Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The only people who consider West Virginia to be in the South don't know what the heck they are talking about and they definitely havent spent any time here.
What's up with those Confederate statues honoring the Confederate dead?
People in the Southern part of the state share closer ties to other southern states and are more like them in lifestyle and heritage.
People in the Northern part of the state share closer ties to more northern states and again are more like them in lifestyle and heritage.
This is why you can't say we are definitively one or the other as it depends on your viewpoint. Living in Huntington, I've always felt WV to be more of a southern state. I've lived here my entire life and have always felt that way.
Likewise.. growing up in Elkins... I never could see WV as a southern state. When I think of a southern state I picture large farms and plantations, generally flat, warmer weather, long drawn out accents... I grew up with hills and plentttttyyyyy of snow in the winter time, and farming never was a huge industry in the Elkins area or really in WV for that matter. We were more industrialized.... lol errr rather our industries were more tied to the north, i.e. coal for the steel mills, timber for construction of the cities, etc.
How about we just say that we're West Virginians. Not Southerners, not Yankees, just regular Americans trying to have a decent life. We feel no need to fit in by associating with some regional stratification so it's easier for an outsider to judge us by our associations instead of our merits.
I sort of have to agree with both Bailey and Hinton on this.
Folks in the southern part of the state talk more like southerners... a sort of southern Appalachian dialect, but then again so do those in Southeastern Ohio and Ohio is not considered a southern state. Folks in North Central WV tend to speak with what is characteristically known as the West Virginia dialect... purely Appalachian but then again so do people in nearby Pennsylvania and Maryland and those states are not really considered Appalachian. Folks east of the Blue Ridge (Eastern Panhandle people) talk like people from the Mid South, but while Virginians consider themselves southerners people from Maryland really don't even though their northern line is the Mason - Dixon line. And Northern Panhandle people talk somewhere between how they do in Akron and Pittsburgh (except they don't use yinz or yinzes') but they aren't really considered midwesterners or easterners.
West Virginians are unique. They all talk differently than each other and like people in neighboring states but are not really considered to be part of any region. I suppose a slightly larger number of them have a dialect closely related to southern, but politically they are more like Massachusetts. So no category really fits us. And we don't really come from the same ethnic group as anyone else. We are a combination of Scots Irish, German, Irish, English, Italian, Cherokee, and in the Northern Panhandle have large numbers of people from Slavic origins with a scattering of blacks throughout. All in all, we all get along pretty well considering everything. Personally, I like it just fine that way since I like West Virginia better than any place else.
I'm from Point Pleasant, WV and I consider myself 100% Southern! I could care less what others think. West Virginian's were split during the Civil War- as is the case today. As for me, in Dixieland I'll take my stand!!
20 yrs ago I would have told you that the majority of WV was "southern". But now, with so many people running away from the metro areas close to our beautiful state, I'd say no. It's turned into a northern refugee camp. City people with their city ways mucking up everything for the rest of us. Wanting everything they ran away from to begin with. wth??
Since the OP will be moving to the Charleston area, you may get lucky and deal with true southerners. People with manners and morals. Good Luck in you new endevors
I'll take issue with Dragon lady on that last post.
I watch the newbies come to our region...educated, tired of the 'rat race already and wanting to raise their families in a nich of old America.
They bring their experience, sense of involvement and community building with a fresh attitude.
I want all of them here...30/40 thousand of them..as they will change our social complexity and push out the dregs of poverty and dope.
They are coming every day too...and I say, Welcome...
Join us and make us a better people, you are the answer to our problems that have existed since 1863.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
