The Anglo-Irish element in the speech of the Southern Shore of Newfoundland

Dillon, Virginia Mary (1968) The Anglo-Irish element in the speech of the Southern Shore of Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The Southern Shore is one of the most predominantly Irish sections of Newfoundland and has preserved, until even the present time, a great deal of the culture, customs and speech of the early settlers. This culture and particularly the speech present an interesting subject for the study of origins, especially in Ireland. The material in this thesis was collected by use of a questionnaire, from a great deal of incidental conversation and, at times, by means of a tape recorder. -- The first settlers in the area were apparently mostly English, who came either as fishermen or as settlers in the colonies founded during the early seventeenth century. At the time, there were probably a few Irish there also, but most of these came as servants to the English fishermen, and it is impossible to determine how many settled. It was only after the middle of the eighteenth century that many Irish people came to settle permanently. -- The culture brought from Ireland was retained for generations in the Southern Shore area. Customs, folk beliefs, methods of building house and clearing land, entertainment, religion and education for many years followed the patterns introduced by the first settlers. This study includes a lengthy discussion of these material and social aspects of the way of life. -- The language, both Irish elements and Anglo-Irish brought to the Southern Shore, has survived for generations. Although the speech of the younger people has been greatly influenced by improved facilities form education and by radio and television, the type of speech brought from Ireland is retained, to a great extent, by older people, who still use much of the Anglo-Irish idiom and vocabulary, many phrases, proverbial sayings and comparisons, and a number of characteristic pronunciations. The glossary Chapter IV treats all these Southern Shore localisms which can be traced to Irish-Gaelic, to Gaelic forms translated into English, or to older English forms which were present in the speech carried to Newfoundland, although probably obsolete in the standard English of the time.

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