Appalachia is a name for a part of the United States in and around the Appalachian Mountains, especially in the southeast. It is not one state with a neat border. People mean a wide hill-and-valley country — places often named are West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, east Tennessee, and nearby mountain counties — though actually Americans do not all draw the same map. Some lists stretch farther north than “southeast” sounds. When people say Appalachia, they often mean a culture as well as a place: small towns in the hills, coal country, church and family, and a strong local music. City people on the coasts sometimes talk about it as if it were one simple, poor, old-fashioned region, and people who live there often feel that picture is too tidy, and not always kind. The mountains themselves (the Appalachians) run much farther than this regional name, all the way into Canada; Appalachia is the inhabited belt people have in mind, not the whole chain. In the region, many speakers say the name with a short “latch” sound; elsewhere you will also hear a longer “lay” sound. Both are used; the “latch” form is the one many locals claim.