UPDATE! Ocracoke Brogue featured on CBS
It was part of a segment called "Are Americans losing their accents?" Click here to watch it.
Ocracoke residents Vince O'Neal, Rex O'Neal and James Barrie Gaskill were interviewed by Mo Rocca in March.
The Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum has a display about the brogue. It is open Monday - Friday from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and on Saturday from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
The following article was published in early March.
Spring break for socio-linguist Walt Wolfram means teaching at Ocracoke School.
This year, in addition to educating eighth graders, he'll be pointing out highlights of Ocracoke life to a CBS News film crew, who contacted him about a show they plan to air on Southern speech. Walt invited them to join him on Ocracoke, and let them know there is "a cool dialect" here.
The producers asked Walt if there were "any characters" on Ocracoke. "I said, 'That's not a problem,'" Walt laughed. The crew is planning to be here Thursday morning. James Barrie Gaskill, Vince O'Neal, Rex O'Neal and Rudy Austin will likely be among those interviewed. Walt is curious to see if the news crew can understand what they say.
He's been regularly visiting the island since 1992, when he began researching the Ocracoke brogue. A curriculum that was "constructed and nourished on Ocracoke" is taught to the eighth grade social studies class for a week each spring, by Walt himself.
Former students stop Walt in the hall and common areas of Ocracoke School to prove they remember linguistics terms and concepts, like isogloss, learned in past years. The curriculum developed here is approved by NC to be used in any school across the state.
Walt is William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of English at North Carolina State University, and the Director of the NC Language and Life Project. He comes back year after year because of "the receptivity of people" on Ocracoke. Islanders are "so affirming of things we want to do to publicly educate about dialect," said Walt.
Another reason to visit is that "over the years, subjects have become friends," he said. "Plus the food is good!"
Walt invites anyone interested to the Ocracoke Preservation Society on Wednesday, March 7 at 11 a.m. to screen the documentary film Down East, which explores the conflict between development and commercial fishing on and around Harker's Island.
His most recent research is on metropolitan language change in Raleigh. Another study he conducts, on African American language, is now in its 20th year. 67 of 70 subjects, who started in infancy, still participate. Walt studies how language evolves during development, and correlates it to performance in school.
He spent part of Tuesday afternoon with Miss Rita's fourth grade class, teaching them about the Lumbee Indians, who make up 38% of the population in Robeson County.
The students were attentive, and eager to answer Walt's questions. They learned the Lumbee have been petitioning--so far unsuccessfully--for federal recognition as a tribe since the 1880s. They knew that Manteo and Wanchese were the first Native Americans to learn English.
Walt talked about how the Lumbee, white, and black populations of Robeson County have been historically segregated, and helped the kids define segregation. He played
audio clips of speakers from each group. Though they live only a few miles from one another, their speech is dramatically different. The kids all agreed a Lumbee speaker their age didn't sound anything like a kid from Ocracoke.
The Lumbee say their distinct dialect is one of the ways they identify each other. Walt asked the kids if islanders used the brogue in a similar way. He showed a video where tribe members talked about their word "Lum," and how it meant someone with a strong, authentic connection to the Lumbee community.
Ethan O'Neal knew that we have a word like that on Ocracoke. It's "Ococker," he said, sounding very much like one. It means "someone who's lived on Ocracoke all their life," added another student.
To hear from Walt himself tune in to WOVV this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. for This Island Life.
