Our Living Language One feature of Upper Southern English and specifically of Appalachian English is its pronunciation of the final unstressed syllable in words such as hollow, window, and potato as (ər). Holler, winder, and tater are merely variant pronunciations reflected in spelling. As a noun, holler has the specific meaning in the Appalachians of "a small valley between mountains": They live up in the holler underneath Big Bald Mountain.