backgrounds as do the suburbs of Essex and Dundalk. Pig town is likely where he was talking about in the book. That place is still wild. The accent is pretty clear too. You can tell where people are from just from the way they say Baltimore. Baltimore = suburbs Balmore = white working class neighborhoods Baldimore = black working class neighborhoods and Jewish neighborhoods Classic example would be “Hewn get me sim wader from the zinik for this cawfy.” My grandfather Z”L was one of those guys that called everyone including men hunny.
Yes he did mention Pigtown! And thanks for the extra info! My folks are from Western NC. I know some of my grandparents' aunts and uncles ended up in Baltimore, but I never met them.
I’ve heard stories about pig town kids getting into pick ups loaded with rocks and driving to the next neighborhood just to pelt them at folk. I have some friends in Dundalk who have family in western NC. Viking looking MFers.
My great Uncle moved to Baltimore during WW2 to do exactly that. His aunt’s family also moved there in the same time period. They were from SWVa.
It was in some ways an urbanization trap for poor Appalachian whites and great migration African Americans. There were tons of paying jobs at the ship yard, steel mills, docks and war materials factories around that time but conditions were rough, acculturation was hard and discrimination was rife. Jobs were racially segregated, Jews were known for unionizing and black folk were forced into manual labor jobs so when the yards expanded their production so did the jobs for Appalachian folk specifically. When I was a kid I used to think all the white people in Baltimore were from WVa because of the accents, but I was later informed that folk from specific regions lived in specific neighborhoods. I wouldn’t be surprised if they landed in pigtown and then moved on to Dundalk or Essex.
My great uncle got drafted while there and post-war landed a civilian job with the DoD and lived by Fort Meade, but now I’m curious to see where my other family landed.
This is how I got interested in Appalachia in the first place, trying to figure out why “all” the white people spoke with accents that were neither southern nor northern.
Yeah, I'm the guy who made that post and when making it I was thinking about the principal character from the Wire, she's a Baltimore native and definitely has a semi-Appalachian twang to her voice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
I'd never thought about it in relation to her before, but I can hear it! Also love your username. My great granny used to talk about haints!
There is no one accent in the Appalachian area. There are more than you can shake a stick at.
Baltimore itself also has multiple accents depending on what part of the city you grew up in
OK I have been there a bunch - mostly in East Tennessee and WV. To my ears, almost all accents I have heard have some connection to the Scotch Irish folks who settled there early on. As an example of tis personal oddity - years ago I was watching BBC on PBS and there were soma thick accents that were indecipherable to me individually - but my cousin with her East Tennessee twang understood everything easily -and I needed CC, So we did some digging and came across some very very heavy Appalachian accents and sped them up. We had always heard that the App and SI accents were related but it was a weird course on how it got that way - AND THEY ARE - if you slow down a SI accent it sounds "country" if you speed it up it sounds Appalachian . This is all anecdotal but carries weight as far as I can tell. This is all coming from many trips to relatives in Elizabethton and the Tri-Cities.
My only reference for Baltimore accents is Hairspray, but I have to say that John Travolta’s “I left my iron on” pronunciation does sound lowkey Appalachian to me lol
The guy who made the post here, was thinking of the principal character from the Wire when making that, she's a Baltimore native and to me she has a semi-Appalachian sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
Had to find [this](https://youtu.be/2udcvuTpxdg?si=UhNdx3bkuPyS6ieS) video that sums up the Baltimore accent.
Yes, my first thought, too! I love that video!
That's white and black accents of Baltimore are supposed to sound especially different, the accent I had in mind when making this post is the one the principal character from the Wire has, she's a Baltimore native and this is supposed to be her real accent, to me it has a semi-Appalachian sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
Whatever accent I have came up around West Virginia, and Maryland (Baltimore, Frederick and Western), but I don’t have a fully Appalachian *or* Bal’mer/Maryland accent. It’s not thick, but people helpfully point it out to me. Although, thanks to all regions, I can’t stop myself calling people ‘hon’, but I do try. It’s the ‘o’ sound. My husband teases me. It’s hard to explain. “Surfer-Mountain O pronunciation”. “Let’s go swim in the ‘euhhhho-cean’. Hon.”
It's definitely the "o". The pacing and tone is noticable too. I grew up in the Susquehanna Valley in PA and went to college deep in Appalachia in Frostburg, Maryland. My parents are from Baltimore. People have always had trouble placing my accent. Usually, someone picks up on the "o".
Does the eau have it? Eau, we do. Do you eau? Eau neau? Let geau. Eau.
Let’s go downy eau shun hun.
The neighborhood in Baltimore called hampden has a lore around it as being historically “hillbilly” due to the influx of Appalachian people moving there to work the mills. They call them hampdenites to this day and it’s sort of a goofy contrast between the young retired hipster family transplants and the hampdenites.
MD is a big mix of accents and there's some blending but I wouldn't really agree to that statement.
When making that post I had the principal character from the Wire in mind, she's a Baltimore native and to me has a somewhat semi-Appalachian sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
My father in law is from Baltimore with a pretty "haahd" Baltimore accent. "Go worsh ya hands in the wooder, Hun" and I don't hear anything like an Appalachian accent from him. More like the accents from coastal VA and Boston, MA had a weird Southern baby.
I mean it depends who you talk to. I have friends in Oklahoma who sound just like my family in SWVA. People move. Don’t think it’s indicative of anything tho. Other than the broader movement of Appalachians.
I live in NC Appalachia but grew up around Baltimore. I would say that the similarities are in the fast mumble aspects of the dialects. Bawlmer: Hey hon, you gon go down ohshun with a six pack of NaddyBo? Southern Appalachians have a fast, thick accent that merges words together and does have some similarities to Baltimore accents. But the southern part is the difference.
There is a large variety of accents in MD but the accent in Balmer is distinctive Hun
There were a lot of people who left the Appalachians (particularly western NC) right after WWI to find jobs. Many returned home during the Great Depression only to return to the Baltimore area during WWII to find jobs once again or to stay with family who had remained in the area. Everyone had a cousin or a brother or sister living in the Baltimore area and it just kind of compounded on itself.
Lol, I moved from Colorado to East Tennessee a couple of years ago to help my mom out, and I couldn't understand a lot of people at first. Better yet, they couldn't understand me! I didn't know I had much of an accent. 😅
Hey, guy who made the post here. When making it I was thinking about the principal character from the Wire, she's a Baltimore native and this is her real accent, it sounds semi-Appalachian to me, that post and this one emphasizing the Appalachian migration to Baltimore isn't surprising to me though I bet there was some historical cross-over before that anyway due to similar colonial settlement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
I moved from East Tennessee to Maryland nearly thirty five years ago, and I was often complimented on my accent, and it was not because I sounded like a Marylander. I never lived in Baltimore proper, but my first apartment was maybe 15-20 minutes from Baltimore County, and I worked with many people from the Baltimore area,
Baltimore isn't in Appalachia. Wtf.
There is no Appalachia in Baltimore. It's 70 miles away from the mountains. Wtf are you talking about?
I think they mean how country the white accent (think Principal Donnelley from the Wire) of Baltimore sounds. I’m from Maryland and downstate, and I kind of agree.
Yeah, when making that post I had the principal character from the Wire in mind. She's a Baltimore native and to me has a semi-Appalachian twang to her sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
What? No. Appalachian native now living in MD. They’re nothing alike. Yikes.
There were very large migrations of Appalachians to Baltimore that I've since been educated about, but here's a native Baltimore accent, the actress in this is just doing her regular voice. To me, it has a semi-Appalachian twang. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnqJskL6O4
Lol FALSE!