Word Book of 
Virginia Folk Speech
Containing Sketches of
Prominent Families and Distinguished Men
 
By B. W. Green, 1912 
658 pages, indexed, searchable

 
- Bonus Book -
The
Folk Speech of Cumberland
(see details below)

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These two books reflect an interesting contrast in the speech, dialect and words in different regions of Virginia. Green’s book details
 the English influence, based on the origins of the early settlers east of the mountains. Gibson’s book details the Scotch and German
 influence, based on southern migrations through the Shenandoah from Pennsylvania.
 
 
In addition to the Word List that makes up the bulk of Green’s book, other sections include:
 
Some Virginia Names, Spelt One Way and Called Another
 
Naming Virginia Children
 
Some Virginia Folk-Sayings
 
Virginia County Names
 
“There is no trouble in tracing Virginians either by their blood or speech. They are English in both.
The first permanent English settlement in America was at Jamestown, in 1607. Shakespeare died in 1616. The colonization from England was steady,
 and the colonists fairly represented the England of the day. The English of that day was Shakespeare's English, with the speech and proverbs of the people
 that have been kept to the present day. They were Shakespeare's contemporaries who came, the very men and women, some of them doubtless knowing
 him not only as an actor, but personally.
 
By the geographical position of Virginia, and the fact that the lands were early taken up (east of the mountains), there were few newcomers after the
 earliest years; the first who came were of the same stock, manners, customs and speech. Many of the tracts of land now held, are of the same boundaries
 of the first divident, with the names first given to them, "Buck Roe," "Little England," "Celey's," "Newport's News," "Blunt Point," "Denbigh," "Balthrope,"
 "Martin's Hundred," "Kingsmill," "Indian Field," "Green Spring," "Weyanoke," "Varina," and others.
 
Virginia English seems to resemble the standard English of the time that the first immigrants came to the country.
Ours is the English of every-day life and not of dictionaries and technical works, and it will be seen how large a number are of pure English roots. These 
words are simply put down as they are, and not as some people think they ought tc be. I did not make them, but the every-day people made them as they 
had use for them, and used the shortest and most straightforward words to express what they meant.
 
There are very few foreign words in Virginia English that were not brought from England. There are a few Indian words, such as Chinkapen, Chipmunk, Hominy, 
Moccasin, Monack, Opossum (Possum), Persimmon, Pohickory (Hickory), Pone, Poquo- son, Raccoon (Coon), Skunk, Squaw, Tomahawk, Tuckahoe, Wampum,
 Wigwam. There are many place-names: Chesapeake, Chickahominy, Chuckatuck, Mattaponi, Pamunkey, Pocahontas, Potomac, Totopotomoi and others. 
Also the following counties—Accomack, Alleghany, Appomattox, Nansemond, Nottoway, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Roanoke, Shenandoah.
 
One reason for gathering these folk-words is the hope that people who wish to learn more about their every-day speech may have a list of good words 
within their reach, from which they may take what they need and save the speech of their fathers; and also it may be of use to the comparative philologist. 
I have tried to set all this down in the very words that we would use among ourselves when not trying to talk or write fine.”