Time for another linguistic mystery. Where would you be if you decided to go twacking around duckish, and then you came home and wrote about it in a scribbler? Any idea? If you're going twacking around duckish, you're likely in Newfoundland. The type of English spoken there may be the most distinctive collection of dialects in Canada. Some of it sounds a lot like Irish-accented English. Other dialects in Newfoundland have echoes of the speech of immigrants from the West Country of England. Visit Newfoundland, and you'll be greeted by some colorful vocabulary. The verb to twack means 'to go shopping and ask about the prices, but then not buy anything.' I guess that's the Newfie version of 'window shopping.' Duckish means 'dusk' or 'twilight.' And a scribbler is a 'notebook.' If you want to hear some terrific examples of Newfoundland English, check out the International Dialects of English Archive online.
http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/canada/newfoundland/newfoundland.htm Here's another online treat for word lovers: the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Start rummaging around on this lovely site, and you'll discover a yaffle â that means an armful â of great words, like dumbledore. That's right, spelled just like the Harry Potter character. In Newfoundland, a dumbledore is a 'bumblebee.' We'd love to know what regionalisms have caught your ear lately. Send them along to
words@waywordradio.org. As they say in Newfoundland, we'd be wonderful happy to hear from you. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email:
words@waywordradio.org Phone: U.S. toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, London +44 20 7193 2113, Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site:
http://waywordradio.org. Podcast:
http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums:
http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter:
http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter:
http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
megaphone.fm/adchoices