Cromarty fisher dialect

Cromarty fisher dialect is a dialect spoken by fishermen in the town of Cromarty, north of Inverness. While the dialect has always been extremely localised and the number of speakers low, as of 2007 there are only two fluent speakers of Cromarty fisher dialect; two elderly brothers in their eighties.Cramb, A. (2007) "Brothers are last to speak dialect", "The Telegraph", 22 February 2007, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/21/ndialect21.xml Accessed 24 March 2008.]

Cromarty fisher dialect is said to have originated in Cromarty in the sixteenth century as a fusion of Scots and the English of visiting soldiers. Initially, spoken by fisherman throughout towns and villages of the Cromarty Firth, ["Am Baile" http://www.ambaile.org/en/item/item_audio.jsp?item_id=43769 Accessed 25 March 2008.] the dialect is said to sound "like a bizarre mixture of twee Shakespearean English and thick Geordie." [Quinion, M. (2007) "World Wide Words", Issue 529, 3 March 2007, http://www.worldwidewords.org/backissues/wbi070303.txt Accessed 25 March 2008."]

One example of Cromarty fisher dialect is "Pit oot thy fire til I light mine", which translates to "Please be quiet, and allow me to say something."

References

External links

[http://www.ambaile.org.uk/index.jsp Am Baile - Scottish Highland History and Culture Portal] Provides audio of Cromarty fisher dialect.