{"id":92484,"date":"2015-12-02T17:23:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T22:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=92484"},"modified":"2015-12-02T17:47:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T22:47:45","slug":"do-not-mock-our-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Not Mock Our Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Tangier Island, Virginia.<\/p><\/div>\n

There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019<\/em>s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes speech impediments. Personally, when I first watched an episode of the controversial Discovery reality show, which chronicles the escapades of a family allegedly raised away from civilization, I was struck by the similarity to the accent of Tangier Island.<\/p>\n

Tangier Island (as well as Smith Island\u2014they\u2019re both in the Chesapeake Bay) is famous for its local dialect, thought by linguists to be an example of Restoration-era English. While the brogue-ish accent is probably far more diluted than it was when the island was truly isolated in the Chesapeake, to an outsider, it\u2019s still hard to understand\u2014and the residents still have trouble understanding outsiders, too. You can get a sense of it in this video<\/a>; here<\/a>, for comparison,\u00a0are the Browns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tangier Island is known for its crabbing, but the industry\u2019s future is in jeopardy, and naturally enough, many young people wish to move away from the tiny island. There\u2019s still a solid tourism industry, but not everyone\u2019s ideal getaway involves eating tons of crab cakes and reading on the beach. (Although to some of us, it must be said, that\u2019s paradise. As might be obvious, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a long, imperative quotation you see often on Tangier\u2014it\u2019s printed, for instance, on the back of the recipe pamphlet I bought at Hilda Crockett\u2019s Chesapeake House:<\/p>\n

\n

Step not lightly upon these shores nor cast lighthearted gazes upon our isle \u2026 take not a dim view of our dwellings nor laugh at our narrow roads \u2026 do not misunderstand our language nor make joke of our native tongue \u2026 do not mock our walk or look down upon our quaint ways \u2026 for upon these shores have walked me of God, made of fiber woven close for age \u2026 and inside these dwellings laughter and love have flowed to make mansions of our homes \u2026 Our language is that of times past and ages still unknown and our native tongue speaks with truth, understanding and compassion \u2026 Our walk is that of pride and labor\u2014bent somewhat from toil but never from shame \u2026 Our quaint time is abundant here and we wish it not away \u2026 And fear not our streets, as narrow they are, for they are roads of welcome to strangers, highways to let all visitors come into our lives, and exit for those who misunderstand us, or mistrust us or wish not our love.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The place is the opposite of a reality show. It\u2019s another quiet real-life drama playing out in our time.<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes speech impediments. Personally, when I first watched an episode of the controversial Discovery reality show, which chronicles the escapades of a family allegedly raised away from civilization, I was struck by the similarity to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[20417,20418,15177,20416,20419,2861,20415,6737],"class_list":["post-92484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-accents","tag-alaskan-bush-people","tag-americana","tag-chesapeake-bay","tag-discovery-channel","tag-history","tag-tangier-island","tag-virginia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Anomaly: The Tangier Island Accent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 2, 2015 \u2013 There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do Not Mock Our Walk by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 2, 2015 \u2013 There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-02T22:23:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-02T22:47:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1796\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1184\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Do Not Mock Our Walk\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-02T22:23:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-02T22:47:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/\"},\"wordCount\":473,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"accents\",\"Alaskan Bush People\",\"Americana\",\"Chesapeake Bay\",\"Discovery Channel\",\"history\",\"Tangier Island\",\"Virginia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/\",\"name\":\"American Anomaly: The Tangier Island Accent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-02T22:23:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-02T22:47:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 2, 2015 \u2013 There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Do Not Mock Our Walk\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Anomaly: The Tangier Island Accent","description":"December 2, 2015 \u2013 There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do Not Mock Our Walk by Sadie Stein","og_description":"December 2, 2015 \u2013 There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-12-02T22:23:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-12-02T22:47:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1796,"height":1184,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Do Not Mock Our Walk","datePublished":"2015-12-02T22:23:54+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-02T22:47:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/"},"wordCount":473,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg","keywords":["accents","Alaskan Bush People","Americana","Chesapeake Bay","Discovery Channel","history","Tangier Island","Virginia"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/","name":"American Anomaly: The Tangier Island Accent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg","datePublished":"2015-12-02T22:23:54+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-02T22:47:45+00:00","description":"December 2, 2015 \u2013 There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People\u2019s\u00a0Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/line0655_-_flickr_-_noaa_photo_library.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/do-not-mock-our-walk\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do Not Mock Our Walk"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92484"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92516,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92484\/revisions\/92516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}