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Henry Dieckhoff

From Catholicism Wiki
Fort Augustus Abbey
Father Henry Cyril Dieckhoff
Born 1869
Moscow
Died 1950 (aged 80–81)
Fort Augustus
Known for work in Scottish Gaelic lexicography
Scientific career
Fields linguistics, Celtic studies

Father Henry Cyril Dieckhoff (Russian: Генрих Кирилл Дикхофф) (1869–1950) was a Russian Catholic priest and linguist.[1] He was born in Moscow, the son of a Lutheran preacher, but spent much of his youth in Germany, as his mother was Catholic and unable to continue living in Russia.[2] He studied in Berlin and was given Holy Orders without permission from the Russian authorities and therefore first fled to England and then Scotland, where he was welcomed as a brother at the Fort Augustus Abbey in 1891.[2] He gained priesthood six years later in 1897.[2]

He learned Scottish Gaelic and did detailed research into the dialect of Glengarry and published a dictionary on the dialects, A Pronouncing Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic.[3] His dictionary was unusual for the time as it included detailed pronunciation information not only on the citation forms but also inflected forms of the entries.

References

  1. Back to citation "Abbey Monks". Fort Augustus Abbey Old Boys Association. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Boy from Moscow on Catholic Herald 11 August 1950
  3. Back to citation Dieckhoff, H. A Pronouncing Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic (1932)