The US Island that Speaks Elizabeathen English

[MULTIZ321]

The US Island that Speaks Elizabeathen English

The US island that speaks Elizabethan English

English recently became the US's official language. But on a tiny island, residents still speak the country's most English version of English, and many Americans don't understand it.

www.bbc.com

Richard

 

[Carolinian]

The US Island that Speaks Elizabeathen English

The US island that speaks Elizabethan English

English recently became the US's official language. But on a tiny island, residents still speak the country's most English version of English, and many Americans don't understand it.

www.bbc.com

Richard

I love Ocracoke and have been there many times, sometimes taking the ferry across the sound from the county seat of Swanquarter and others the shorter ferry trip across Hatteras Inlet. Those who speak the dialect are often called "Hoiy Toiders" because the way they say "high tide" comes out "hoiy toid". You also sometimes hear the dialect among natives of Hatteras Island and southern Roanoke Island around the town of Wanchese, but it is dying out there. Curiously, they also use some modern British English terms like calling the trunk of a car the "boot".

 

[jorcus]

We spent many family vacations on Ocracoke. All the people working on the Ferry's spoke the old English. Crazy long drive to get there and more than once I have missed the Hatteras ferry to spend the late night hours trying to get some sleep in the parking lot. Place is a seafood lovers dream. Great Gulfstream fishing. Like everyplace else it has been discovered so pretty busy in high season. I have not been in about 10 years. I guess it is about time to go back.