Rare language dies with its last speaker.
The last person who was fluent in a dialect of English spoken by Cromarty fishermen has died. At age 92, Bobby Hogg was a retired engineer, and the last remaining native speaker of this certain dialect. His younger brother, who died last year at age 86, was the only other remaining speaker.
A language researcher recorded the brother’s conversations in an effort to preserve a history of the specific dialect, which is thought to have come from the descendants of Dutch and Norse fishing folk in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The project included weather lore, which is important to those working on the sea, along with local stories and a record of customs.
According to BBC, some specific examples of unique words used in the dialect include “the word tumblers for dolphins and harbour porpoises, phrases such as ‘At now kucka’ for a friendly greeting,” Droog-droogle, meaning heavy work during wet weather. And Jenny Muck, which means a female farm worker.
The Cromarty dialect shares its fate with many other little known languages and dialects that go extinct every year.
