NFLD-ROOTS-L Archives

Archiver > NFLD-ROOTS > 2002-01 > 1012412505


From: "george j. coe" <>
Subject: [NF-ROOTS] Re: NFLD-ROOTS-D Digest V02 #107
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 12:41:45 -0500
References: <200201290749.g0T7nXV32228@lists2.rootsweb.com>


In recent 'mails dealing with 'The Shipping News' and 'Random Passage'
I've noticed several comments regarding the authenticity of the
characters accents. I am not a Newfoundlander nor have I visited the
Island (hopefully this will be rectified in 2003), although my Mother
was born and bred in Greens Harbor on Trinity Bay.
My eldest son and I and are history buffs and are also interested in
Language and Linguistics. Here in the States PBS television ran a
program 'The Story of English' by Messrs. R. McCrum, W. Cram and R.
MacNeil that traces the spread of English around the globe and its rise
to dominance amongst the multitude of languages spoken on 'Mother
Earth'.
There are several pages devoted to Newfoundland and to English as spoken
on the Island. A sense of the thrust of the their comments on
Newfoundland speech is summarized on page 176 "....it is sometimes easy
to overlook the extent of the Irish contribution to the story of
English..... There is, however, one exception, the island of
Newfoundland, whose inhabitants preserve a kind of Irish English that is
almost indistinguishable from the real thing two-and-a-half thousand
miles away. A small selection of their comments on Newfoundland and
Newfoundland English:
...St. Johns... listening to the local people, would mistake for
Dublin or Waterford.
...quickly, Irish-English became the socially acceptable language in
St. Johns, not least because
the English tended to absenteeism while the Irish stayed put.
The scattering of the islanders along the craggy, inaccessible
shoreline has confirmed a
number of strong local variants. As well as the Irish, who are based
on the South Avalon Peninsula,
there are the West Country communities (with strong Dorset and
Devonshire accents) to the north
of the island.
The fur trade on the east of the island was dominated by the Scots,
who have left traces of their
speech behind. Among the Irish there has been very little accent
leveling or mixing.

Newfoundland is simply the earliest and best-preserved of all the
Irish communities scattered round the world.

The book is an excellent read and I highly recommend it to all who are
interested in the English language and its dominance around the world.
It is also, although not primarily, a rather good history of the spread
of British power around the world.

Hope I haven't bored too many of you.

george
(in southeast Michigan where Canada is South of the United States.)

This thread: