English natives did. And words like 

 "bear" and "there" sound more like 

 "bar" and "thar." 



PUCK 



a sweetheart 



- . 



Old English words keep 

 turning up, too, on Ocracoke. 



If a dingbatter gets quamish 

 standing on the pizzer, an Ococker 

 won't mammick him. 



Translated: If an outsider gets a 

 stomachache standing on the porch, 

 an Ocracoke native won't bother 

 him. 



But the trait that sets many 

 Ocockers, Outer Bankers and Ca'e 

 Bankers apart from other coastal 

 communities — and keeps tourists 

 and the media agog — are the 

 "Hoigh Toide" pronunciations that 

 sound more British than crumpets 

 to our American ears. 



"What toime is it hoigh toide 

 on the sound soide?" you might 

 hear in Wanchese, Ocracoke or 

 Hatteras, says Ford Reid in The 

 Coast. 



More a "uhy" sound than an 

 "oy" sound, this diphthong links the 

 dialects of the Outer Banks together 

 like a long, sturdy rope. To a 

 trained ear, the sound comes from 

 the back of the tongue, not the lips 



(as in "boy"), blending the "au" 

 sound in "astronaut" and "box" with 

 the "i" sound in "sister" and "milk." 



"I think what we're dealing with 

 is an Outer Banks phenomenon," 

 Wolfram says. Migrations between 

 islands, following fish and escaping 

 storms, were typical years ago. 



MYTH AND 

 MYSTERIES 



Such strange and wonderful 

 speech must have exotic explana- 

 tions, people think. So for decades, 

 they've been searching for an 

 answer and the holy grail of lan- 

 guage — a pure English dialect 

 straight from the queen. 



Some islanders think pirates, 

 castaways from England or travelers 

 shipwrecked off the coast first 

 brought the brogue to the Outer 

 Banks and Ocracoke. 



Others say it's Australian or 

 Arabian. 



Not so, Dough says. 



Talk about Arabs began after 

 Cal H. Wylie published a novel in 

 which he portrayed the sandy soils 

 of the Outer Banks as "Arabia," 

 Dough says. 



SKEE- WHIFFED 

 broken; damaged 



Some natives say their ancestors 

 sailed straight to the Outer Banks 

 from England. 



"My suspicion is that there was 

 a bit more migration between the 

 mainland," Wolfram says. Most 

 likely, Ocracoke 's first settlers came 

 from southeast England by way of 

 the Maryland and Virginia colonies. 

 The first records show English ship 

 pilots staking land in 1715. 



In addition to finding strong 

 affinities of the dialect to Appala- 

 chian English, Wolfram has noted 

 links to the dialects of Ireland, as 

 well as Tangier and Smith islands 

 north. 



One other myth lingers like a 

 stubborn stain in Ocracoke, the 

 Outer Banks and parts of Carteret 

 County. 



"One thing that refuses to go 

 away is this Elizabethan canard," 

 says Dough. Though fabled by 

 writers, no evidence supports the 

 theory. 



"The language of the island 

 (Roanoke), particularly the older 

 forms of the speech found there, is 

 that of the better classes or at least 



14 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1993 



