Name: Joshua Chayne Henry

Chayne is pronounced like Shane Not Chain! You wouldn't believe how many people think its suppose to be like Chain. :( In fact, when we graduated from college and my name was called the guy pronounced it Chain.

I'm also Msgt's twin. Most people know that but some of our newer posters might not have known that.

Sex: Male

Age: 23

Nationality: American

Ethnicity: Appalachian

Profession: Substitute Teacher

Loves: Nip/Tuck, South Park, animals, outdoors, mathematics, anthropology, family, Godzilla and friends, apple pie, mac and cheese, and green bean casserole.

Hates:superficial people, ethnocentrism, sea food.

Recent events that happened to me: Well substitute teaching has been a bit slow after the holiday season but we were able to make some money the other day by helping to underpin a double wide trailer for a family that are acquaintances with our family. Dad did a lot of the work but we helped out and we cleaned a lot of the muddy underpinning too. Before Christmas, we helped our dad put down new carpet in the family room. I never thought I'd be a manual labor type of guy but physical work can be very rewarding. :)

Mike bought me the original Godzilla movie made in 1954 without the americanized Raymond Bur scenes added in and in its original language with english subtitles for Christmas. It was very cool. I knew the original Godzilla movie was made as a protest against nuclear weapons but you couldn't tell it as much with the Raymond Bur edited version. The original movie does have a bit of an anti-war and nuclear weapons message in it.

Trust me, Caveman, Mike doesn't encourage substance abuse. Both of our parents grew up in alcoholic homes and one of our uncles past away in February 2005 due to substance abuse related complications. Mike is just interested in it academically as he has taken several classes on it. He likes to know what the kids feel about drugs and what they are generally taking. Mike and I have radical views when it comes to drugs and some medicines. We don't think people should take drugs but since its unrealistic that everyone won't we think they should be educated about the subject (the good and the bad) and to use the drug as responsibly as possible. Personally, we do not believe in medicating individuality and social reality. :)

Talk about losing accents, the media and the education system is being used to stamp out our distinctive Appalachian accent, dialect, and coloquialisms at least to some degree.

Sure, I understand that we need to be able to speak proper english for job interviews and for speeches and presentations in college but people should be taught how to go in and out of their accents for the appropriate situation rather than trying to remove the accents all together.

When we were children just about everyone around here had strong accents and a few people had extremely thick Appalachian "Hillbilly" accents. Now its rare that I ever hear someone with the really thick accent.

The other day at school I was in a math class and when I said the number 9 pronounced "nahn" with my accent, a girl corrected me saying nIne (sounds like n-eye-n).

When I was little everybody around here pronounced I like "ah" (like Rogue does in the comics) but now people are being taught to pronounce it the "correct" way.

Our dad's family still uses a lot of the traditional dialect though. They pronounce sink like zink (a lot of people around here use to) and electrocute like elexecute. They also say fit instead of fought. Older folk still use words like reckon and nary a lot. A lot of people still pronounce chance like chayce and pants like paynts. Our dad still pronounces far like fer. People do still say y'all though and you'ins. Some people pronounce reach like wretch. Sometimes people say 'at instead of that or when talking on the phone people ask to speak at someone instead of to them. A lot of people still pronounce on like own. People use a lot of double negatives too "ain't got no..." People use the word "untelling" a lot too and we tend to leave the "g" off of ing words.

I really liked the Anthropology professor that we had in college. She was born and raised in eastern kentucky as well. She went to college in arizona and was taught how to speak standard proper english but she didn't completely lose her accent. She can go in and out of the accent at will. Some of the professors at our college hated Hillbilly Days (an annual celebration here) because they thought that it reinforced negative stereotypes and impeded "progress" in this area. However, the anthropology professor loved Hillbilly Days because she saw it as a cultural event. And theres nothing wrong with being proud of your culture as long as you don't elevate yourself above anyone else. During Hillbilly days people display and sell hand made crafts and quilts, several Native American groups always come in to play and sell traditional style music and other crafts, and local bands play Bluegrass music. Theres also always a parade on the third day where people display their hillbilly cars. Hillbilly days brings in tourism and business to the local shops and a lot of money during Hillbilly Days is raised for the Shriners. I also see Hillbilly days as a good thing. Instead of letting outside bigots label us with "hillbilly" as a negative term we can own the "hillbilly" label and make it a positive term that we are proud of. And I don't see why we have to change our accents due to the prejudices of other people.

However, in recent years there has been a corporate encroachment into Hillbilly Days. Now we have booths sponsored by Pepsi and Mountain Dew. Do you know how jarring it is to walk down a street at Hillbilly Days and see a Hawaii themed booth blasting a Britney Spears song! :eep!: I think next Hillbilly days I might write an editorial for the local newspaper against the corporate take over of Hillbilly Days. :lol

People always seem to think that the way they do things are the best way and everyone should think and act like they do. Even when Mike and I talk to our closest friends from the board, they often correct us if we use our Appalachain accents and dialect. So we conform a little but I don't have any plans to completely lose my accent or dialect!

I also want to briefly comment on Appalachains as an ethnic group. Our anthro professor (she also taught the race and ethnicity courses) would classify Appalachians as an ethnic group while some of the other professors would dismiss that idea. Ethnic groups are more constructed based on shared culture rather than "racial" similarity. People have this stereotype of the Hillbilly as a poor white man without his teeth. Of course this is not a very true stereotype. While some of the areas may be predominantly caucasian there are Jewish and African American communities here who are just as "Hillbilly" as anyone else here.

Appalachians as an ethnic distinction is based on shared culture, geographic location, and how the area is percieved and treated by the rest of society.

Quote:
Mikey does tht mean u're Native American? It sounds like it... Apache Indians??


No, its not quite like that. Appalachia refers to an area around the Appalachian mountains. We live in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Appalachia historically has been a pretty stigmatized place and has had a lot of issues with poverty for quite some time. A lot of towns around here grew out of mining towns.

www.museumofappalachia.com/

So its not a racial distinction. Its a cultural and geographic distinction. There are European Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, various other immigrant communities etc here but due to the geographic location and shared culture we all would be considered Appalachians. This area even had its own constructed ethnic group called Melungeons or Mulungeons who at one time long ago were very discriminated against and in some places were not allowed to attend school until missionaries built schools for them.

www.geocities.com/ourmelu...hoftt.html

The Apaches live/historically lived on the other side of the US.

Anyways here are some links about Appalachia...

encarta.msn.com/dictionar...achia.html

Appalachian Traditional Music...

www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/appalach.htm

Appalachian Heritage Museum...

www.learnnc.org/discover/...ysteryhill

Hillbilly Days website...

www.hillbillydays.com/

History of Appalachia....

www.appalachianhistory.com/

Religion in Appalachia...

www.les.appstate.edu/cour.../religion/

www.les.appstate.edu/cour...oldreg.htm

www.les.appstate.edu/cour.../snake.htm