Bobby Hogg recently passed away aged 92. Hogg was the last person fluent in a dialect once common to the Scottish seaside town of Cromarty, about 175 miles north of Edinburgh.By RAPHAEL SATTER
Associated Press
LONDON – In a remote fishing town on the tip of Scotland’s Black Isle, the last native speaker of the Cromarty dialect has passed away, taking with him a little fragment of the English linguistic mosaic.
Academics said Wednesday that Bobby Hogg, who passed away last week at age 92, was the last person fluent in the dialect once common to the seaside town of Cromarty, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) north of Edinburgh.
“I think that’s a terrible thing,” said Robert Millar, a linguistics expert at the University of Aberdeen in northern Scotland. “The more diversity in terms of nature we have, the healthier we are. It’s the same with language.”