Some words are seen as being distinctively from Newfoundland, and the word "scrawb" is one of them. While I am not a big user of this word, many of my friends are. While sitting outside the library the other day with two friends, Sarah who has lived in Newfoundland her whole life, and Ryan who is originally from British Columbia, we took notice that Sarah had a huge scratch on her arm. We asked about what had happened, and she said "my stupid cat scrawbed me!" After this, Ryan just stopped and looked at her, then burst out laughing, saying "scrawbed? What kind of word is that?" Both of us never realized that this is a very localized word to Newfoundland, and that he never would have heard it before, but we later explained to him it meant the same thing as "scratch". The word was said in a very causal conversation involving only three of us. I'm sure other people could have heard what we were saying, although it didn't seem like anyone was listening, as there were many other groups sitting around us. And we also got some very weird looks when Ryan burst out laughing.
This is only one example of a word unique to Newfoundland English. Others would include things such as "narn" for none, "fousty" for something with a bad smell, and "buckle" as another word used for bend. Words such as these are what makes our language so different from others. While some of our words may sound funny (like scrawb did to my friend), the people from here who regularily use and hear them find them completely normal. Hopefully people will continue to use words such as these in an effort to keep the Newfoundland dialect so distinct from others, rather than conforming more to the standard, seemingly more accepted words that most people are using now.
So, which do you use more?
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