Some items of a Central Newfoundland dialect
Although a preliminary survey of the vocabulary and pronunciation of a Central Newfoundland dialect is the chief concern of this paper, some tentative observations about the development of Newfoundland dialect as a whole may perhaps also be put forward here. Both the terms discussed and the observat...
| Published in: | Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1964
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0008413100005442 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0008413100005442 |
| Summary: | Although a preliminary survey of the vocabulary and pronunciation of a Central Newfoundland dialect is the chief concern of this paper, some tentative observations about the development of Newfoundland dialect as a whole may perhaps also be put forward here. Both the terms discussed and the observations made are based primarily on a field-trip made in the Summer of 1963 as part of the expanding programme of research in dialect, toponymy, and folklore which is now being carried out at Memorial University. Some of the theoretical points are drawn both from the fieldwork and a sampling of the material available in the University’s Folklore and Dialect Archives. From these sources it would appear that two main speech-groups probably exist in Newfoundland as a whole, one descended from Southern Irish and the other from the English West Country. Historical evidence of settlement in Newfoundland of course supports this, but proof of such a hypothesis as regards the language must await further collecting and more intensive analysis. However, the dialectal differences so far examined seem to indicate that this is the probable pattern. |
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