Another way of speaking English disappears as fisherman's death spells demise of rare dialect

Fox News ^ | 10/3/2012 | Associated Press

[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.

[circlecity]

"Loss of language makes that consideration more difficult, or even impossible. That has a great bearing on my day to day existence. Maybe not so much for you. As I said (and Socrates would agree), that makes you pitiful and contemptible."

I see you STILL can't name one aspect of anyone's day to day life that will be different as a result of the disappearance of an obscure dialect. Not a single thing. Spare me the analytical philosphy frosh. I live in the real world.

[Max in Utah]

It’s obvious the article doesn’t appeal to your intellect so why bother commenting about it?

He's a troll. They hunger for any attention, even the negative kind, because they are typically uninteresting and thus disregarded.

I suppose the term "troll" was chosen because these characters tend to be ugly and live below ground, such as in their mothers' basement.

[Lovely-Day-For-A-Guinness]

Of all the peoples on that wee island, I find the Scots the most difficult to understand. Their burr, coupled with slang and dialect, can make many impossible to understand.

Not only is the language often peculiar, so are some of their beliefs. I happened to meet an older bloke in Buckie, and immediately after saying hello to him he asked me how many guns I owned. He honestly believed we yanks all walk down the street with six shooters holstered around our waists.

[Gabz]

I too have read, maybe here on FR that Southern U.S. English is closer to what was spoken in say, the 1700s than modern Englishmen speak.

Tangier, VA is an example of something along those lines. It is a small Island in the Chesapeake Bay - and it is very interesting trying to carry on a conversation with one of the old time fishermen!

[fireman15]

Here is another video from the “Northern Relief” show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTYNhWoLZ4&feature=related

[wbill]

On a related note, have you ever seen the email that's gone around about the terrorist alert levels?

"The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years."

I found the rest of it here if you're interested. Amusing, I thought.

[Utah Binger]

Having spent a great deal of time in Northern Europe, mainly in Denmark I have always enjoyed hearing dialects by the land people, the farmers of both Jylland the remote Faro Islands and comparing the sounds of the sprog to those of land people of Scotland. Neither sound like either mother tongue but I am told they all understand each other.Thanks for posting this interesting article.

Vikings in Cromarty

[pops88]

My husband is 56. I haven’t noticed those things in his dialect really. He comes from a long line of Mormons that migrated across the U.S. extensively. I wonder if some of that dialect has come a bit more recently. My mother was a reading specialist and worked very hard to make sure I was pronouncing words correctly without interjecting dialect, like “yellow” instead of “yella.” I still ended up with a bit of a Midwestern, nasal twang. One of the funniest things I heard was on a kid’s educational program in New Zealand- chair and cheer were homonyms.

[Melas]

You’re going to have to help me out here Fiji.

What is end supposed to rhyme with, if not pinned?

Of course anti sounds like man tie.

Hell, except for Moscow, I pronounce everything as you’ve described.

[wbill]

"You cahn't get they-uh from hee-uh".

Ayuh.

And a faux Maine accent, grates on my ea-ah. Don't get me stahted about the co-rect pronunciation and usage of "Ayuh". And listening to Mrs WBill try to spit out "Boooo-th Bay Hah-Bah" is like fingernails on a blackboard.

I moved out of state close to 20 years ago. I suppose that Southerners say the same thing about me, when I (quietly and tenatively) try to say "How're yew?" :-)

[kabumpo]

Thank you for writing. I appreciate your comments. Re “ebonics”, ask your friend to explain how and why, if “ebonic” speech is derived from Africa, it doesn’t exist in the populations of African descent in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, et al - and where is it in the former English colonies on Africa?

[andy58-in-nh]

Hell, they still can't quite get Boston accents right in the movies or on TV, unless the actor legitimately comes from Boston and knows that only Kennedys sound like Kennedys and that dropping one's "r''s is not called for (fo-ah) at the end of a word if the next word begins with a vowel. If evuh.

[kabumpo]

Yes!! Great comment, thank you for making my day.

[pops88]

I’m having flash backs to childhood and correct dictionary pronunciations. Argghh! And I’d like to share a pet peeve- the word “often.” The non-silent “t” has only become acceptable because so many people have mispronounced word. Back in the 1960s, the pronunciation was “off-en.” Reading the dictionary was leisure time material and sometimes game material. Fictionary is still a favorite game. I keep waiting for the day when “irregardless” is added to the dictionary and I expect to see it in my lifetime :(

[kabumpo]

You are representative of the reason why so many educated and intelligent people who don’t like the Left won’t join the Right - the sneering, anti-intellectualism and negation of culture that you express is the definition of a hostile environment.

[pops88]

I had that argument back in the early 1990s. I tried to point out it was a combination of bad grammar and slang, while she contended it actually had “rules” and thus was a language. I’m sure she read some college professor’s writing trying to claim that was so. She was a liberal lesbian I only had passing contact with thankfully. My contention was still- good luck getting a decent job talking like that.

[circlecity]

"You are representative of the reason why so many educated and intelligent people who don’t like the Left won’t join the Right - the sneering, anti-intellectualism and negation of culture that you express is the definition of a hostile environment."

good. a positive aspect I hadn't considered.

[Flycatcher]

I keep waiting for the day when “irregardless” is added to the dictionary and I expect to see it in my lifetime

Yes.

That will be an impactful day.

[IronJack]

Down the hall. This is Abuse.

Git ...

[fireman15]

My wife has a pen pal in England. She stayed with us for a couple of weeks last year. Her accent was cute and quite understandable, although she did have a few sayings that I had to have her clarify.

She has a high speed Internet connection is computer savvy, and the two of them had exchanged many emails over a period of months. She still had some surprising misconceptions. Although we do have dozens of vintage firearms in our collection... which she enjoyed shooting immensely, especially my wife’s WWII era .30 Carbine. So she very well may have gone back and told her friends that we are gun nuts.