82: Languages and folklore of the Southern Appalachian Mountains & related topics
Article written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost. Like all my publications this article is published only in the UK. This article was published on the 20th of November 2025. This article is only published on this website you are currently on (www.bookofdunbarra.co.uk). This article is unrelated to and separate from any of my other publications. No AI was used in this publication nor in any of my publications. This article contains no sub-sections and contains a total of 1033 words. This article also contains a photo of the Southern Appalachia Region, taken by me from a plane. There is also a photo description above the photo, separate from the article's main text. Note I published article number 81. on this website only yesterday, but the article in front of you is number 82. on this website.
The Appalachian Mountains have fascinated me ever since I listened to an audiobook version of Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in The Woods”. Bill Bryson gives an interesting, if strange, description of The Appalachian Trail. The film based upon it, I thought, well, for me, the film doesn’t capture the book in the same humerous and quirky way.
The Southern Appalachian Mountains also have plenty of folklore, including that of the “Moon Eyed People”, who I have discussed in other publications, and of course bigfoot or sasquatch, more generally known from the Northwest Pacific, but also present in the Appalachian Mountains. There is also the Wampus Cat.
Perhaps the two most well known languages of the Southern Appalachians region are Cherokee, an Iroquoian language, and Creek, a Muskogean language – although Creek is perhaps less associated with the upland Southern Appalachians and is also spoken to the south. There are also many other indigenous languages of the region of the Southern Appalachians, including Yuchi for example, Yuchi being a language isolate. The Natchez people historically lived around the Mississippi River, but had a connection to the Appalachians, and were later relocated there.
Photo below: a picture showing, what is roughly a part of the Appalachian Mountains, not too far from Atlanta, but I am not entirely sure where. In the photo are visible mountains, forests and a river, and clouds. In Cherokee,”forest” is ᎠᏙᎯ, adohi, “river” is ᎤᏪᏴᎢ ᎡᏉᏂ, uweyvi equoni, “mountain” is ᎣᏓᎸᎢ, odalvi, and “cloud” is ᎤᎶᎩᎸ, ulogilv.
Cherokee is a language well-known for its unique writing system, which, according to some, is at least partially based upon an ancient symbol and writing system used by the Cherokee.
The Fort Mountain stone ruins somewhat resemble some of the stone walls found at hillforts in Southern Finland. The “Moon Eyed People” are in some ways akin to the patupaiarehe of New Zealand, to the “Sihirtya” known to the Nenets People, and to the elfs or elves of Germanic tradition.
The Cherokee language does not share much similarity at all to languages I am more familiar with. I have commented on a few examples before however, and will comment on a few more possible similarities here. For example Cherokee ᎢᏤ, itse – “new”, is quite similar to Finnish uusi – “new” and to related Finnic cognates. Cherokee ᏌᏊᎢ, saquui – “one”, shows similarity for example to Finnish yksi and to Quechua shuq/huq. Another possible similarity between Cherokee and Quechua is Cherokee ᏅᏃᎯ, nvnohi – “road”, compare Quechua ñan – “path”.
The Cherokee word ᎧᏂᎨᏂ, kanigeni – “knee” shows a similarity to English “knee” and to related forms in Germanic languages, and in other Indo-European languages, for example Ancient Greek γόνυ, gónu – “knee”. Compare also Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *gumb- "knee" (1) and Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *g(ʷ)inʒ- "knee" (1), compare also Hausa cinya – “thigh”, and Fulani koyngal - “leg”. Another Cherokee word with some similarity to words on the east of the Atlantic, is Cherokee ᎦᎦᎶᎢ, gagaloi – “leg”, compare for example English “leg”, Finnish jalka – “leg”.
A statue located in the Cherokee County Historical Museum may depict an example of two conjoined Moon Eyed people. The way that the faces are carved are in many ways akin to how certain North Eurasian wood and stone carvings depict faces. Similarly ancient Christian, or perhaps more likely, pre-Christian "carved heads" found throughout Scotland and Ireland depict similar ancestral beings. The distribution of these carved heads arguably connects somewhat with Celtic, Germanic, and Siberian stories about ancestors similar in some ways to the Moon Eyed People. The carving at Cherokee County Historical Museum is also interesting for depicting these two, short adult Moon Eyed People as being conjoined. Similarly there is a legend of a giant in Patagonia having had two heads. Could these examples of multiple heads and conjoined forms imply a different concept of physical individuation as what we are used to?
The relationships between the Ancient Appalachian Mountains and other parts of the World are mysterious. The indigenous languages in the Southern Appalachians bare only slight relationships in their vocabulary to that of languages on other continents - to my knowledge. And these languages are deeply indigenous to the Southern Appalachian Mountains. But in addition, I think there is a probability that connections did exist to other parts of the World, via other cultures and languages, especially considering the proximity of that region to the Mississippi Valley for example.
Those interested in the Tartaria theories have also made a lot of interesting observations in the Southern Appalachia region - and I have even read before in a few places that some of the large, Tartaria-style buildings in Southern Appalachia belonged to another culture that already existed in the landscape alongside the Cherokee - long before Europeans officially arrived in the Americas. An interesting concept. I mostly read this in online comments on YouTube and other places, and have no original sources about it, but for sure the Cherokee people do know the truth about it, so if I have have a chance to ask them in person - I may. May their ancestors and those of other indigenous people in the Southern Appalachians watch over them with love.
I hope that this article was a fascinating read. Many thanks.
References:
(1) - Proto-Afro-Asiatic vocabulary reconstructed by Alexander Militarev & Olga Stolbova, and available at the website: https://starlingdb.org/ .