Talk:Atlantic Canadian English

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Maritimes English/Maritimer English

This article seems to describe older speakers of Maritimes English. Young speakers have a dialect much closer to Central Canadian, except for a few exceptions like "southern" /sVwD@rn/ instead of /s@/-.--Sonjaaa 08:34, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know why this article is labelled as "Atlantic Canadian English" rather than "Maritime Canadian English" which would exclude Newfoundland English. The two don't belong together. Maritime English is closer to the English of Ontario and west than it is to Newfoundland English. Hebbgd (talk) 19:40, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Assessment

I have assessed this as a Stub, as it lacks organization and its detail is completely unreferenced, and of low importance, as it is a highly specific topic within Canada. Cheers, CP 03:39, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

While I don't disagree the article was stubby, disorganised, and needs sources... there are 1.8 million people in the Maritime provinces, so I'd stop before saying an article touching on how they vary from Canadian english to be "highly specific". We're only one degree of separation from Canadian English. - BalthCat (talk) 09:43, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Being from the Maritimes, I'd like to hope this article has merit, however it would be nice if this were sorted out more. Though some of the things in this article are accurate, some are rarely herd, or never herd where I'm from (north shore PEI). Some are also fairly surely from newfoundland, not the maritimes. Very big difference. I'd add some things, but though I'm from country stock on my father's side, my mom is from Wyoming, and so I suspect my Maritimer is a bit tainted. This article at current should be taken with a grain of salt, and I mean a right big one like for de-icing roads. naturalnumber (talk) 19:28, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Having grown up in New Brunswick, and been to different regions in the province, this is a fairly accurate, if vague and unreferenced. I'm not sure what you could really reference in it though. Maybe sound clips showing examples. I can't read the funny international vowel system, I've been trying to figure it out for weeks. Also, I'm not sure the north/south divide listed is accurate, The most noticeable accents I've heard from New Brunswick come from Miramichi. Next to that was Bathurst. In moncton/surrounding area, the accent is more like the accent where I live now, in southern ontario, which is alot like the northwest american dialect. The Gradge thing was pretty accurate though. I thought that was how everyone pronounced the word until I moved here. :) 69.196.189.66 (talk) 06:55, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Dooryard

I've added this link, though I admit I'm not sure if Carleton County usage goes against general Maritimer English, however a few in their list are beyond that county in the province of NB. Bammington was actually badmington for me (still a G which shouldn't be there...) One beer, two beer, big whoop, blat, boot, buddy, camp, cuzzint (my Miramichi cousins pronounced it that way...), elastic (really? this is Maritimer?), feed, fill yer boots, flat, flush, frigg, fuck-all, dick-all, garadge (pronunciation), holy liftin' (I thought it was holy lipton, to be honest), honkin', hurtin', jig, jumpins, lunch bucket, 'magine, nigh-on, over home (well, not one word, it is audibly two), right, "rightoutaver", rubbers, same difference (which I have always loathed), side hill, sled, some, two-four, unthaw, verandah, whack, wheeler. Perhaps if some one is looking to expand on particular jargon in this article, these might help kick-start it :) - BalthCat (talk) 09:31, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Maritime Pronunciation

I have noticed that many Maritimers do not pronouncing the t in words where it is preceded by an n, like "county," "mountain," and "Saint John". We also tend to add an n to Maritime (pronouncing it MAIR-in-time). I have heard older people who grew up in rural areas use the word fella, but it's pronounced more like fuh-la (the last part's the same, but the first part's a u sound, like in the word hut or button). I have also heard garage being pronounced gradge, but I thing this is more of slang term than a pronunciation. Finally, the i sound in milk and pillow is sometimes pronounced as an e (melk and pellow). On a side note, I have never heard the word fearful used the way it is in the article ("a fearful fool" meaning very foolish) though I've lived in both NB & NS. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anne Stewart (talk • contribs) 11:15, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Good point. Some of that is the result of the t being replaced by a glottal stop, but in the case of Saint John, I think the t is just dropped altogether. --136.159.160.65 (talk) 02:43, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

