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Do You Speak Newfinese?

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This week Pegman takes us to the Newfoundland and Labrador province of Canada. Your mission is to write up to 150 words inspired by the location. Feel free to use the photo supplied with the prompt, or roam anywhere within the province for your own view.

Once your piece is polished, share it with others using the link up below. Reading and commenting is part of the fun!

How could I resist the one province I have yet to visit? I was gonna go the Gander 9/11 route but changed my mind, though it is a worthy story to share.  Instead I went light.  Have you ever heard two Newfies speaking to each other? I think it’s as bad as two Scots! Indeciferable….

Do you Speak Newfinese?

We love to tease our Newfies – there is no shortage of jokes on attacking their supposed stupidity and enjoyment of beer (what’s wrong with that?). Not fair, really. No more fair than dumb blonde or Polish jokes, come to think of it.

Yeah, they can be really hard to understand. Their dialect is particular to their corner of Canada. A mix of Irish, French, English all turned into super-fast gibberish for most of us. Problem to them is we don’t listen fast enough!

“Stay where you’re at ’til I comes where you’re to.”

“Whadda ya at, b’y?”

“This is it.”

“Ow’s she cutting?”

“Oh, y’know, like a knife.”

“B’y y’don no nobody who don want nudding don, d’ya?”

“Sorry. Wait a fair wind.”

“Me nerves is rubbed right raw.”

“‘Ang on to yer draws. It’ll come.”

“What odds?”

“Do you want some takin up?”

“Not hungry. How ’bout a beer?”

 

Can’t have a Newfie post without Great Big Sea – one of many fabulous musical bands hailing from The Rock.

Here’s a link to Newfinese should you need a little aid 😉

 

 

69 thoughts on “Do You Speak Newfinese?”

  11. Q,

    This reminds me of when I was younger and I would visit my grandmother. She was a divorcee grandma, who tore it up on the dating scene. She was dating this Portuguese fella for a while, and it really messed with me. How one minute I was following right along with what he was saying and the next I had no fucking idea.

    If only every Canadian was as well spoken as you! 😉

    B

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Thank you for this. Canada is rich with lovable characters and I guarantee you will enjoy Newfies when you visit. Although my heritage is Nova Scotian, in mid life my parents lived in Newfoundland for 10 years for my Dad’s work so I visited several times. On the first visit, my father picked me up at the St. John’s airport and en route to Carbonear we stopped at a roadside stand to buy some lobster. I asked the vendor “How much is the lobster per pound?” With a glint in his eye, he replied, “Oh lass, we don’t sells ’em by the pound, we sells ’em by the each.” So, I asked, “How much are they each?” He quickly replied, “$2.50 a pound”. Gotta love ’em.

    Liked by 1 person

    • The only two provinces I have yet to visit! My husband’s family were from Nova Scotia but somehow we never made it there.
      I just love the Newfie accent though when they speak I definitely don’t listen fast enough!
      So glad you enjoyed my attempts!
      Love your lobster story!

      Liked by 2 people

  13. Dear Dale,

    It seems every region has those kinds of jokes. Here in the KC area some say the best thing coming out of Iowa is I-35. Love the examples of Newfinese. Sounds a lot like Arkansas-ese. 😉 Whaddya at? I’ll have to remember that one. Love love love this piece. Who better than a Canuck to write it. 😉

    Shalom and lotsa hugs from rainy Missouri,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Rochelle,

      Yep. Newfoundland has more than one, depending on the part of the rock you’re at.
      So very glad you enjoyed my attempts at bringing this dialect to life!

      Shalom and Lotsa love and sending you sunshine,

      Dale

      Liked by 1 person

  14. Ha! this is great, Dale. Weirdly familiar in parts too. When we first moved to Bristol from Manchester, the big thing that threw me was people saying ‘Where are you to?’ or ‘Where’s it to?’ (like you’re opening sentence). All you need to do is knock the ‘to’ off the end to make sense of it, but still – nonsense to my Northern UK ear. They put the extra ‘s’ on the end of words here too, so that opener would make perfect sense here. And ‘hang on to your drawers’? Is that the same as our ‘don’t get your knickers in a twist’? Ah, the joys of dialect. Love it 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Hah. A delightful story Dale. And I understood it. Lol. Also loved the link for the song. Never heard it before but you can’t sit still or silent while listening to it. A bit of Zydeco band influence it seemed to me. Loved it.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Glad you enjoyed, Jan.
      And understood, to boot!
      Love Great Big Sea. They do indeed have a mix of Zydeco and Celtic.
      Glad you enjoyed the music too

      Like

    • I’d not be surprised one bit. In one of the bazillion videos (I *may* exaggerate a tad), they were explaining how people emigrated from one region, say Cornwall, and all stayed together, keeping a dialect that remains to this day.
      I remember meeting an Irish man and thinking he sounded like a Newfie – and it makes sense!

      Like

  20. I see what you mean about the dialect being hard to understand. I could use a translator for this one! But I agree with you, that’s no reason to make fun of them for being different, and especially not assuming they’re stupid. That’s just bigoted crap.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Nice capture of a unique speech pattern some of the structures like the trailing prepositions sound a lot like how some people talk in the SouthernUS. Where’r you at? Is pretty widespread I think. Im curious about the fair wind expression. Glossary plz!😊

    Like

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