UNIQUENESS OF NEWFOUNDLAND REGIONAL VARIATION OF THE CANADIAN NATIONAL ENGLISH VARIANT

• Main Author: Sokolovskaya V.V.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Российский университет дружбы народов (РУДН)
• Subjects: Newfoundland dialect; lexical layer; national English variant; vocabulary; lexicon; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://repository.rudn.ru/records/article/record/67178/

The article reviews the ways of the evolution of the Newfoundland dialect, which is considered to be a regional variation of the Canadian national English variant. Territorial varieties of the language differ from each other in a unique combination of language features. To be exact they contrast with pronunciation (intonation, stress); grammatical forms; vocabulary, lexical forms and the meanings. Representatives of different dialects live in different regions accordingly. One of the characteristic features of modern dialects is the high variation of the phonetic, word-forming, morphological, semantic, linguistic specificity of the words functioning in the dialect. Dialectologists employ a comprehensive approach in the study of dialects. They take all the features mentioned above into account. A great contribution was made to the study of dialects evolution. It is based on methodological concepts: external factors that influence language development are taken into consideration; dictionaries of dialects are compiled; sociolinguistic research is conducted; historical corpus linguistics is involved. The Newfoundland dialect is of great interest to study. It should be emphasized that the vocabulary of the Newfoundland dialect is characterized by the retaining of the words and their meanings that have disappeared or become archaic in other dialects. The Newfoundland dialect has preserved the oldest variation of the English language on American continent. This can be explained by the remoteness of settlements that have been isolated for a long time. At the beginning settlers of southwestern England and the southern part of Ireland, brought their own languages with them. They were the first who mainly inhabited this territory. They managed to preserve their languages. The lexical layer has been preserved since the time when immigrants from England and Ireland arrived. The words reflected the daily way of life. Many words described day-to-day activities of the settlers. The vocabulary denoted the process of catching fish (cod), logging, hunting seals, and specified characteristics and particularities. They were age, color, behavior. Part of the lexicon of the English origin has become archaic for other dialects of the Canadian national variant. Territorial remoteness and isolation of the Newfoundland dialect speakers can explain this phenomenon. Thus, English in Newfoundland is more than a dialect of Canadian national English variant, it can be called a "the standard itself".