Ep10: The Ebb and Flow of Coastal Carolina Languages

Title: Languaging in Hampton RoadsEpisode 10: The Ebb and Flow of Coastal Carolina LanguagesHosts: Prue Salasky and Jill WinkowskiDate: Oct. 31, 2024Length: 34.15 minPublication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx) of each monthCo-hosts Prue Salasky and Jill Winkowski delve into the history and language of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands, part of the Outer Banks, OBX, of North Carolina, our neighbors to the south and part of our geographical culture in Hampton Roads. They interview two experts on the region. Scott Dawson, whose family traces its roots back to the 1600s on Hatteras, has devoted countless hours to researching the language and culture of the Croatoan people and their early encounters with English settlers. An amateur archaeologist and historian, he has identified artifacts and produced word lists of the Carolina Algonquian spoken on Hatteras Island when the first English settlers arrived in the 16th century. (https://www.coastalcarolinaindians.com/category/research-databases/blair-a-rudes-indigenous-language-collection/). He credits the efforts of English scientist and polymath Thomas Harriot (Hariot) working with Croatoans Manteo and Wanchese for much of what’s known today about the indigenous residents, their culture and language. We also learn more about Thomas Harriot and his scientific accomplishments, among the greatest of his generation. Dawson is a founder of the Croatoan Archaeological Society (http://www.cashatteras.com) and also opened a museum on Hatteras to tell a different version of the “lost colony” of Roanoke Island (https://www.lostcolonymuseum.com).. Linguistically, sociolinguist Prof. Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor at N.C. State, places the dialects spoken on the Outer Banks islands as part of the Tidewater diaspora. For example, the brogue spoken on Ocracoke, he says, is closer to that of Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay than to that of nearby mainland communities. A scholar of language variation, Wolfram contrasts the vibrancy of the distinctive English dialect of the Lumbee in Robeson County with the rapidly declining use of Ocracoke’s traditional dialect. He is also the director of the North Carolina Language and Life Project which documents dialects and speech variations.Listeners can find speech samples for the Lumbee, Ocracoke Islanders and many more by searching for The North Carolina Language and Life Project on YouTube.The changes in language use and dialect over 400 years in these coastal communities first tells the story of English settlement and its impact on indigenous communities. Then ongoing changes reveal shifting demographics and how geography intersects with language and identity.