Teanga mharbh

[Marion Gunn]

Plain text msg below (follow links to see images and read sample 
vocabulary of Scots dialect of the Black Isle).

Foinse/Source: CapallDubh at aol.com.
mg


Scríobh 07/10/2012 02:44, CapallDubh at aol.com:
>
>
>           Final word from Cromarty: Scottish Black Isle dialect
>   silenced forever as last native speaker dies aged 92
>       •    Bobby Hogg was the last person still fluent in the
>   fisherfolk dialect
>       •    His younger brother Gordon had been the second speaker of
>   the Cromarty language until he passed away last year aged 86
>
>   By Jane Borland
>   PUBLISHED: 15:17 EST, 3 October 2012 | UPDATED: 15:17 EST, 3 October
>   2012
>   Daily Mail
>
>   It was a traditional dialect used for centuries by fisherfolk.
>   But yesterday it emerged that the language of Cromarty had finally
>   died with the passing of its last speaker.
>   Bobby Hogg was the only person still fluent in the age-old tongue of
>   the Black Isle and his death at the age of 92 means it will now
>   exist only in audio recordings.
>
>   End of an era: Bobby Hogg, the last native speaker of the Cromarty
>   dialect, has died aged 92
>
>   Small talk: Bobby (left) and his brother Gordon Hogg speaking in the
>   old Cromarty dialect at The Marine Nursing Home in Rosemarkie,
>   before Gordon passed away last April
>   Mr Hogg, a retired engineer, said recently he could still close his
>   eyes, see the boats heading out to sea and hear the unique speech
>   pattern – never normally written down – that set his people apart.
>   His younger brother Gordon had been the other surviving speaker –
>   but he died in April last year, aged 86.
>   Yesterday, Dr Robert McColl Millar, of Aberdeen University’s
>   linguistic department, said Mr Hogg’s death was highly significant.
>
>   He added: ‘It is the first time that an actual Scots dialect has so
>   dramatically died with the passing of the last native speaker.
>   ‘This was always going to be the danger of the Black Isle, as there
>   were so few speakers even when it was healthy, when the fishing was
>   still good.
>
>   Language of the sea: The Cromarty dialect was traditionally spoken
>   by fishermen who populated the town on the tip of the Black Isle
>   ‘So Bobby Hogg’s passing is a very sad day. It was a very
>   interesting dialect and was unlike any of the others.
>   ‘There are one or two who still have some facility in the Cromarty
>   fisherfolk dialect but most of the time they speak Highland English.
>   Bobby was the last fluent native speaker who spoke no other tongue
>   from a child. He was what we term a “dense” speaker. So all we have
>   now are the recordings.’
>   Mr Hogg, who died on Sunday, had worked across Britain, but kept
>   coming back to Cromarty.
>   His wife Helen was a direct descendent of the community’s most
>   celebrated son, 19th century polymath Hugh Miller.
>
>   But the Hoggs were from the fishing community. In 2007, the brothers
>   were recorded by Am Baile, the project that has created a digital
>   archive of the history and culture of the Highlands and Islands.
>   Mr Hogg said: ‘Our father was a fisherman and all his folk had been
>   fishermen stretching way back. It was the same on our mother’s side
>   too. When we were young, we talked differently in the fishertown to
>   the rest of Cromarty.
>   ‘It wasn’t written down. It was an oral culture. We had this sort of
>   patois, which I think had both Doric and Gaelic in it.
>   'There were words, a lot to do with the fishing, which nobody else
>   could understand. It is dying out. You hear a smattering in some
>   things people from Cromarty say, but nobody speaks it fluently but
>   for us.’
>
>   ...
>
>   Read more:
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2212466/Final-word-Scottish-Cromarty-dialect-silenced-forever-native-speaker-dies-aged-92.html#ixzz28Kaf3THX 
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