Tennessee

White settlers found Tennessee inhabited by Cherokee Indians in the eastern mountains, Shawnee in most of the eastern and central region, and Chickasaw in the west—all of them speakers of Hokan-Siouan languages. Subsequently removed to Indian Territory, they left behind such place-names as Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Chilhowee, as well as Tennessee itself.

Tennessee English represents a mixture of North Midland and South Midland features brought into the northeastern and northcentral areas, of South Midland and Southern features introduced by settlers from Virginia and the Carolinas, and of a few additional Southern terms in the extreme western fringe, to which they were carried from Mississippi and Louisiana. Certain pronunciations exhibit a declining frequency from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River, such as /r/ after a vowel in the same syllable, as in form and short, and a rounded /aw/ before /r/ in arm and barbed . Others occur statewide, such as the /ah/ vowel in forest and foreign, coop and Cooper with the vowel of book, and simplification of the long / i/ vowel, so that lice sounds like lass . Common are such non-Northern terms as wait on (wait for), pullybone (along with Northern wishbone), nicker (neigh), light bread (white bread), and snake feeder (dragonfly), as well as Jew's harp, juice harp, and French harp (all for harmonica). In eastern Tennessee are found goobers (peanuts), tote (carry), plum peach (clingstone peach), ash cake (a kind of cornbread), fireboard (mantel), redworm (earthworm), branch (stream), and peckerwood (woodpecker). Appearing in western Tennessee are loaf bread, cold drink (soft drink), and burlap bag . In Memphis, a large, long sandwich is a poorboy .

In 2000, 5,059,404 Tennesseans five years old and over— 95.2% of the population in that age group—spoke only English at home, down from 97% in 1990.

The following table gives selected statistics from the 2000 census for language spoken at home by persons five years old and over. The category "African languages" includes Amharic, Ibo, Twi, Yoruba, Bantu, Swahili, and Somali. The category "Other Indo-European languages" includes Albanian, Gaelic, Lithuanian, and Rumanian.