In what part of the country would you be likely to hear momicking, meehonkey, and quamish?
Transcript of “How About a Game of Meehonkey? (minicast)”
Welcome to another mini podcast from A Way with Words.
I’m Martha Barnette.
Time for another linguistic mystery.
In what part of the country would you be likely to hear older folks using the following phrases?
He sure was mommockin’ his little brother.
And why those kids used to play me honky every afternoon.
And, oh, I was quamished in the stomach.
Give up?
Well, you’re most likely to hear the words mommockin’, me honky, and quamished in a place called Ocracoke.
It’s just off the North Carolina coast, one of the Outer Banks Barrier Islands.
Settled by the British in the early 1700s, Ocracoke’s small, relatively isolated community developed its own distinctive dialect.
One of the dialect’s most striking features is its pronunciation.
In the so-called Ocracoke Brogue, the expression high tide comes out more like hoy toyed.
On the island, you’ll also hear some unusual words.
Mommock, M-O-M-M-U-C-K, means to harass or bother.
Quamish, that’s Q-U-A-M-I-S-H, means queasy.
And old-timers on Ocracoke remember playing the island’s special version of hide and seek called me honky.
You’ll find more examples of this distinctive dialect at our website.
That’s waywordradio.org.
And for a great introduction to the language of Ocracoke, check out a book by linguists, Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling Estes.
It’s called Hoy Toyed on the Outer Banks.
More about that at our website.
I’ll be back next time with more of our talking tour of the United States.
In the meantime, we’d love to know what regional expressions have caught your ear.
Email us at words@waywordradio.org.
Thanks for listening.
For A Way with Words, I’m Martha Barnette.
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Time for another linguistic mystery. In what part of the country would you be likely to hear older folks using the following phrases?
“He sure was mommucking his little brother.”
And: “Why, those kids used to play meehonkey every afternoon!”
And: “Ohhhhhhh, I was quamished in the stomach.”
Give up? The place you’re likely to hear the words mommucking, meehonkey, and quamished is called Ocracoke. It’s just off the North Carolina coast — one of the Outer Banks barrier islands.
Settled by the British in the early 1700s, Ocracoke’s small, relatively isolated community developed its own distinctive dialect. One of the dialect’s most striking features is its pronunciation. In the so-called “Ocracoke brogue,” the expression “high tide” sounds more like “hoi toid.”
On the island, you’ll also hear some words that you won’t find in many other places. Mommuck means to “harass” or “bother.” Quamish means “queasy.” And old-timers on Ocracoke remember playing the island’s special version of hide-and-seek. They call it meehonkey.
You can hear some audio clips of Outer Banks English from the North Carolina State’s Language and Linguistics Program.
And for a great introduction to the topic, check out Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks, by linguists Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes.
And here you’ll find video of O’cokers, as they call themselves, in conversation.
What regional expressions have caught your ear lately? Email us at words@waywordradio.org.
