Final word from Cromarty: Scottish Black Isle dialect silenced forever as last native speaker dies aged 92

Bobby Hogg was the last person still fluent in the fisherfolk dialect

His younger brother Gordon had been the second speaker of the Cromarty language until he passed away last year aged 86



It was a traditional dialect used for centuries by fisherfolk.

But yesterday it emerged that the language of Cromarty had finally died with the passing of its last speaker.

Bobby Hogg was the only person still fluent in the age-old tongue of the Black Isle and his death at the age of 92 means it will now exist only in audio recordings.

End of an era: Bobby Hogg, the last native speaker of the Cromarty dialect, has died aged 92

Small talk: Bobby (left) and his brother Gordon Hogg speaking in the old Cromarty dialect at The Marine Nursing Home in Rosemarkie, before Gordon passed away last April

Mr Hogg, a retired engineer, said recently he could still close his eyes, see the boats heading out to sea and hear the unique speech pattern – never normally written down – that set his people apart.

His younger brother Gordon had been the other surviving speaker – but he died in April last year, aged 86.

Yesterday, Dr Robert McColl Millar, of Aberdeen University’s linguistic department, said Mr Hogg’s death was highly significant.

He added: ‘It is the first time that an actual Scots dialect has so dramatically died with the passing of the last native speaker.

‘This was always going to be the danger of the Black Isle, as there were so few speakers even when it was healthy, when the fishing was still good.

Language of the sea: The Cromarty dialect was traditionally spoken by fishermen who populated the town on the tip of the Black Isle ‘So Bobby Hogg’s passing is a very sad day. It was a very interesting dialect and was unlike any of the others. ‘There are one or two who still have some facility in the Cromarty fisherfolk dialect but most of the time they speak Highland English.

Bobby was the last fluent native speaker who spoke no other tongue from a child. He was what we term a “dense” speaker. So all we have now are the recordings.’ Mr Hogg, who died on Sunday, had worked across Britain, but kept coming back to Cromarty.

His wife Helen was a direct descendent of the community’s most celebrated son, 19th century polymath Hugh Miller. But the Hoggs were from the fishing community. In 2007, the brothers were recorded by Am Baile, the project that has created a digital archive of the history and culture of the Highlands and Islands.

Mr Hogg said: ‘Our father was a fisherman and all his folk had been fishermen stretching way back. It was the same on our mother’s side too. When we were young, we talked differently in the fishertown to the rest of Cromarty. ‘It wasn’t written down. It was an oral culture. We had this sort of patois, which I think had both Doric and Gaelic in it.

'There were words, a lot to do with the fishing, which nobody else could understand. It is dying out. You hear a smattering in some things people from Cromarty say, but nobody speaks it fluently but for us.’