DIALECTICAL STUDIES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 



BY SYLVESTER PEIMEE. 



In studying the language or pronunciation of any section of 

 the country, it is necessary first of all to trace back the history 

 of the people inhabiting it to the earliest beginnings in order 

 to explain uuderstandingly the dialectical peculiarities of its 

 grammar or pronunciation. I shall, therefore, preface my 

 remarks on the linguistical peculiarities of this region with a 

 brief sketch of its earliest settlement and later development. 



The early history of Western Virginia, now known as West 

 Virginia, begins a century later than that of Eastern Virginia, 

 or Virginia proper. In 1710 Alexander Spotswood, a Scotch- 

 man, was the deputy-governor of the Colony of Virginia. In 

 1716 he "gathered a party of the choice spirits of the Old 

 Dominion, and set out on an exploration of the country beyond 

 the Blue Ridge and Alleghanies, advancing as far as the fertile 

 fields of Kentucky." As far as we know, he was " the first 

 white man to enter the Great Valley, which was soon thereafter 

 occupied by large numbers of Scottish, and some German and 

 English settlers." In 1774 Virginia purchased from the Indians 

 the right to make settlements to the Ohio, and built a fort 

 where Pittsburg now stands. In 1752 Robert DinAviddie, then 

 deputy-governor of Virginia, began active relations with the 

 great western country. " He encouraged trade and exploration 

 with this region, and the Virginia traders swarmed across the 

 mountains to traffic with the Indiansj and there met with the 

 French, which finally led, as you remember, to the attack on 

 Fori Duquesne (now Pittsburg) and Braddock's defeat. At 

 about this time the Ohio Company of Virginia began to take 



