The instruments are quite different, yet they are both a member of the zither family of instruments.
When four strings are used, the first 2 strings are placed close together and tuned the same. This can be used to emphasize the melody, while the other two strings are used as drone strings.
The frets of the Appalachian dulcimer are arranged in a diatonic scale.
It is widely used in the American Bluegrass music tradition. This instrument first appeared in the early 1800s in the southern Appalacian Mountains[?], and is thus also called a mountain dulcimer.
Versions of this instrument are recorded in Europe and the Middle East throughout recorded history. In Eastern Europe a larger descendant of the hammered dulcimer called the cimbalom is also played which has been used by a number of classical composers, including Zoltan Kodaly and Igor Stravinsky.
The instrument has seen somewhat of a revival in America in the Americal Folk music and Bluegrass traditions. It is also still played in Wales, Northumbria, and the Middle East.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump