ocracoke brogue=english roots

Howard Street in Ocracoke. Many residents of Ocracoke claim Blackbeards purser, William Howard as their ancestor. Pirate lingo as well as other forms of pre-Colonial English are part of the Ocracoke brogue. Photo Federal Highway Administration.
Howard Street in Ocracoke. Many residents of Ocracoke claim Blackbeards purser, William Howard as their ancestor. Pirate lingo as well as other forms of pre-Colonial English are part of the Ocracoke brogue. Photo Federal Highway Administration.

Ocracoke distinctive accent traces roots to first English settlers.

What countless linguists have noted before, the British press just discovered–the Ocracoke brogue is distinctive, with roots traced very directly to Elizabethan English. Read this wonderful story by Brian Carlton writing for BBC Travel.

Howard Street in Ocracoke. Many residents of Ocracoke claim Blackbeards purser, William Howard as their ancestor. Pirate lingo as well as other forms of pre-Colonial English are part of the Ocracoke brogue. Photo Federal Highway Administration.
Howard Street in Ocracoke. Many residents of Ocracoke claim Blackbeards purser, William Howard as their ancestor. Pirate lingo as well as other forms of Colonial English are part of the Ocracoke brogue. Photo Federal Highway Administration.

“I’d never been called a dingbatter until I went to Ocracoke for the first time. I’ve spent a good part of my life in North Carolina, but I’m still learning how to speak the ‘Hoi Toider’ brogue. The people here just have their own way of speaking: it’s like someone took Elizabethan English, sprinkled in some Irish tones and 1700s Scottish accents, then mixed it all up with pirate slang. But the Hoi Toider dialect is more than a dialect. It’s also a culture, one that’s slowly fading away. With each generation, fewer people play meehonkey, cook the traditional foods or know what it is to be mommucked.”

To read the complete BBC Travel story, click here.

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