Category — Non-fiction

I’ve decided that reviewing or drawing attention to books about Newfoundland and Labrador would be a sensible thing for me to do, given that i) I like to read them and, ii) the content of this site.

I thought I’d start with a text that is fairly well-known here but maybe not as well-known elsewhere.

The Dictionary of Newfoundland English

Story, G. M., W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, eds. Dictionary of Newfoundland English, Second Ed. Toronto: U of T P, 1990.

The Dictionary of Newfoundland English was first published in 1982. All of its entries are taken from materials written in or about Newfoundland from the early seventeenth century until the twentieth, and include definitions, pronunciation and contextual usage.

First and foremost the dictionary was an academic undertaking and contains a lot of technical and bibliographic information that will not be of considerable interest to everyone (although those who are so interested will no doubt appreciate the rigour and scale of the project). But, non-Newfoundlanders with some interest in Newfoundland culture or in languages generally will no doubt find the text entertaining to browse casually or even useful in conjunction with any Newfoundlandia which employs Newfoundland words or dialect.

As a someone who grew up in Newfoundland, the dictionary is actually a lot of fun. A lot words are unfamiliar, either because they were used in a different part of the island or because they have fallen out of common usage. But I get a tickle out of reading words that I am familiar with. Some of them you haven’t heard in awhile and the dictionary can stir memories (as Newfoundland English is being inexorably lost to ‘correct’ Canadian and American usage, dialect is stronger among older people, like my grandfather). Or, some words are familiar and your attention is drawn to the fact that the way you use a particular word is a little different from the way that other English-speakers do, if they use it at all.

The Dictionary of Newfoundland English is also a good place to get ideas for other things to read, again because of the extensive bibliographic references to several centuries of literature.

For a quick look, the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage web site has a partial online version of the dictionary.

Dictionary of Newfoundland English: Second Edition with supplement