How to pronounce Appalachian

Short answer: say app-uh-LATCH-un (/ˌæpəˈlætʃən/), with latch in the middle. That's how people in central and southern Appalachia say it, and it's the version Appalachian State University recommends. In the northern part of the region, especially Pennsylvania, you'll hear app-uh-LAY-chun (/ˌæpəˈleɪtʃən/) or app-uh-LAY-shun; Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, Cambridge and Dictionary.com list both versions, with LAY-chun first. British dictionaries give app-uh-LAY-shun (Cambridge, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries) or app-uh-LAY-chee-un (Collins).

Listen

Is it app-uh-LATCH-un or app-uh-LAY-shun?

Both Appalachian pronunciations are in the dictionaries. The big change is the stressed vowel, the A of latch or the A of lay; some LAY speakers also say sh for ch.

The split is regional. Sandra Ballard, a retired App State English professor, says people in central and southern Appalachia say LATCH, while people in the northern part of the region tend to say LAY. In a 2024 survey by the podcast Appodlachia, 2,557 people from 347 of the region's 423 counties said how they pronounce Appalachia. In Pennsylvania, 20 counties had a LAY majority and only 4 a LATCH majority. It wasn't a scientific survey.

A University of South Carolina site on Southern Appalachian English calls the vowel a modern-day shibboleth: it shows who's an insider. App State notes that TV reporters and government officials made LAY familiar during the 1960s War on Poverty, and in a 1986 essay an Eastern Kentuckian, Mike Ivey, called the LAY version "an idea created by politicians and reporters". In 2014, West Virginia filmmaker Elaine Sheldon even printed T-shirts reading [app-uh-latch-uh].

Our advice: say app-uh-LATCH-un. It's in Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, Cambridge and Dictionary.com, it's the local form in central and southern Appalachia, and it's the closest to the original name. If you grew up saying app-uh-LAY-chun, keep it: the same dictionaries list it first. In British English, say app-uh-LAY-shun.

Why is Appalachian pronounced differently?

In 1528 the Spanish expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez reached a village called Apalachen, near present-day Tallahassee, Florida. The Spanish wrote it Apalchen or Apalachen, with an "ah" before the ch, and turned it into Apalachee, the name of the people who lived there.

Mapmakers then moved it north. Diego Gutiérrez's map of 1562 is the first to show Apalchen, and Jacques le Moyne's map, usually dated 1565, was the first to give the name to mountains. Merriam-Webster dates the first known use of the English adjective to 1763.

Ballard says 16th-century map spellings suggest app-uh-LATCH-uh was the older pronunciation, and the University of South Carolina site agrees that LATCH is almost certainly the original vowel. The English spelling hides it: -lachian looks like the end of nation or appellation, and Wiktionary lists appellation as a homophone of app-uh-LAY-shun.

How to say Appalachian step by step

1. Count four syllables: app-uh-LATCH-un. The stress falls on the third one.
2. Start light: "app" as in apple, then a quick, weak "uh".
3. Stress "LATCH": the short A of cat and the ch of church, so it rhymes with catch.
4. Finish with a soft "un", like the end of lemon.

For the northern version, change step 3: say "LAY", as in lay, then "chun" or "shun", as in nation. Some speakers add a light "ee" before the ending, app-uh-LAY-chee-un, the only form Collins gives for British English.

The mistake locals notice isn't a sound but the version: in the southern mountains, LAY marks you as an outsider.

Practice in a sentence

• We spent a week hiking the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee.
• At App State, they say app-uh-LATCH-un.
• Is it app-uh-LATCH-un or app-uh-LAY-shun? In Boone, it's LATCH.

Then try these related names. American pronunciations, from the Cambridge Dictionary:

For another word Americans split by region, see how to pronounce pecan. For more place names, see Oregon and Caribbean.

What does Appalachian mean?

Appalachian describes the Appalachian Mountains, which run roughly 2,050 miles from central Alabama to Newfoundland, and Appalachia, the region around them. The Appalachian Regional Commission counts 423 counties in 13 states, from southern New York to northern Mississippi, with 26.8 million residents; West Virginia is the only state entirely inside it. An Appalachian is also a person from the region. The name also lives on in the Appalachian Trail, a footpath of almost 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster — Appalachian; American Heritage Dictionary — Appalachian
• Cambridge Dictionary — Appalachian and Appalachia, Apache, Nevada and Oregon; Oxford Learner's Dictionaries — the Appalachian Mountains
• Dictionary.com — Appalachian; Collins — Appalachian; Wiktionary — Appalachian
• Appalachian State University — 'Appalachian': how do you say it?, October 2023
• University of South Carolina — How do you pronounce Appalachia?, quoting Mike Ivey, A Rose by Another Name is a Damned Brier, Appalachian Heritage 14(3), 1986
• David Walls — On the Naming of Appalachia (archived copy); Wikipedia — Appalachian Mountains and Appalachian Trail
• Appodlachia — Latch-uh vs. Lay-shuh: the people have spoken, October 2024
• The HillVille — You say App-uh-latch-un, and this t-shirt does too, September 2014
• Appalachian Regional Commission — About the Appalachian Region