"Hoi toide," for those unfamiliar with the brogue, is Ocracoker for "high tide." As many visitors to the island are quick to observe, this vibrant dialect - with its unusual pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax - is one of Ocracoke's most distinctive cultural features. In Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks, Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes set out to research the brogue and encourage the preservation and celebration of an important part of a community's rich heritage.

Its authors trace the dialect's history and identify its unique features - even providing a glossary and quiz to augment the reader's knowledge of Ocracoke speech. In the process, they also explore some larger questions on language and the role it plays in a culture's efforts to define and maintain itself.