Newfoundland Two - Text
Subject is a white male, born in 1974. Born and raised in Placentia/Jersey City, Newfoundland, Canada. Moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia 4 months ago. Recorded and edited on April 8, 2000 by Susan Stackhouse. Further editing by Paul Meier July 17, 2000.
Of particular interest is that there are no dental fricatives in this dialect. The initial voiceless [th] as in 'think' is changed to [t] for 'tink' and voiced [th] as in 'the' and 'this' is changed to [d] for 'da' or 'dis' ('enough of dis'). In the final position the [th] is changed to a [t] as in 'wit da byes' (with the boys). Listen to the subject discuss this and note his pronunciation of the letter [h]. A medial [t] becomes [d] ('got to' becomes 'godda'). Final consonants are weak and words run together - a typical example of this is 'one hundred percent proud of it'. The vowel [o] becomes [ah] in 'St. John's', 'cottage hospital', 'not', 'lot', 'got'. There is a strong example of Canadian Raising (mid central starting point when the following consonant is voiceless) in 'white light', 'quite', 'like', 'life'. Of specific interest are the pronunciations of the words 'miracle' (mairicle), 'period' (pairiod) and 'beautiful' (beeuudeeful). The pronunciation of the name 'Newfoundland' (Nufelan) is an example of the nasalization of vowels (sequence of vowel plus nasal consonant) specific to this dialect. Common sayings are 'waterya at' (what are you at), 'wearare ya to' (where are you to) both meaning - 'how are you doing?'. As expressed by the subject it is common usage to place the word 'she' at the beginning of a phrase ('she's alright, she's not that bad'), referring to inanimate objects. It is obvious when listening to this subject that a sense of humour and a love of partying is a clue to grasping the dialect. Running time 00:02:30