by Aiden Hickey
May 10, 2024
Long may your big jib draw ↔ Good luck to you in the future / Godspeed
In my previous piece, I contrasted a pair of similar grammatical features in the Englishes of Cape Breton and Newfoundland. I used those examples to emphasize a larger point that there are regional nuances which emerge from such comparisons, underscoring in turn the distinctiveness of the two semi-autonomous varieties of Atlantic Canadian English. Put differently, I used those examples to serve as a corrective to the commonplace assumption that Cape Bretoners and Newfoundlanders speak the same regional variety of English, an assumption which is based on the kindred accents and the wide array of words, expressions and phrases which are shared by speakers of each island.
In this final piece, I transition to the earth-bound, sometimes hilarious, and inventive vocabulary of Newfoundland English, a vocabulary which oftentimes overlaps with the vocabulary of Cape Breton English. Pouring over the dictionaries of each island—Davey and Mackinnon’s Dictionary of Cape Breton English and Kirwin, Story, and Widdowson’s Dictionary of Newfoundland English—has once again provided me with the tempting opportunity to share with you some of the unusual words and expressions which speakers of each island share, shift and tweak the meanings of, and so forth. However, the sheer amount of fishing and nautical terms which overlap in the two dictionaries, due in large part to the long-established lobster (Cape Breton) and cod (Newfoundland) economies of these Maritime regions, are far too voluminous to compare, contrast and recount here. Thus, I have selected some of the most stand-alone terms and expressions which claim the highest degree of currency in Newfoundland to explore in this piece, all in hopes of providing you with the flavor of “Newfinese”.
A fair number of words presented below I have recently discovered in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. But there are a few others which I had the pleasure of discovering a few summers ago through the much less “bookish” process of “experiential learning”. As it happened, one of my best friends and I engaged in what might be called a form of cultural exchange, of sorts, over the course of two summers.
I had first invited my friend to join me on a trip to Cape Breton to meet my relatives and partake in a week-long golfing expedition at the famous Cabot Links and Cliffs; and, in the following summer, he invited me to meet his family and partake in a fishing trip in Keels, an extremely small town on the east coast of Newfoundland. And it was here—on a fishing boat with my friend's father, uncles, and grandfather—where I began to recognize the uniqueness of the English spoken on the island across the water. For instance, by this time I had grown used to being referred to as “b’y” because that is what my family in North Sydney call virtually everyone (strangers, family and friends alike), but I had never been referred to a “bucko” before, explained to me by my friend’s uncle as meaning “young man” and derived from the lexicon(s) of Irish settlers. Then there were other linguistic surprises as we moved further away from shore, chief among them the question of whether or not I wanted some “scoff”; the seeming complaint from my friend's grandfather that he was feeling “rotted”; and the explanation from his father that we were still “a nice way off” when asked if we were near his secret fishing location.
If you’re wondering, as I did, what in the world these words could mean, continue scrolling to see these and plenty more explained in detail. (The first ten definitions for words below I have sourced from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. The following six definitions for words or expressions, along with all sentence examples, are my own).
1. awful
adjective — Compare with 'exceptional' or 'remarkable'
"I’d say you’re going to need some awful men to fix that horrible leak in the ceiling."
2. barnacle
noun — A bad person; one despised by others
"Now don’t start gettin’ into trouble, Mike, or people will start thinkin’ you’re a barnacle."
3. best kind
noun — Colloquial formula indicating general approval; in the best state or condition
"How’s work treatin’ ya these days?"
"Oh, best kind."
4. dunch
adjective — Compare with 'cramped, numbed' or 'stiff'
"Lord Almighty my arse [buttocks] is dunch from sittin’ around all day."
5. gut-foundered
noun — Compare with 'famished' or 'hungry'
"I’m going to fire up a big scoff tonight, seein’ as Greg and Lucy left gut-foundered this morning."
6. keecorn
noun — Compare with 'Adam’s apple', 'throat', or 'windpipe'
"We had a real fright yesterday when the baby got a lego caught in his keecorn."
7. mauzy
adjective — Equivalent to 'foggy'
"He’s [the climate, weather] far too mauzy to be drivin’ into town this evening."
8. nice
adjective — Expressing distance, quantity, etc.
"That was a nice big catch of cod them boys hauled in down at Keels, eh?"; "The shoreline's still a nice way off from where we’re at, bucko."
9. scoff
noun — Equivalent to 'food' and 'meal'
"Paul is gonna be dyin’ for some scoff after he’s finished with hockey practice."
10. swarve
verb — To stroll aimlessly
"Remember when we were little and we used to love swarvin’ around in the woods?"
11. who knit ya?
popular expression — A question of one’s family, heritage, or origins
"I can tell by your voice that you’re from away, bucko. Who knit ya?"
("From away" is another popular expression, also used frequently in Cape Breton English, which means that, in this context, the speaker believes that the “young man” he is speaking to must be from somewhere outside of Newfoundland).
12. drove
adjective — Compare with 'annoyed'
"I hates to say it, but Maryanne’s kids had me drove the other day with all that screamin’ and hollerin’."
13. chinched
adjective — Equivalent to 'full' or 'stuffed'
"Jenny’s likely far too chinched to be eating again after that nice scoff at the wedding."
14. rotted
adjective — Equivalent to 'hungover' or 'unhappy'
"It ain’t worth the fun of drinkin’ screech all night only to feel rotted in the morning"; "Jamie didn’t pass his exams last week and he’s been rotted ever since."
(Screech is a flavored rum made in Newfoundland.)
15. the once
adverb — Compare with 'right away', 'shortly', or 'very soon'
"When do you think Aunt Beth will get here?"
"Now the once. Be patient."
16. chaw-bag
noun — A person who openly gossips
"The ol’ chaw-bag, Danny, was at it again last night tellin’ tall tales about the fellas back home."
I’ve included two videos in this piece so that you can get a better idea of how the last two words on this list are used by speakers in Newfoundland. In each of these videos, which I’ve found in the “Newfoundland Language Lessons” channel on Youtube, the guest speakers provide some more in-depth explanations for words and expressions such as “the once” and “chaw-bag”. But, if you’re interested, I’d encourage you to check out the channel where you can find over 30 more “Newfisms”. Enjoy!
This piece is part of the series Englishes from the Maritimes.
Reference
Kirwin, W. J., Story, G. M., & Widdowson, J. D. A. (1990). Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.