Terms Which Have Disappeared

[belfastboy]

It’s not accents I’m addressing here so much as grammars and all that makes up those grammars — syntax, verb tenses, cases, etc. An identical grammar spoken in varying accents would likelier be incomprehensible than differing grammars spoken in the identical accent.

I have very rarely misunderstood native English speakers, no matter from where on the globe they hail, although certain lexical items carry different meanings in different places. Still, the accent would likelier throw me than the grammar.

We have numerous dialects (grammars) and accents here in God’s Country. I’ve yet to find any of them incomprehensible. And I got a lousy ear.

I live on the west coast of Canada and back in my early adult years played hockey. Amongst our group were young men from Newfoundland, avid hockey players, drinkers and partiers. When they became excited or had a few drinks under their belt their accents were so thick that I could only make out the occasional word and very rarely the gist of the sentence, and I have a good ear. Thickest accented English I have ever come across.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I live on the west coast of Canada and back in my early adult years played hockey. Amongst our group were young men from Newfoundland, avid hockey players, drinkers and partiers. When they became excited or had a few drinks under their belt their accents were so thick that I could only make out the occasional word and very rarely the gist of the sentence, and I have a good ear. Thickest accented English I have ever come across.

I know and work with many Newfies, and I've never had any trouble understanding them, drinking or otherwise. In fact, I find their accents rather mild for Canadians. The thick Calgary accent is much more difficult to understand, IMO.

The hardest English accent for me to understand is Australian, particularly from Perth or other parts of W.A. Most of the time I have to ask them to repeat it four or five times, slower, and ask clarifying questions.

 

[belfastboy]

I know and work with many Newfies, and I've never had any trouble understanding them, drinking or otherwise. In fact, I find their accents rather mild for Canadians. The thick Calgary accent is much more difficult to understand, IMO.

The hardest English accent for me to understand is Australian, particularly from Perth or other parts of W.A. Most of the time I have to ask them to repeat it four or five times, slower, and ask clarifying questions.

I have yet to visit Newfoundland so not sure if regional accents there vary. The boys I played with were from the outposts, cod fishermen, forced off island to find employment. I think it typical of emigration in that one Newfoundlander made it to Vancouver became successful in retail and he helped a series of emigres from there settle in Vancouver. The adage back home was go see Jack he will help you out. And he did, providing jobs a place to stay and a hockey team We called him the Newfie Godfather (among other things!) This was in the early 1970's and the heyday of Team Canada versus Team USSR. We had so many Newfs on the team we decided to have jerseys made proclaiming us Team Newfoundland with a large cod fish on the front. We often barnstormed in the Pac Northwest of the US and some folks believed we really did represent Nfld.

 

[tonyb]

As long as we’re visiting Newfoundland ...

Just what is the preferred pronunciation?

When I was a kid living in the northern U.S., I heard it pronounced something like “NEW-fund-lund.” Every now and then I heard “new-FOUND-land,” which was invariably “corrected” by one know-it-all or another.

I lived in Seattle and environs for 46 years, and was frequently exposed to Canadian broadcast journalism. (Vancouver is a couple hours up the road; no visit was complete without coming back with a few Cuban Cohibas and a big bottle of over-the-counter codeine pills.) On those broadcasts I heard it pronounced more like “new-fund-LAND.”

So, Newfie brothers and sisters, how do YOU say it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Up here, we say "Newf'n-l'nd." Sometimes we even omit the final "d".

 

[tonyb]

Up here, we say "Newf'n-l'nd." Sometimes we even omit the final "d".

Emphasis on first syllable, I take it?

 

[Zombie_61]

Up here, we say "Newf'n-l'nd." Sometimes we even omit the final "d".

That's how I've heard it pronounced by almost everyone, with the emphasis on "New".

 

[The Jackal]

Up here, we say "Newf'n-l'nd." Sometimes we even omit the final "d".

That's the way I've always pronounced it or heard it pronounced, and I grew up in South Carolina (an atypical part, but nonetheless). Of course it would be stretched out to hit all the syllables for school purposes or for clarity, and pronounced new-found-land when explaining how to spell it.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Up here, we say "Newf'n-l'nd." Sometimes we even omit the final "d".

That's the only way I've ever heard it pronounced. Of course, the only people I've ever heard say it are from "up there".

 

[tonyb]

As this fellow has it, the way most of us Yanks say Newfoundland is NOT among the more or less acceptable pronunciations among Newfoundlanders. The last syllable is pronounced “land,” like acreage, like what you expect your plane to do, like the name of the fellow who invented the Polaroid camera.


https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...9099319F162843C122B69099319F162843C&FORM=VIRE

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
But then, I’m reluctant to take anything as the final word on the matter.

 

[Upgrade]

They poked fun at it on an episode of Murdoch Mysteries, a Canadian detective drama set in Victorian times. Though the anachronistic inventions are somewhat eye-rolling: “You’ve sent a facsimile of an image through the air with the telegraph and paint by number instructions. Whatever shall you call it?”

Apparently they deduced the murderer was in Newfoundland and the episode revolved one of the constables infiltrating a pub in his native province and proceeding to be generally intelligible.

Also “meet me under the clock” seems to be used less. New York also seems to be moving the meeting place all over the city because the named clocks keep getting demolished.

 

[scottyrocks]

Up here, we say "Newf'n-l'nd." Sometimes we even omit the final "d".

I've always heard and used it this way, except with the accent on the f'n.

 

[Fading Fast]

This meaning of "skylark -" to play actively and boisterously; frolic - seems to have all but disappeared. I heard it used in a TCM movie recently and think (memory is unclear on this) that one of my grandmother's friends used to use it, as I think I heard it when I was a very young boy, but not since then until recently in the TCM movie.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Ghetto-Blaster...

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Smoking club"

 

[3fingers]

"Smoking club"

I have heard that term revived lately in this country. It now refers to people gathering, legally or not, to smoke cannabis.

 

[scottyrocks]

Cigar or 'smoke' shops have indoor smoking rooms, but that's about the only indoor spot, other than a private house, that I know of around here where you can legally smoke indoors.

 

[MisterCairo]

Re Newfoundland pronunciation, most Canadians and most Newfoundlanders pronounce it pretty much like most of the comments above - I would write it as "Newfin-land". A "lund" or "lun" sound as Lizzie noted (no hard d sound at the end as is the case in the middle) is more or less equal to the harder "land" sound.

Now, how about your pronunciations of Toronto???

Watching the Raptors playoffs on the American network, I chuckled out loud at every "Tor-ON-TOE"...

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Taronna"