LL-L "Language varieties" 2003.02.17 (13) [E]

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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2003.02.17 (01) [E]

At 10:12 AM 02/17/03 -0800, Brad Kirbyson wrote:
>Ron, I must emerge from my "lurker" status to concur with your analysis of
>the Newfoundland speaker in the program.  As a native speaker of "Canadian"
>English, I've always thought of Canadian English as being quite uniform
>through most of the country (possibly due to the long winters spent
watching
>the same programs on the CBC!), although Eastern Canadians in general and
>Newfoundlanders in particular have a noticeable accent to our ears as well.
>I believe that the accent there is due both to settlement patterns and some
>historical developments.  I'll offer just a couple of thoughts on possible
>reasons for this from my vantage point in western Canada.  (I'm sure my
>countrymen and women in the east can do it far more justice.)
>
>Newfoundland only joined Canada in 1949, prior to that it was a British
>overseas territory completely separate from Canada.  I suspect that
>settlement was mostly from Ireland (North & South), England & Scotland, as
>was the case - for the most part - in all the English-speaking areas of
>Canada until relatively recently.  In the case of of Canada's Maritime
>provinces (the other 3 provinces on the Atlantic), they were settled and
>well-established prior to Canadian Confederation (or independence) and no
>doubt had many established language characteristics that continue to this
>day, even if watered down a bit after more than 130 years with the rest of
>us!

Actually, Newfoundland is one of the very oldest European settlements in
North America, with remnants of Icelandic incursions, followed by the
Portuguese who were the first to aggressively fish the rich cod stocks off
the Grand Banks, and establish more permanent settlement.  However, it's
true that the Newfie speech is much more closely related to that of
"Scotch-Irish" (there's that damn word again) which dominated the American
South west of the the Alleghenies right over to Texas, than it is to the
more Mid Atlantic speech patterns brought to the Canadian Maritimes and
Ontario by dispossessed refugees following the American Revolution (which I
like to call the First American Civil War, but that always gets a few Yanks
going).

And Ron wrote:

>Thanks also for your interesting input.  I didn't know that Newfoundland
>joined Canada that late.  I suppose that explains quite a bit.

It was a bitter debate at the time, but Britain could no longer afford to
subsidize this colony after WWII.  Newfoundlanders are the source of much
fairly good natured humour, as is the rest of Canada from their point of
view.  Example:  How did the Newfie get to Toronto?  He was playing hockey
on the St. Lawrence (River) and got a breakaway.  Despite the humour, no
one on this list should get the very mistaken idea that we don't love them
or that we look down on them as lesser partners in our Confederation.

Ed Alexander, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.  Yep, pretty cold here, too.

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