Porch Talk: The Ocracoke Brogue with Walt Wolfram & Jeffrey Reaser

This event is rain or shine. 

Walt Wolfram directs the North Carolina Language and Life project at North Carolina State University. In 1993, Wolfram formulated the principle of linguistic gratuity, which states that "investigators who have obtained linguistic data from members of a speech community should actively pursue ways in which they can return linguistic favors to the community".  He has been involved in the production of television documentaries on dialect diversity (often in collaboration with Neal Hutcheson), the construction of museum exhibits, and the development of dialect awareness curricula for the schools and general public. His book, Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks (1997) was based on interviews with more than 70 Ocracoke residents of all ages. By tracing the history of island speech, he and his co-author, Natalie Schilling-Estes succeeded in opening a window into the history of the islanders themselves.

Jeffrey Reaser is Professor of English at North Carolina State University where he coordinates the secondary English education program, the Linguistics minor, the undergraduate linguistics concentration, and serves as associate director of the Language and Life Project at NC State. He has worked extensively on formal and information education projects related to documenting, celebrating, and expanding knowledge of dialects and language variation, including the development and testing of the nation’s first state-based dialect awareness program, Voices of North Carolina: Language and Life from the Atlantic to the Appalachians (Reaser and Wolfram 2007). He has published four books and more than twenty academic articles/book chapters. His first book, Talkin’ Tar Heel: How Our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina (2014), co-authored with Walt Wolfram, won the 2014 book award from the North Caroliniana Society.