Introduction
Charleston is a city in the county of Charleston with some incorporated areas located within the boundaries of Berkeley County and Dorchester County in the U.S. state of South Carolina; the city serves as the county seat and largest city of Charleston County. The city proper consists of five distinct areas: the Peninsula/Downtown, West Ashley, Johns Island, James Island, Daniel Island, and the Cainhoy Peninsula. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location in 1680; it adopted its present name in 1783. In 1690, Charleston was the fifth largest city in North America, and remained among the ten largest cities in the United States through the 1840 census. Charleston is known as The Holy City due to the prominence of churches on the low-rise cityscape, particularly the numerous steeples which dot the city's skyline. The city brims with the culturally unique, such as the joggling board.

As of July 2006, the estimated population of the city proper is 107,845, making it the second most populous city in South Carolina behind the state capital Columbia. Current trends put Charleston as the fastest growing central city in South Carolina. The metropolitan area population of Charleston and North Charleston, which includes the entire populations of Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties, was estimated to be 603,178 in 2007. This ranks Charleston-North Charleston as the second largest metropolitan statistical area in the state behind Columbia. Nearly 80% of the Charleston metro population lives inside the city and its surrounding urbanized area (2000 pop.: 423,410).

The city of Charleston is located roughly at the mid-point of South Carolina's coastline, at the junction of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Charleston's name is derived from Charles Towne, named after King Charles II of England.

America's most-published etiquette expert, Marjabelle Young Stewart, has recognized the city since 1995 as the "best-mannered" city in the U.S, a claim lent credibility by the fact that it has the only Livability Court in the country.

Major Companies in the Charleston Metropolitan Area:

• Amoco Distribution Center
• Blackbaud Corporate center
• Bosch - Plant
• Carolina First Bank - Charleston regional offices
• Sawgrass Technologies - International headquarters

Metropolitan area
The Charleston Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of three counties: Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester. As of 2006, it was estimated that the metropolitan area had a total population of about 603,178 people.[18] Charleston has several large suburbs. North Charleston is nearly as populated as Charleston itself and ranks as the third largest city in the state; Mount Pleasant and Summerville are the next largest suburbs. The traditional parish system persisted until the Reconstruction, when counties were imposed. Nevertheless, traditional parishes still exist in various capacities, mainly as public service districts. The city of Charleston proper, which was originally defined by the limits of the Parish of St. Philip & St. Michael. It now also includes parts of St. James' Parish, St. George's Parish, St. Andrew's Parish, and St. John's Parish, although the last two are mostly still incorporated rural parishes.

In the more detailed results of Census 2000, the Charleston-North Charleston metropolitan area had a population of 549,033, of which about 78% lived inside the central city and its surrounding urban area. At that time, the Charleston-North Charleston Urbanized Area proper consisted of 423,410 people (including the suburbs listed below). This population makes Charleston-North Charleston and Columbia essentially tied as the two largest individual urbanized areas within the state. The Charleston MSA also includes a separate and much smaller urban area within Berkeley County, Moncks Corner (2000 pop.: 9,123).

Culture
Charleston is well-known across the United States and beyond for its unique culture, which blends West African, traditional southern American and French elements.

Dialect
Charleston's unique but vanishing dialect has long been noted in the South and elsewhere, for the singular attributes it possesses. Alone among the various regional Southern dialects, Charlestonian speakers inglide long mid vowels, such as the raising for /ay/ and /aw/. Some attribute these unique features of Charleston's speech to its early settlement by the French Huguenots and Sephardic Jews, both of which played influential parts in Charleston's development and history. However, given Charleston's high concentration of African-Americans that spoke the Gullah language, the speech patterns more than likely were majorly influenced by the dialect of the Gullah African-American community.

Today, the Gullah language and dialect is still spoken among African-American locals. However rapid development, especially on the surrounding sea islands, is slowly diminishing its prominence.

Two important works which shed light on Charleston's early dialect are "Charleston Provincialisms" and "The Huguenot Element in Charleston's Provincialisms," both written by Sylvester Primer. Further scholarship is needed on the influence of Sephardic Jews to the speech patterns of Charleston.