Tuesday, April 9, 2013

H is for H'accents

The Whaddaya App translates Newfoundland dialect into proper English.


Visitors to Newfoundland and Labrador on occasion find themselves at a linguistic disadvantage.
“The arse fell right out of ‘er, bye,” usually elicits a blank stare from the folks from out of town.
Newfoundland dialect is not homogenous and can vary from community to community as well as from region to region.   Its a watered down mixture of Irish and West Country influences, which makes sense since  many came from these ports of call to fish and later settle the island.  But we were also settled by the French (mostly on the Port o Port Peninsula).  The Basque, the Spanish and the Scottish also threw their nets into the water and contributed to the various accents.
Run on words, abbreviations, slang and misplaced H's are prevelent, not to mention speed.
Got loads 'a time on yer hands?  Check out da Dictionary of Newfoundland or da Whaddaya App just for shits and giggles, it 'ill help ya's understand what I's pretting on 'bout.


25 comments:

  1. This post made me smile because it reminded me of my grandparents and the way they spoke. :)

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  2. I love listening to Mary Walsh & Rick Mercer b/c of their accents. The one thing that struck me is the way they pronounce your province. Here in the USA, we call it 'NEW-fin-lind', but now I pronounce it the way Rick and Canadians do, 'new-fin-LAND'.

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    1. some Canadians still do it wrong... there is not really a D in the middle :)

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  3. Strange how everyone but yourself has an accent isn't it? I always said NewFOUNDland and here I've been saying it all wrong lol.

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    1. that's wrong lol "Newf-n-lind" is how I do it

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  4. Back here in the old country (UK) books abound on how to speak your local haccent or dialect. It's hard for a writer to do them justice though. Speekin Narrrf'k is about as close as I can get to my local one!
    Happy A to Z-ing :)
    Jemima at <a href="http://jemimapett.com>Jemima's blog</a>

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  5. That dictionary is pretty interesting--the kind of thing I could browse aimlessly through for an hour :-) I'm not sure there's anything noteworthy about the way we speak in Colorado.

    Jenny at Choice City Native

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  6. Accents are pretty cool and I thought I never had one ...until i visisted someone in Michigan who knew right away i was canadian. he said I had a strong canadian accent. Of course i said Eh? I am certain many in other areas of the earth just get confused that each province can be unique

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  7. Interesting stuff. Sometimes I'll hear someone from Ireland speaking on the telly and think the person is from Jamaica.

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    1. I picture Jamaica with a very thick accent :)

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  8. I love accents. The New Foundland accent(s) are definitely unique.

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  9. If they have to have an app for it, it must be a heck of a language :)

    Left and Write

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  10. I'm going to head over to the language guide for some extra help, love how regions have their own dialect and way of speaking, it's just so unique and different.

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