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  • - There are only about 150 speakers

  • of the Ocracoke brogue now,

  • and they all live on one end of this barrier island

  • on the coast of North Carolina,

  • which is basically an enlarged sand bar.

  • Within the next 50 years, the brogue will disappear.

  • - Hoi toi to the sound side so laugh like water

  • far night moonshine no fish.

  • (boat engine bubbling)

  • - [Man] The dialect on this island is sometimes referred to

  • as hoi toiters which is their pronunciation of high tide.

  • - Hoi toid on the sound sides high tide on the sound side.

  • - In the United States the Ocracoke brogue is probably

  • the only dialect that is not identified

  • as being from America.

  • - I do, I have a lot of people that think I'm from Australia

  • or Ireland, yeah.

  • - [Man] You can look in this boat and see crabs.

  • - You know, the first people that came here

  • from England and Ireland and Scotland just stayed isolated.

  • I'm from Ocracoke, I am the 10th generation

  • in my family from Ocracoke.

  • That goes back to the mid-1600s.

  • - The reason this dialect was perpetuated

  • for a couple of centuries was because the people were

  • very isolated.

  • They didn't have much contact with people from the mainland.

  • Ocracoke is an island that has always

  • lived around the water.

  • - Got it!

  • - Many of the unique items,

  • particularly the vocabulary items,

  • are built around the water

  • and the sand and the weather.

  • - The wind's blowin' really hard, he says,

  • it's blowin harder then a pop car right there.

  • You know.

  • - So you're takin' a ride around the island.

  • You're just taking a little scud.

  • - When we come out here and the wind's blowin' really hard

  • and we take a bad beatin'.

  • Then you could say we be a mommuck.

  • - You also find here lots of terms for outsiders.

  • - Ya'll are dingbatters.

  • (laughing)

  • - My wife is from Maryland.

  • We've been married 43 years.

  • She's still a dingbatter.

  • (laughing)

  • - That's not a bad thing, OK?

  • (laughing)

  • - It was basically the dingbatters who changed the dialect

  • because so many people came in.

  • Even today there are more off-islanders who live here

  • than on-landers.

  • - Now it's changing, within time we're all gonna lose it,

  • ya' know?

  • - Because of so many people coming in.

  • It's a part of heritage that I'm proud of.

  • - Some people think we talk funny.

  • I think that's the way we talk.

  • (laughs)

  • It ain't funny to us, but it doesn't matter,

  • I mean, that's fine, you know?

  • (plucked string music)

- There are only about 150 speakers

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