Posted on 10/03/2012 10:21:04 AM PDT by FeliciaCat
In a remote fishing town on the tip of Scotland's Black Isle, the last native speaker of the Cromarty dialect has died, taking with him another little piece of the English linguistic mosaic.
Scottish academics said Wednesday that Bobby Hogg, who passed away last week at age 92, was the last person fluent in the dialect once common in the seaside town of Cromarty, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) north of Scottish capital Edinburgh.
The Biblically-influenced speech — complete with "thee" and "thou" — is one of many fading dialects which have been snuffed out across the British Isles.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The only two things you can count on in language and fashion is change. At some future point, the English we speak will be as unrecognizable to future speakers as Middle English is to us.
>> See if you can work the term ‘shag’ into that story <<
Like the following? To wit:
When I took the lift up to the flat of my very hip, up-to-date and attractive female British neighbor and knocked her up, she said she was moving to a place where the management would allow her to have “some shag on the rug.” Maybe she wasn’t talking about interior decorating?
You don’t know how funny that really is. The area we were at was a really beautiful spot with a lot of hiking trails, look outs and just plain nice country.
I never heard him use the term “shag” but he and his girlfriend were caught in an embarrassing situation on a blanket at one of the secluded and beautiful views. One of the two boys who caught them was his best friend and also on my crew.
He told me that she looked so good that he would have swapped places with him even with getting caught.
Agreed, especially if you don't have to worry about our "historical" spelling.
And believe it or not, spoken Chinese also can be fairly easy at the most basic level. The tones are a bit difficult for some people, but at least there's almost zero grammar to worry about!
>> Few people speak or write English with complete mastery and grace <<
Well yeah, sure, esp. when it comes to the written word. But on the other hand, I've known a few foreign-born people who have a better command of English than do plenty of USA natives!
This turned out to be a fun thread in spite of that jerk circlecity.
>> he and his girlfriend were caught in an embarrassing situation on a blanket <<
Sounds like what we used to call a “shaggy blanket story.”
Did anyone interview this man before he died and are there archives of this dialect? I would hope so.
Amen!
The following sentence was written by King Ælfrēd more than a thousand years ago . . . in English . . . It was printed in his preface to his translation into Enlish of Pastoral Care.
Đa ic Ƿa ȏis call gemunde ȏa wundrde ic swȏe swiȏe Ƿara godena wioton Ƿe giu waeron giond Angelcym ond Ƿa bec ealla be fullan geliorned haefdon, Ƿaet hie hiora Ƿa naenne dael noldon on hiora agen geȏiode wendon.
When I then this all remembered, then wondered I exceedingly of the good wise men who formerly were throughout England, and the books all completely learned had, that they of them then no part did not wish into their own language to turn.
A thousand years from now, I wonder, will our keystrokes be intelligble to anybody? They're barely intelligble now. :-)
If such a dreadful monstrosity is representative of what "English" used to be, then thank Heaven for William the Conqueror and his Normans, because their invasion is what led ultimately to the wonderful mixture of French and Anglo-Saxon that we speak today!
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