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Research in the Language and Place-Names of Newfoundland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2016
Extract
Adequate plans for the examination of the language and place-names of the Island were conceived only three years ago; it will not, therefore, be surprising if this interim report is a more or less inadequate sketch which may at times dwell more on what needs to be done rather than on what has actually been accomplished.
Some of the difficulties we are having to take into account result from the fact that toponymy and linguistic research are not altogether autonomous disciplines. Properly viewed they impinge on such studies as cartography, geography, history, social anthropology and folklore. One of the most encouraging recent developments in Newfoundland has been the lively interest in the inheritance of the Island, and the formulation of a programme of research for its adequate exploration.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , October 1957 , pp. 47 - 55
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association. 1957
References
1 The only surviving Beothic place-name is, apparently, the Shannoc River.
2 Among those that spring to mind at once are : Lushes Bight (with its subdued pun), Seldom Come By, Come By Chance, Goblin, Fairy Run, Little Heart's Ease, Heart's Desire, Heart's Delight, Heart's Content.
3 For example, even if there were no other evidence, the origin of an important part of the population of the West Coast would be suggested by such place-names as The Highlands, St. David's, Lochleven.
4 Examples are : Barrasway [barrasway or barachois — lagoon; or sand bar at river estuary], Tickle Beach [tickle — a narrow body of water between and island and the mainland or between two islands], Rattling Brook [rattle — river rapids], The Droke [droke — a narrow valley], Rooms [room — fishing premises], The Goulds (gouldt — applied variously to open meadowland and to a plant growing in such places].
5 The following names for fishing-berths are reported from Portugal Cove : Where the Man Fell Over, Roof of the House, No Man's Land, Brock's Head, Horse Shoe, The Chair, Cook Room, Hanging Cliff, The Gulch where the Vessel was Lost, Stem and Stern (St. John's Evening Telegram, 29 June 1956).
6 There may be people of Channel Islands origin on the West Coast, an origin suggested by certain place-names and family names.
7 A random selection gives us: bavln “a brush faggot for lighting fires”; farrell “a book-cover”; fellon “a sore or whitlow on the finger”; frenne “a stranger”; glaum “to snatch suddenly” (also the thing1 snatched); mundel “porridge stick”; oxters “arm-pits”; rames “skeleton”; sicheturms “small brooks that dry up in summer”.
8 Thus, Madeira is not a wine, but a codfish cured in a special way; a linnet is not a bird, but a net; a prior, far from being an ecclesiastic, is part of a net-buoy.
9 Again, a bare sample must suffice : flirrup “a large lamp, used on fishing-stages“; flobber “a very gentle sea-lop“; gobstick “a 2-foot stick used to remove hooks from the ‘gob’ of a fish”; grump-heads “posts on a wharf for tying up boats”; pucklins “small boys”; puddick “stomach of codfish”; scolly “a wide, floppy head-dress worn by fisher-women when curing fish or working in the fields”; strouters “perpendicular posts which support the front of a fishing-stage”; yaffle “an armful of dried cod, wood, etc.”
10 He might, for example, call him a gomeril, a joskin, an omadawn or an omaloor, an ownshook, a scoopendike, or a scrumpshy.
11 As an example of the former, consider the following terms applied to various parts of a cod-trap : arms, bibber, bunt, bottom, leader, leaves, prior.
Among examples of popular beliefs and customs I have come across while collecting words are: the Hunting of the Wren on St. Stephen's Day, Mummering by jannles, a legend of the Northern Lights called the Merry Dancers.
12 Ernest Rouleau, ‘Some Newfoundland Vernacular Plant Names’, Contributions de l'institut Botanique de l'Université de Montréal, No 69. Montréal, 1956, 25–40; H. S. Peters, T. D. Burleigh, Birds of Newfoundland, St. John's, NFLD, 1951.
13 Folklore of Newfoundland in Old Words and Phrases, St. John's NFLD, 1937. G. A. England's list of Newfoundland dialect items ni Dialect Notes for 1925 is equally valuable.
14 The following features of pronunciation and syntax are frequently found in various local dialects: initial [v] for [f] ; [d] for [th] (extremely common); [i] for [oi] ; [a] for [o] before a consonant; loss, and intrusion, of initial [h]. In syntax, common features are : double negatives; a tendency to personify inanimate objects; a fairly consistent distinction between you and ye; the possessive pronoun formed by adding [u] ; the old form of the preterite preserved, as in clomb; or old strong verbs acquiring new weak preterites, as in beared.
15 Angus Mcintosh, An Introduction to a Survey of Scottish Dialects Edinburgh, 1952.