Has the Tangier island accent truly remained unchanged since the Elizabethan period?

Solution 1:

Here's how you could possibly tell. Get someone from Tangier Island to read Elizabethan poetry. If everything rhymes then the rumour about the accent may have some truth. I believe this method is used to deduce how period accents may have sounded.

Solution 2:

I'm English and listening to interviews with various people from Tangier Island (particularly older folks)it's very evident that this accent has kept distinct elements of the old Cornish dialect (different to modern Cornish, which is slightly less 'yokel' sounding!). There are distinctly 'flat' sounding English intonations to some words and it's definitely Cornish. However,any Brit listening (even to old audio of folks who are no longer with us and with much stronger accents containing more pronounced English intonation) will likely agree that the Tangier accent still sounds 'American' and not English, with a clear southern sounding 'drawl', albeit far less pronounced than in other areas of the American south. It's clear that this accent has likely evolved into something rather unique; not quite pure old English, not quite fully modern American, but I'd wager you a shilling (!) it's still not an accurate depiction of true Elizabethan English. It's fascinatingly close, but not quite close enough.

Solution 3:

All that I can add is that David Shores, a native of the island and former professor of English at ODU, wrote a book on the Tangier dialect. He has made numerous comparisons to the Elizabethan English and says that it is not related to that at all, but just a regional dialect that has remained because of the isolation of the island. No different than other areas near the east coast of the United States. Even though Tangiermen are not as isolated as in the past, and do have access to media, they still grow up listening to each other and speaking the way the generations before them did.