hillbillies -- (information from Jack Morgan's article)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Sure, here's the last paragraph of Jack Morgan's article:

'Adamson points out that the early Protestant Irish settlers in the Appalachian mountains had a stock of folk songs harkening back to the victory of William of Orange (popularly known as "King Billy") over the Catholic forces of James II at the Boyne River in 1690-the central event in "Orange" Protestant Irish lore.  These settlers had emigrated in considerable numbers to the American south Atlantic colonies from the mid-1600's well into the 18th century.  Due to their preoccupation with their hero "King Billy," Adamson notes, "they became known as 'Billy-boys of the hill country,' or 'hillbillies.'"  Many of them, of course, eventually migrated into the Ozark plateau.'

------Gerald Cohen


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Message to American Dialect Society from Jonathan Lighter, Wed 6/10/2009 8:38 AM:

Thanks, Jerry, but I don't seem to have that volume and can't find the
article on the Web.

Could you summarize for us?

JL

On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 9:12 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: hillbillies
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For an article on the origin of "hillbilly" there's Jack Morgan's "'King 
> Billy' (William of Orange) in hillbilly,"
> in Studies in Slang, Part IV (= Forum Anglicum, vol. 21; edited by 
> Gerald Leonard Cohen), Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1995, p. 99.  
> Morgan's article reports on information found in Ian Adamson's _The 
> Identity of Ulster_ (Belfast: Pretani Press, 1982).
> 
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> Original message to American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan 
> Lighter, Tue 6/9/2009 5:51 PM
>
> The History Channel tells us, in program about Dublin, that Irish
> Protestants were known as "Billy Boys."  Then, it says, "the word was
> changed to 'hillbillies' and was applied to Irish immigrants to 
> America,"
>
> I kid ye not.
>
> JL
>

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