Nearly three decades later, a new book re-examines Ocracoke and its Brogue

By Maggie Mills of Outer Banks Voice

A follow-up to the celebrated book on the famed Ocracoke Brogue dialect, Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks, is set to be published by UNC Press on May 25. Titled Language and Life on Ocracoke: The Living History of the Brogue, authors Jeffrey Reaser, Walt Wolfram, and Ocracoke native Candy Gaskill document their continued research on Ocracoke Island, its people, and its distinctive dialect since the release of the first book in 1997—nearly 30 years ago.

The book, the most comprehensive study of the dialect to date, features more than 100 interviews with Ocracoke residents conducted over several decades. It revisits individuals from the original study, memorializes those who have passed, and incorporates voices from a new generation. The book also integrates technology, with QR codes throughout linking to audio and video recordings of conversations with residents.

“One of the questions we wanted to look at was how the community has changed with the subsequent generation,” said Reaser, a professor of English at North Carolina State University. “But it also allows us to re-interview people from our first study, and that way we’re able to see how they’ve actually changed in real time.”

Being able to interview the same residents from decades ago has allowed the authors to investigate how Ocracoke’s social dynamics have evolved. According to Reaser, the island’s social fabric has undergone dramatic transformation. For example, in 1997, there were no Hispanic residents on the island. Today, the school population is 50% Hispanic, according to Reaser.

A major component of the research is preservation. As the last of the older generation with the strongest Brogue passes on, tourism continues to grow and more people from out of state move to the island.

“As a linguist, it’s really exciting to be able to do this work, but unfortunately, it’s following a pattern that is probably predictable. Generally, what we’re seeing is a recession of the dialect,” Reaser said. “We’re seeing less and less of the prototypical vowel pronunciations of the Hoi Toide vowels and things like that.”

One unexpected finding was that the dialect replacing the Brogue is not a rural Southern dialect, as one might assume.

“In fact, what we tend to get are vowels that more closely approximate Midwestern vowels,” Reaser said, explaining that many vacationers and new residents are not from nearby Southern states, as those states have their own beaches. Instead, migration to Ocracoke typically comes from Midwestern states, where access to the coast is more limited.

However, he clarifies that this does not constitute a full Midwestern English dialect, as Ocracoke still preserves some Southern features, such as the pin/pen merger, where the vowels in “pin” and “pen” sound the same.

“What’s emerging is something unique, and that’s an important thing to document and study,” Reaser said.

Another key finding was the role of social networks in shaping linguistic variation within generations. In the 1990s, a group of middle-aged men, later known as the “Poker Gang Network,” frequently gathered to play poker and fish, developing distinct linguistic patterns that set them apart from their peers. Similarly, a group of gay men exhibited their own unique linguistic features. In their current research, the authors observed a new cohort of younger men who regularly met at a local bar, The Pelican, displaying elevated Brogue dialect features compared to their peers.

“It’s really neat to see these little communities of practice being so important in the community’s linguistic landscape,” Reaser said.

Another example is the Bryant family, an African American family who lived on Ocracoke for nearly 150 years. Their story is the focus of a dedicated chapter in the study. Originally from Blounts Creek, they settled on the island shortly after the Civil War. Researchers over the years were able to interview only two of the nine Bryant children, Muzel and Mildred, neither of whom exhibited the Ocracoke Brogue. Muzel, who lived nearly to age 104, recalled that her parents also sounded different from other islanders. However, their brother Julius, who passed away before the study began, did exhibit Brogue features, as evidenced by recordings of his speech. Community members remembered him as socially integrated, often participating in milling, wining, poker and fishing—activities that were not as readily available to the Bryant women.

“Again, it’s that community of practice that’s really important here, more so than just saying they all sound one way or the other,” Reaser said. “What’s really fascinating is that they do have features not found among Islanders but shared with other speakers of African American English. So, even in isolation, they preserved some of those African American features within their own linguistic community.”

The study also explores how Brogue speakers engage in style-shifting, meaning they can “turn on” or “turn off” their Brogue depending on whom they are speaking to and the topic of conversation.

Reaser gives the example of Rex O’Neill, a well-known Ocracoke resident often featured on television performing the Brogue. In one interview, O’Neill initially speaks in a more general manner, but when his brother joins the conversation and they begin discussing an incident involving a fishing net and a duck, his Brogue becomes so thick that linguists struggled for hours to transcribe the recording.

Readers can hear, and in some cases watch, these interviews and many others through 80 QR codes embedded throughout the book. Reaser emphasizes that the openness of the Ocracoke community has been invaluable to the research.

“This is unlike any other linguistic study ever done, in that we have continued to work in the community for decades after the initial study,” Reaser said. “And it’s because the community continues to be a collaborative partner here…We really appreciate them, and we always want to highlight them as the true stars of what we’re doing here.”