Ocracoke is a tiny North Carolina island. The residents speak a dialect that blends Elizabethan English, Irish tones, Scottish accents, and pirate slang. Other Americans often can't understand it.
The island's 676 residents developed their own way of speaking and unique vocabulary, called "Hoi Toider" brogue. A friend might "mommuck a buck before going up the beach" — meaning to tease a friend before leaving the island. The word "pizer" means porch, "dingbatters" are non-islanders, and "quamish" indicates feeling sick or nauseated.
"It's the only American dialect that is not identified as American, Dr. Walt Wolfram told the BBC. As director of NC State's Language and Life Project, he's been studying the dialect for over 20 years. "You can find pronunciation, grammar structures and vocabulary on Ocracoke that are not found anywhere else in North America."
Television, internet, tourism and mainland transplants are diluting the brogue. Today, fewer than half of Ocracoke's residents speak the full brogue. "Within one to two generations, it'll be gone," Wolfram says.
Previously:
• What is this strange metal artifact that washed up in North Carolina?
