Editorial Note: This appears to be specific to the area near Mount Airy, N.C. Etymological Note: Perh. fr. Sc./Brit. Eng. songle, singill, single, ‘a handful of grain or gleanings,’ or from Sc. sonker ‘to simmer, to boil slightly.’
Citations:
1987 James J. Kilpatrick @ Mount Airy, N.C. Chicago Sun-Times (Sept. 6) “What makes sonker a sonker after being songle or sonkle?” p. 14: There is nothing very distinctive about the sonker itself—it may be made with either flour or breadcrumbs—except for this: The filling is whatever’s handy at the time. 2004 Richard Creed Winston-Salem Journal (N.C.) (May 29) “Berry Good: Granny’s definition works”: I have often wondered why a deep-dish fruit pie is called a cobbler. My online etymological dictionary suggests it is related to a 14th-century word for wooden bowl, cobeler. What is apparently the same dish is called zonker (or sonker) in Surry County.