The Scots Gaelic Myth

[Tarheel]

David, I lived in Salter Path, NC. (on the outer banks) for three years in the mid 1980's. I was a land surveyor and met every sort of person up and down the outer banks. I found the folks on Harker's Island (for instance) spoke with a Gloucester brogue. The people of Oriental, and New Bern spoke with more of an old English slant. All the fishing villages blended to sound like northern American fishermen. There were voices from the Caribbean and cajun areas thrown in with the different fishing seasons.

To my ear, the NC mountain and foothill people sounded gaelic.

Collin, the Cape Fear river was the main trade route into the middle of NC. The Yadkin River was the next artery that my family used and lived along. Scots made encampments all along those routes to get to the mountains. Sorry for the history lesson but trade was the main objective in the New World and languages changed as fast the currencies flowed.