Editing Newfoundland English (section)

=== British ===
While there was an early dominance of merchants and migrants from [[Devon]], they accounted for only around 30 percent of the English population in places like St. John's and Conception Bay in Newfoundland.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Sandra |editor-first1=Raymond |editor-last1=Hickey |date=2009 |title=The Legacy of British and Irish English in Newfoundland |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/legacies-of-colonial-english/A71FBEBB4254796653FDF5BCCE0D8347 |journal=Legacies of Colonial English |series=Studies in English Language |pages=242–261|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511486920 |isbn=9780521830201 }}</ref> Most of the coast, except the Avalon Peninsula, was settled by migrants from [[Dorset]], [[Somerset]], and [[Hampshire]], which Handcock<ref name=":3" /> refers to as "[[Wessex]]."

A major reason for the migration pattern is that [[Poole, Dorset]] became a major port for the Newfoundland fish trade in the mid-1700s, which resulted in settlements that were densely clustered and mainly derived from Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and Hampshire, as these were located near major ports in the West Country of England.<ref name=":3" /> That group of migrants accounts for almost 80 percent of all English settlers on Newfoundland.<ref name=":3" />

Ultimately, that has allowed for the preservation of speech patterns derived from the West Country in Newfoundland English. Paddock<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Paddock |first=Harold |date=1982 |title=Newfoundland Dialects of English |url=https://dialectatlas.mun.ca/about/H%20Paddock_1982%20paper_final%20_Oct%2019-12.pdf |journal=Languages in Newfoundland and Labrador |volume=2 |pages=71–89}}</ref> illustrates how the speech pattern survived in 72 coastal communities in Newfoundland. Specifically, the use of "dark" or "velar" allophone in the communities are phonological features of the West Country. There are regional differences in phonological features. Another preserved phonological feature is the Irish-like fronting for all vowels, which is found in communities on the southern shores of the Avalon Peninsula.<ref name=":3" />

Another speech pattern that is adopted is the conservative paradigm for the verbs "have" and "do" found in the West Country. The verbs "have" and "do" are dependent on their function as auxiliaries or lexical verbs. As auxiliaries, the vernacular paradigm remains uninflected: "he haven't seen her".<ref name=":3" /> In contrast, when used as lexical verbs, the "-s" inflection appears throughout the paradigm, as in "they haves/has no business being here" or "we doos [du:z]/does that all the time."<ref name=":3" />

Other forms of preservation are specific terms in vocabulary like "moreish," meaning a particular food of which one cannot help having more,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=McLeod |first=James |date=2018 |title=The Newfoundland dialect is full of charming turns of phrase, but its real distinction is found in how it echoes the past |url=https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/the-newfoundland-dialect-is-full-of-charming-turns-of-phrase-but-its-real-distinction-is-found-in-how-it-echoes-the-past}}</ref> and are still used in Newfoundland.

Newfoundland was a British colony for nearly two centuries until 1949, when it became a province of Canada. That makes Newfoundland English have features similar to those found in the English of the West Country. They include the use of certain vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Newfoundland English has also developed its own distinct features over time, particularly by the influence of Irish and French migrants and its isolation from the rest of Canada.