Roy Wentworth 1946 - 2003

[Cecil Ward]

[apologies for cross posting]

Last month, Scotland lost its one of its foremost Gaelic scholars when Roy
Wentworth passed away suddenly. See
	http://www.news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1192022003 (Gàidhlig)

An outstanding field linguist, Roy Wentworth was the pre-eminent scholar in
the study of the Mainland Gaelic dialects of Wester Ross.

His superb work "Faclan is Abairtean à Ros an Iar" ("Gaelic Words And
Phrases From Wester Ross") stands alone, quite unequalled in its field
within Scottish Gaelic scholarship. I especially recommend this work to all
linguists with an interest in Scottish Gaelic because of the quite unique
range and quality of the examples cited, which form a truly impressive
corpus.

Roy generously made this work available on the web, at
	http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/wentworth/faclair/dualchainnt/
As it is, in machine-readable form, and as such _searchable_, this
marvellous work is yet more useful still than when it was published on paper
some years ago. 

Over the last couple of years, Roy had been working on a thesis entitled
"Rannsachadh air Fòn-Eòlas Dualchainnt Ghàidhlig Gheàrrloch" (Research into
the Phonology of the Gaelic Dialect of Geàrrloch). I do hope that we may
have a chance to read it some day.

Mar a sgrìobh am bàrd Maoileas Caimbeul,
"Slàn leat a Roy, a dhuine uasail"

Cecil Ward.