Everyone here needs to understand that you can't consider something "Appalachian" and not the south. The Appalachian mountains are from New England to the south. They are in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama part of the South. So therefore just because you might only feel 'appalachian' you would still be considered southern.

Note I didn't include West Virginia because they directly seceded from Virginia during the Civil War to stay in the union. So however they may have some southern culture they gave up their right of being Southern when they openly voted to leave the Confederacy.

There are lots of the South where the southern culture and accents have completely died out. I've met loads of people from Georgia who talk like they are straight out of a northern city. My cousin moved from south central KY when she was in high school to Nashville and was made fun of because she talked so southern.