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 ...
Inevitably there is always some self-important Freeper who attempts to hijack the thread with 1) Their idiotic sense of humor or 2) The need to inform others that THEY don't care about the article...type of music...person in question.
To the first...I say grow up...it would be nice to actually have a mature conversation on FR sometimes without your need to be a comedian. If your that funny...go to Stand Up Night at the Improve.
To the second...I say...you aren't that important. We don't care about the fact you don't care. Go get your itch to feel needed scratched somewhere else...
Now...back to the article: I've always been fascinated by dialects. I even asked a history professor (a long time ago) about when our accent stopped being British. When would we describe it as distinctly American?...and I marvel when I listen to the accents of people from early film...and compare them to today. It's a big change in 70- 80 or so years.
Nonsense, what a drama queen. The disappearance of this dialect won't effect anyone's life in the slightest. I amazes me the frivolous things some freepers think are important.
True. "Standard" American and "standard" Brit speech patterns are spread far and wide by entertainment and news media, and have a way of rounding off the edges of regional accents.
They also have a way of spreading and popularizing speech patterns. There are things I think of as britishisms and even aussie-isms that have passed into popular speech (and I'm sure Brits and Aussies notice the same thing in reverse.
Jail speech has always been a source of new idioms, and again mass media has a way of making those mainstream so that something gangsters are saying in LA jails within a very few years are in mainstream speech in Little Rock.
Mass movements of people have the same effects; people are not staying put.
One of the things that intrigue me is the effort to revive celtic in the British Isles... Manx for example, Scottish, as wells as Irish which had never completely died out.
I don't think so. And I don't care if you do. If you don't like my posts don't read them.
Since it was a dialect it’s more about nobody doing it than nobody learning it. Any English speaker probably knows all the words, we just don’t put them together that way. People don’t tend to “learn” dialects, unless you move to a region that has a different dialect than your that’s very prevalent and you’re willing to adapt you’ll speak whatever dialect you grew up on, which for most people these days is “TV news anchor”.
It is a huge deal. I lived in Hawaii for several years and they were desperately trying to reclaim their language because so much of it had been lost with the death of elders. Once it’s forgotten and hasn’t been written down, it’s gone forever. That’s a tragedy. I thankfully finally got rid of cable tv. Every time someone on Fox said, “Mr XXXX, he...,” made me want to throw something at the tv. Proof reading and editing has become a lost art. It’s a sad commentary on our society. An acquaintance tried to argue with me about Ebonics being it’s own language. While that might be technically correct, good luck getting a decent job speaking it.
Well, at least we still have those fishermen who talk like the “Pepperidge Farm remembers” guy.
‘I even asked a history professor (a long time ago) about when our accent stopped being British. When would we describe it as distinctly American?.’
I have often wondered the same thing myself. One of my favorite periods of history is the colonial/Revolutionary period. BTW, the wife of our landlord is the head of Welsh studies at a local college. I want to pick her brain someday. :)
And when the old guy cursed... Man!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... You smarmy lagerlout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oik artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You craven dewberry pisshead cockup pratting naff. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill...
Doesn’t matter if you think so, it’s the truth. Dropping into a thread just to tell everybody you find the topic uninteresting is the path of the pathetic useless egomaniac that actually has nothing to be proud of. You advertise your ignorance, you boldly declare that you are worthless. Don’t worry, plenty of people here will be ignoring your useless declaration of shallow boredom from now on.
Response: Agreed.
Comment: Therefore, there is a sadness involved with the passing of a dialect or language.
Well if no one wanted to keep talking like that,then this is what happens.
It doesn’t sound like anything particularly incredible. Just lots of local slang and made up phrases for stuff like saying “At now kucka” when you want to say hello. or calling a dolphin a “tumbler”.
The reason why people stop using it because they couldn’t be understood.
I found a vid of him singing with family members! What a sweetie!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooTKOHkLLn0
So it really wasn’t snuffed out, it just stopped being used.
I notice the same thing. Its one of the things I enjoy about watching old flicks, the older the better. Too bad sound didn't come in any earlier.
So what? You cannot begin to comprehend how little I care whether you read my posts or not.
All Scots speak Cromarty after a couple pints.
Years ago I was surprised to learn that no one today has ever heard old English spoken,it died out so long ago.
This was an example of a dialect that has now also passed away and will not be heard again. A contact with the past now that belongs to the past.
I wonder if they anywhere have this man’s speech recorded? Would’ve been a good idea.
Fascinating article. Thank you for posting.
You don’t know much about English, do you, ending a sentence with a preposition as you did. Here’s something for you to consider: idiocy is not a form of intellect.
Reminds me that the southern accent is rapidly disappearing in the USA. Visit just about any hamlet in the rural South, where most people over 40 talk pretty much like Andy Griffith — while the teenage waitresses at IHOP usually talk like Valley Girls. A sad development, IMO.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.