Fixin' to, the A-Prefix and Twelve Days of Christmas, and an Excerpt from Verna Mae Slone's "How We Talked"

The Talking Appalachian Podcast

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In this episode, I research the history of "Fixin' to" (as in "I'm fixin' to put up the holiday decorations.) Add the very old (middle English) dialect feature "a-prefix" and you've got "I'm a-fixin' to put up the holiday decorations.) Then, I'll tell you about the link between our dialect and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song (bet you didn't know you're Talking Appalachian when you sing it). Finally, listen for an excerpt from Knott County, KY native Verna Mae Slone's book How We Talked, a book she published later in her life that preserves so much of her eastern KY dialect.
Sources in this episode:
Yale Grammatical Diversity Project (online)
American English by Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes
How We Talked by Verna Mae Slone
Talking Appalachian: Voice, Identity, and Community, Eds. Amy Clark and Nancy Hayward
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Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Steam Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain