When guests ask us how to correctly pronounce Newfoundland, we let them know we’re probably the last group they’d want to consult on any sort of linguistic matter.
“… want to consult…”
Most Newfoundlanders are still speaking ‘Early Modern English’ with the same dialects we’ve managed to preserve since the late 1700’s. Remember how difficult it was to understand ‘Hamlet‘ in school? Well that’s what you’re dealing with when you’re speaking to me or anyone in this country who looks like me. And God help anyone sitting alongside our dear friend and guide Bill Mercer, he sounds just like Shakespeare himself.
Newfoundland’s speech pattern is best described as atonal. We have really flat ears that have caused our tongues to grow thick, meaning we only use 5 vowel sounds while the rest of the English-speaking world manages 13.
As we always say;
“A bear, is a beer, is a bare, down here. Ya hear?”
They all sound identical in Newfoundland since we don’t enunciate the “bierre” in beer, nor the “bar” in bare.
“… the spare lighthouse…”
Many of the bizarre communities cited throughout Newfoundland and along the shores of our Labrador coast are not necessarily a result of our creative spirit, rather our mispronunciation of those used by early European explorers and their romance languages.
Thus, beautiful French names like ‘Toulinquet’ became “Twillingate” when we attempt to emulate their appellation.
Cape Spear wasn’t named for the “Spare” lighthouse found on this most eastern point. It was originally cited by the Portuguese cartographer, Gaspar Corte-Real, who named it Cap D’esperance – Cape of Hope. But the only thing we got from that was;
“Cape Spear? A spear of land I suppose. Pointy, isn’t it?”
And so, D’iles d’eau becomes Dildo, and “Baie qu’appelle” explains why Newfoundlanders call ‘Cloudberries’, ‘Bakeapples’, thanks to an especially inquisitive crowd of Frenchmen who repeated their query – “What is this berry named?”
“…. Baie qu’appelle…”
But getting back to our original point about a proper pronunciation, the best suggestion is that you enunciate the same syllables used in “Understand” – Try them together to get used to it;
“Understand Newfoundland!”
Now with that said, I wouldn’t worry too much about any of this. Can’t imagine how infuriating it would have been if my friends in Vancouver were upset by how I pronounced ‘Tsawwassen’ or ‘Coquitlam’. Instead, they got a great kick out of it and the many wonderful stories we share because of it. (Ask me about the time I confused Tofino and Torino during the 2006 Olympics – Funny stuff)
Life is all about making memories, and the reality is, we don’t care how you pronounce Newfoundland so long as your travel agent can spell it when you plan a visit with us.
We look forward to seeing you with a promise to let go of the small stuff. Its “pretty petty” anyways. Just ask the crowd in the Goulds.
“… pretty petty…”
