A bit o' sad news - end of an era.

[Lime]

But there are others being kept alive through one means or another. E.G:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...nished-1284751

[Chas]

Well, of course, Lallans and the Doric are spoken on a daily basis. The Doric, I believe more so.

The shame and pity of the death of Bobby Hogg and the Cromarty dialect is that there has been money available (a lot of money) since at least 1994. When the National Lottery was set up to benefit good causes, national heritage and preservation of regional dialect were one of the 'Big Three' causes.

Here in Norfolk, there are at least two separate groups dedicated to the preservation of the Norfolk dialect. There is a monthly newspaper and three books to my knowledge have been printed in the 'Norfolk Mardle'. There are evening classes and discussion groups. There are guided tours, round the old town of Norwich which will only speak Mardle. For those who want it, it can be incorporated into their English or English Lit degrees offered by the UEA.

But that is the point isn't it? Had someone wanted to preserve the Cromarty dialect, it could have been done. Vast amounts of money are available, plus access to experts and expertise; those who know what to do because they have done it themselves.

Unfortunately the will to do it just wasn't there.

Regards

Chas

[Tobus]

Chas, you raise a very good point. And I suppose we must make a distinction between the idea of preserving a language for the purpose of knowing how it was spoken in the past, versus preserving it for the purpose of actually using it. In this modern era, I can understand why there is no interest in speaking an antiquated, rare language. Such an exercise would be merely for academics, not for 'real world' use. I can't even think of how these languages would survive in modern usage, except to pick a community where the children will be taught that language as their primary tongue, which automatically puts them at a disadvantage in society. No one would want to do that to their children just for the sake of keeping a language alive. It would have to be the result of a real community effort to preserve their heritage and culture.

[Chas]

I suppose the real death-knell came not when Bobby Hogg died, but in effect when the speaker before him died. Once there is no one to converse with, the language or dialect is doomed.

We have many communities here in the UK which speak their own language/dialect at home, indoors, with family or friends, but speak English in school or at their place of work. The funny thing is that their standard of English and accent is often far better than others, because, for them English is not their mother tongue and they have had to learn it as a kind of foreign language.

The Welsh are particularly good at this. They have Welsh language, all age debating and choral societies.

Regards

Chas

[Laird_M]

Personally I feel very sad when something like this happens, but the world in general doesn't really seem to care. "oh how sad! What's on the telly?".
I always rejoice when I see threads about schools in the highlands and islands adding their local gaelic back into the corriculum.

In agreement with Chas, it does seem that those who learn English as a 'foreign language' have better grammar and use the language far better than those of us born to it.