Dictionary of Newfoundland English

Louis Buchanan is a professor of English at Ryerson University in
Toronto.

This is the long-awaited dictionary of Newfoundland English based on historical principles. It took twenty years to complete and has about 4,000 entries drawn from four centuries of printed material and from 30,000 oral examples. The work has all the scholarly apparatus required to place it in the first rank of the world’s regional dictionaries, yet it is eminently readable for the interested layman.

Some of the entries are unique to Newfoundland (e.g., “curwhibble”); others are fairly common elsewhere but have special meanings in Newfoundland; still other words have died out in other speech communities but continue to be used in Newfoundland. The entries are clearly defined, but the usage examples are where the words really come alive: “‘Oh, well,’ sez the woman, ‘as that article is me husband I can’t run him down too much.’”

The use of such a large number of oral sources is welcome in a dictionary reflecting such a rich, linguistically interesting culture. As the editors say, “Nothing less, we believe, would suffice in a work of this kind undertaken in a region in which the local tradition of print is late and relatively weak but which displays a tenacious and robust oral culture....” (p. xxvi).

This is highly recommended for all collections looking for the very best in Canadian reference works. It may be Canada’s greatest lexicographical achievement thus far.