cunny kin

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1979
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Bonavista Bay; Newfoundland; Flat Islands
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/17757

cunny kin Hans Noseworthy has, for two years, been alert to find more evidence for us, and, after fifty or more queries finally hit jack-pot on New Year's day at a party in conversation with crewmember of a coastal vessel -- a man from Wesley- ville, Bonavista Bay (on Faris's Straight Shore). Hans opened with the query: 'Any cunny kin got jobs with you on the boat?' The query elicited the response, 'no.' No surprise at the term. Then, in later conversation, informant himself used the term in his complaint that: 'No use tryin' for that job -- cunny kin got it.' This established, Hans explored the context of the term and found this illus- tration for us: x_Barbour and Blackwood,_ of Wesleyville/Newtown area, both marr- ied two sisters. So Hans infers that 'cunny kin' would be the relations the two men acquired by their marriage, i.e. not relations by blood, but relations through marriage. Hans also picked up the opinion that the term is espec- ially common among the former residents of Flat Islands, B.B. (now Centre- ville inhabitants.) So it looks like a regionally restricted term of unknown vintage. Maybe playful invention of the area, given currency by coastal sea- men. Suggest we include if a third cite turns up. x officers on the vessel, with powers of patronage. Definition could be '_Affined relations_'. 1966 FARIS cite in Withdraw or Query JAN 4 1979 GMS Jan 78 Not used Not used Queried Checked by Jordyn Hughes on Tue 12 Jul 2016