Dis, Dat and the other Ting

Who would have thought that our little island of Newfoundland would be so diverse that we pretty much have our own language? Many people joke around and call it "Newfinese" but really it is just a regional dialect, or variant of standard English, and while sometimes it might be a little nonsensical, it's just as valid as any other variant of the language. This blog will explore some of the common phrases of the province, and little things I notice in peoples everyday speech as I go about my day. To start, we'll look at a couple common words we all hear (and most of us say) "dis, dat and ting."

I heard these words last night while talking with a friend of mine. We were sitting in her car, having a very casual, fun conversation over a cup of coffee in the parking lot of Tim Horton's. It was only the two of us there, but there may have been some outside listeners to the conversation as we both had our windows rolled down, and as we all know Tim Horton's can be a very crowded place eight o'clock at night. Well, in the middle of our conversation, my friend looked at me and exclaimed "look at dis ting I got today!" and pulled something out of her back seat. We continued our conversation, and both went on our separate ways soon after.

I then started thinking about what she had said. Rather than pronouncing "this" and "thing" she had shortened them, like many of us do in conversation, and don't give much thought to. This is, however, a very common linguistic feature known as th-dropping. The th in "this" is dropped for a d-sound, and in "thing," we only hear the pronunciation of the t. What causes this phenomenon is rather than allowing the tip of the tongue come up to touch the teeth to allow for the th-sound to be formed, the tongue stops at our alveolar ridge (the part of the roof of the mouth just behind the top set of teeth). This is done through forming common dental fricatives into a full stop. Dental fricatives are consonants which are pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth, so clearly we can see by dropping the th-sound this is eliminated and this is exactly what creates the different sound we hear between the two words.

This is very important to the Newfoundland dialect of English because it is something almost all of us do everyday in normal, casual speech. Of course, we would not do this in a more formal setting because we are watching what we are saying, and making sure we are correctly pronouncing and articulating every word. Not everyone talks with the thick Newfoundland accent some people think we do, but this th-dropping is becoming something we hear more and more everyday, both in the older and younger generations of the province.

Just think about it next time you are having a conversation, and see how often the people you are with drop the th-sound and replace it with something else. Until you start to listen, you do not realize how many people talk like "dis."