Personality traits and stereotypes attributed to people with Appalachian dialects in comparison to the General American dialect

The present study relates attributed personality traits to regional American dialects. Each participant listened to one audio taped sample of a General American dialect and one Appalachian dialect sample. Participants then selected personality traits which they believed characteristic of each accented speaker. Eighty-seven randomly selected college students (37 from West Virginia and 50 from Illinois) participated. Attributed personality traits were rated using the Speech Dialect Attitudinal Scale-21. Results indicate that West Virginia and Illinois college students rated the Appalachian speaker as having a lower aesthetic qualities than the Midwestern speaker (p < .001). The Illinois college students rated both speakers, Appalachian and Midwestern, as having poorer aesthetic qualities and poorer dynamism than the West Virginia college students (p < .01). These results differed slightly from findings from older studies, however this topic as not been addressed in many years and views and attitudes towards dialects may have changed thus altering the overall results of this study.