# How do you pronounce "Appalachian"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 23, 2020, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390 "2020-02-23T08:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/21 "2020-02-23T21:08:19Z")
Who are these locals? The Appalachian mounts run from Canada to Alabama. I suspect there are very few words of that length are pronounced exactly the same over that range. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/22 "2020-02-23T22:36:27Z")
LAY. My mother spent summers with relatives in the Smoky Mountains, which they thought were a range of the “a-puh-LAY-shuhn” mountains. Or something vaguely like that. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/23 "2020-02-23T23:45:40Z")
ap-uh-LATCH-un [ˌæpəˈlæt͡ʃɨn] I was born and raised in Knoxville, TN. My parents are from Kingsport, TN. Knoxville is just outside the Smoky Mountains; Kingsport is in the middle of the ridge-and-valley Appalachians. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/24 "2020-02-24T00:38:53Z")
ap a LAICH e un Five syllables. Wisconsin native speaker. That’s probably the epi tome of wrong. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/25 "2020-02-24T01:04:16Z")
Appa-lay-chun. Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/26 "2020-02-24T01:32:15Z")
_App a LAY shun_. My parents are Hoosiers, but I spent most of my childhood in Maryland, and went to college at Frostburg State University in Western Maryland. I never heard _App a Latch un_ while in Frostburg. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/27 "2020-02-24T01:55:46Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Appalachia ends in New York State not that many miles from where I live. I’ve always heard the “ch” rather than the “sh” pronunciation. And what vowel for the third syllable? An /ae/ (“latch”) or /eI/ (“lay”)? There are at least three main ways of pronouncing it: app-uh-LAY-shun (homophonous in my dialect with “appelation.”) /ˌæ.pəˈleɪ.ʃən/ app-uh-LAY-chun /ˌæ.pəˈleɪ.tʃən/ app-uh-LATCH-un /ˌæ.pəˈlæ.tʃən/ (And there are apparently those who give a full two syllables to the “-ian” ending instead of schwa-ing it.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/28 "2020-02-24T02:03:27Z")
(And the syllable division really should be more like ae-puh-LAY-shun, ae-puh-LAY-chun, ae-puh-LAE-chun, but since not everyone recognizes what “ae” stands for, I combined it with the following consonant[s] for the phonetic transcription.) ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/29 "2020-02-24T07:22:39Z")
The first way is how I say it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/30 "2020-02-24T11:04:41Z")
Exactly like I’d pronounce the word appellation (so -eɪʃən , -ay-shin) As a foreigner, it ordinarily wouldn’t come up a lot for me, except the Appalachian Basin is quite frequently raised in geology courses. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/31 "2020-02-24T11:59:04Z")
I’m from Pennsylvania, near the famous trail. In these parts, folks say app-uh-LAY-shun. I never heard the other pronunciation until I heard it from Walter Cronkite, in a CBS documentary about poverty in app-uh-LATCH-ee-uh. ---
**Author:** ![BlueInfinity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BlueInfinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueInfinity)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/32 "2020-02-24T13:28:17Z")
App-ah-lay-shun. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/33 "2020-02-24T13:44:28Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I hear both, but prefer ay-pal-ay-cheein. Grew up in Philly. This is how I pronounce it as well. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/34 "2020-02-24T13:59:20Z")
I’m in Maryland and around here I’ve always heard and spoken it “app-uh-LAY-shun.” ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/35 "2020-02-24T14:02:40Z")
I was born in Baltimore, MD and moved to the Appalachian part of Ohio twenty years ago. All I heard in Baltimore was the first (long A) way, and all I hear in southern Ohio is the second (short A) way. I have adopted the local way. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/36 "2020-02-24T14:09:46Z")
Most of the time Lay. When talking about the college it’s Latch. I have found myself using both or either. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/37 "2020-02-24T14:30:42Z")
So out of curiosity, what would the actual English rule-based pronunciation for the word be? I mean, there has to be some kind of rule for whether that second ‘a’ is long or short, right? ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/38 "2020-02-24T15:45:17Z")
I used to pronounce it more “A-puh-LAY-shia”, until I started playing Fallout 76. Now I pronounce it like the native I’m not 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/39 "2020-02-24T15:49:50Z")
> [@bump](#): > > So out of curiosity, what would the actual English rule-based pronunciation for the word be? I mean, there has to be some kind of rule for whether that second ‘a’ is long or short, right? Rules? There are no rules in English. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390/40 "2020-02-24T18:17:43Z")
a-puh-LAY-shuhn is closest (though my final vowel is a sort of u/i hybrid). New England born and bred. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-appalachian/848390.md?page=3)