Having grown up in Ontario and despite having a Nova Scotian father, as a Nova Scotia resident I quickly learned to pronounce "buoy" as "boo ee" rather than "boy" and later, to avoid the mockery of my Nova Scotian bred children, not to pronounce "aunt" the same as "ant". As well, I have observed some older Cape Bretoners (and at least one mainlander with CB roots) pronounce a hard g in words like "sing". Particularly noticeable in words like "singing" [sing ging]. Hebbgd (talk) 19:54, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Extra R

I'm not sure if this is a maritime thing or not, but most people I know from southern Nova Scotia pronounce words ending in an a with an extra r on the end, such as 'idear' QBasicer (talk) 16:54, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Southeastern New Brunswick

Hello, I've never heard of jigging as a name for ice hockey, the accents I remember hearing in Kent County from my grandparents generation who were born early 1900's is very close to what you hear in Sydney, Nova Scotia and around Cape Breton area and there is a shared history of working in the coal mines for sure during the 1880's and possibly earlier, we also share Scot's and Irish roots and with rural communities being isolated in the province of New Brunswick because the farms were so far apart with large tracts of forest in between settlements, people in the rural areas were able to maintain some of their ancestors language especially the speech patterns and accents. Another issue in southeastern New Brunswick is the influence of French and Native populations in the region and in that regard I notice not only a shared history of story telling but also similarities in language structure as to the way the story unfolds. For instance, it's common knowledge that Mi'kmaq language uses a very distinctive method of describing places and this pattern seems to have been copied by story tellers in my community. In some families, that are mixed heritage of French and English speaking ancestors, there may be a strong French accent that was passed down through many generations, I have also noticed American accents passed down at least 3 or 4 generations when a parent was born in US but moved to New Brunswick and 3 generations later, the children still speak some words that sound quite American! Wild Heart of Kent (talk) 16:30, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

The article is not referring to HOCKEY but HOOKY, which means skipping school.--136.159.47.27 (talk) 01:16, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Regional subdialects?

As per a comment I made on the AfD, it would seem to me there are Maritimer accents rather than just one. Caper and Bluenoser in particular stand out as distinct, so does South Shore, so does the Annapolis Valley. Islander (PEI) can be quite distinct, not so sure about New Brunswick but didn't spend long there, and most NBers I met in Halifax over the last three years were younger/not rural in origin. No mention of these in the article so far, I'm sure there must be citable material on them. And as with English-as-spoken-by-Acadians, there's a certain distinct style of Mi'kmaq English though don't know if there are any papers, anywhere in CAnada, on English as used by First Nations peoples; very distinct, though in this case very influenced by the local regional accent; e.g. a native person from Sheet Harbour would have a Bluenoser-based accent, one from Yarmouth a South Shore-based accent. They're not all considered one dialect only, surely?Skookum1 (talk) 08:56, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

just commenting on something in the previous section, which I see also mentions native influence - the American flavour to some accents; probably more pronounced in New Brunswick, but one thing I felt about people from the Annapolis Valley is they almost sounded American....a certain way of drawling, maybe it's a tone of voice or certain hick-isms....Nova Scotians I met (I'm back in BC now) could often pick out someone from the Valley just as easily as someone from the Cape or South Shore or a hardcore Bluenoser from Dartmouth, though often I couldn't hear it. But often someone I thought was maybe a rural American, vaguely Ohio Valley-ish, were from Kings or Annapolis Counties.Skookum1 (talk) 09:01, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

English or British?

I notice one of the examples uses the word byre (a building where you keep livestock). I've lived part of my life in Soctland, where it is in common use; I think it might be used in Yorkshire, but I'm not sure; and in southern England it isn't used at all. I'm not going to edit the article - I know nothing of Maritime(r) English - but the linguistic differences between the different dialects of English in Britain are worth bearing in mind. We'll not mention Cymraig, Kernowek nor the various Gaelic languages... Number774 (talk) 12:43, 11 November 2014 (UTC)

Use of "Right" as interrogative

The interrogative "right?", raised to [ˈrʌɪt], is also used as an adverb, as in "It was right foggy today!". This sense may be influenced by Welsh word "reit" [ˈrəɪt],[citation needed] which means "very, rather, or considerably".

This speculation overlooks a more obvious explanation. "Right" is used in the same, interrogative way in some British dialects in the north of England - particularly in Lancashire and Yorkshire. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Philraws1 (talk • contribs) 23:27, 14 July 2017 (UTC)