Bonac: The Rural Speech of Old East Hampton

In 1983, David G. Rattray, a poet and East Hampton native then working as an editor at The Reader's Digest Association, helped to edit "Success With Words: A Guide To The American Language." The section on "Bonac," here reprinted in its entirety, was his creation.

Bonac /box-nek/. This is the local name for the rural speech of East Hampton, Long Island, New York. The speakers are sometimes called Bonackers. Bonac is shortened from the name of a small saltwater inlet, Accabonac Creek. With the increasing urbanization of the area, this colorful vestige of folk speech is rapidly disappearing.

Pronunciation. In some details Bonac very closely resembles New York City and New England speech. Specifically, /r/ is quite frequently dropped after vowels; beard, for example, is pronounced /be_ed/ by Bonackers. This /r/ is also frequently added to words ending in a vowel sound, especially when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. For example, the sentence I saw it is usually pronounced /i s"r ixt/.

The /ou/ sound in words like house and cow usually becomes /xeoo/: /h xe- oos/, /k xeoo/. The /a/ sound in words like vary and Sarah is often pronounced /a/: /v xar-e/, /s xar-e/. The /ax/ sound in words like bad and path is usually pronounced /_ae/ or /a_ye/: /ba_ed/, /pa_yeth/.

Vocabulary. (1) Bonac shares much of its vocabulary with the dialects of the region, specifically the New York City, Hudson Valley, and New England dialects. But Bonac also has many terms of its own. Here is a sampling:

Clam the tide out - to be the last guest, or one of the last, to leave a party.

Downstreet - upstreet.

Dreen - stream that empties into a creek or bay (variant of drain).

Heft - weight.

"It'll drink" or "It'll eat" - It's drinkable or edible: "Don't drink that beer; I just dropped it." "It'll drink."

Long Island hurry - stew of potatoes and salt.

Neutral ground - grass strip between the sidewalk and the street.

Prit near - almost.

Samp - a dish made of white corn kernels, navy beans, and ham hocks or salt pork (from an Algonquian word for "corn mush").

Say somethin' - to talk a lot: She can say somethin', can't she?

Sea poose - an outward-moving whirlpool in the surf, dangerous to bathers (from an Algonquian word for "stream").

Skip - no meal: We had skip for lunch.

Ugly - in a bad mood: I'm ugly today.

Upstreet - into the business section of any of the major villages: I'm goin' upstreet (or downstreet) for a few minutes.

Up the Island - toward New York City.

Weather - good weather: We'll work tomorrow if there's weather.

Many of the terms characteristic of eastern Long Island speech are nautical or fishing terms and are also used by speakers in other areas of the northeastern coast. Some of these are:

Dragger - trawler.

Mash - mesh of a net.

Open (oysters, clams, etc.) - to shuck or shell.

Opening shop - place where workers shuck shellfish.

Sharpie - flat-bottomed skiff, now usually with an outboard motor.

Sputnik grass - long, tubular seaweed (so called because it reappeared locally about the time the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite.)

Striper - striped bass.

Weakfish - sea trout.