MORIBUND DIALECTS AND THE ENDANGERMENT CANON - THE CASE OF THE OCRACOKE-BROGUE

Moribund dialects threatened by the encroachment of healthy varieties of the same language have been overlooked in establishing the language endangerment canon. Endangered varieties of languages as safe as even English exhibit structures not found in mainstream language varieties and so are an invaluable resource to scholars of language variation-a nd, indeed, of language patterning in general. Further, the insights i nto language variation and change that Lye gain from studying moribund dialects inform our study of the types of changes that characterize e ndangered and dying languages. Our arguments are based on the examinat ion of Ocracoke English, a dialect of American English which is spoken on Ocracoke Island, located off the coast of North Carolina and inhab ited by about 600 year-round residents. This dialect developed in rela tive isolation from mainstream varieties of American English but is no w threatened by encroachment from mainland dialects as the island beco mes more accessible to the outside world. Using the case of the Ocraco ke production of the /ay/ diphthong as [(sic)], we present linguistic and sociolinguistic evidence that Ocracoke English is indeed an endang ered dialect. We also describe the development of a community-based pr eservation program that parallels the type of proactive programs that have been implemented thus far only for endangered language situations .