Two island dialects of Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland

Harris, Linda M. (2006) Two island dialects of Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study examines the conservative dialects of English used by speakers who grew up on two island groups in Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland. The 16 participants (eight males and eight females) had spent their early lives on either Deer Islands or Flat Islands, and at the time of interviewing in 2001, ranged in age from 78 to 93 years. Males and females proved to be very similar in their speech patterns, and only slight differences were found between the two groups of islands. -- This thesis describes the distinctive phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical features of these dialects. The first settlers of Bonavista Bay were almost exclusively of Southwest English ancestry, and this work investigates the extent to which dialectal features of that main source area have survived in the language of these contemporary speakers. As expected, both island varieties revealed a mixture of conservative Southwest England features with typical Newfoundland innovations.

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