Editing Newfoundland English (section)

== Phonology ==
{{IPA notice|section}}
=== Consonants ===
==== Th-stopping ====
The {{IPAblink|d}} is used to represent the voiced "th" sound {{IPA|/ð/}}, and a {{IPAblink|t}} to represent the voiceless one {{IPA|/θ/}}. For example, "that thing over there" becomes "dat ting over dere" and is derived from [[Hiberno-English]]. The stopping of the interdental /ð/ is present in the speech of those in Petty Harbour, a region south of the capital, St. John’s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Herk |first=Gerard |date=2010 |title=Identity marking and affiliation in an urbanizing Newfoundland community |journal=Canadian English: A Linguistic Reader |pages=138}}</ref> Research has shown that men tend to have /ð/ stopping more often than women within this region, but that is not the case with function words like "this, them, that, these." Middle-aged women were found to start /ð/ stopping when they say function words, which would thus change to "dis, dem, dat, dese."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Herk |first=Gerard |date=2010 |title=Identity Marking and Affiliation in an Urbanizing Newfoundland Community |journal=Canadian English: A Linguistic Reader |pages=138}}</ref>

====Slit fricative t ====
The phoneme {{IPA|/t/}} at the end of words or between vowels is pronounced as in Hiberno-English. The most common pronunciation is as a [[voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative]], also known as a "slit fricative." The phoneme does not have a separate symbol in IPA and can be transcribed as {{IPA|[θ̠]}} (a [[Relative articulation#Advanced and retracted|retracted]] [[voiceless dental fricative]]). Thus, "hitting" {{IPA|[ˈɪθ̠ɪŋ]}} is distinguished from "hissing" {{IPA|[ˈɪsɪŋ]}} only by the fricative in the latter word being pronounced with clenched teeth (see [[sibilant consonant]]) and being [[laminal consonant|laminal]], rather than the [[apical consonant|apical]] sound of the slit fricative in "hitting". As the "th" sounds are stopped in Newfoundland, there is no confusion between the slit {{IPA|/t/}} and the {{IPA|/θ/}} sound. As a result, it is very common to hear "thing" being pronounced as "ting," as is mentioned above. The slit fricative /t/, which replaces the usual Canadian /θ/, acts as a marker of Newfoundlanders' identity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Herk |first=Gerard |date=2010 |title=Identity Marking and Affiliation in an Urbanizing Newfoundland Community |journal=Canadian English: A Linguistic Reader |pages=139}}</ref>

==== Voiced fricatives ====
The modification of initial voiceless fricatives to voiced fricatives can be heard by those in the West Country region (the Northeast, South, and West Coasts and Labrador).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirwin, Hollet |first=William, Robert |date=1986 |title=The West Country and Newfoundland: Some SED Evidence |journal=Journal of English Linguistics |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=224|doi=10.1177/007542428601900205 |s2cid=144594286 }}</ref> Voiceless fricatives, such as /f/ and /s/, are often modified to their voiced fricative counterparts, /v/ and /z/ respectively. Terms like ''salt'' and ''fir'' thus change to ''zalt'' and ''vir'' as a result of that shift. Those speech patterns are less prominent today but survive in pockets in the West Country regions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirwin, Hollett |first=William, Robert |date=1986 |title=The West Country and Newfoundland: Some SED Evidence |journal=Journal of English Linguistics |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=226|doi=10.1177/007542428601900205 |s2cid=144594286 }}</ref>

==== Simplified consonant clusters ====
The West Country is known to remove the last consonant of clusters in their speech.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirwin, Hollett |first=William, Robert |date=1986 |title=The West Country and Newfoundland: Some SED Evidence |journal=Journal of English Linguistics |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=234|doi=10.1177/007542428601900205 |s2cid=144594286 }}</ref> Terms like ''loft'', ''bald'', and ''almost'' are simplified to like ''lof'', ''bal,'' and ''almos''.

==== H-dropping ====
Both [[h-dropping]] and [[h-insertion]] occur in the West Country, and in many varieties of Newfoundland English. For example, Holyrood becomes Olyrood, and Avondale becomes Havondale.

==== Rhoticity ====
Newfoundland is mainly [[rhotic and non-rhotic accents#Rhotic and non-rhotic accents in English|rhotic]], like the rest of [[North America]], and in Ireland and the West Country. Some non-rhoticity is found in some regions.

==== L-darkness ====
Some speakers of Newfoundland English pronounce {{IPA|/l/}} as unvelarized and so the phrase ''sell it later'' is pronounced {{IPA|[ˈsɛl ɨθ̠ ˈleɪθ̠ɚ]}} (cf. General American {{IPA|[ˈsɛɫ ɨʔ ˈɫeɪɾɚ]}}). That may be from Irish-influenced varieties of English since they have light variants in both coda and onset positions.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mackenzie |first1=Sara |last2=De Decker |first2=Paul |last3=Pierson |first3=Rosanna |date=1 April 2015 |title=/l/-darkness in Newfoundland English |url=https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.4920801 |journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |volume=137 |issue=4|pages=2414 |doi=10.1121/1.4920801 |bibcode=2015ASAJ..137.2414M |issn=0001-4966}}</ref>

==== Pulmonic ingressive ====
Newfoundland English often pronounces the affirmative "yeah" with an inhalation, rather than an exhalation, in the older generations. That is an example of a rare [[pulmonic ingressive]] [[phone (phonetics)|phone]].

=== Vowels ===
In much of Newfoundland, the words [[English-language vowel changes before historic r#Near–square merger|''fear'' and ''fair'']] are [[homophones]]. A similar merger is found in the [[Norfolk dialect]] of [[East Anglia]], England, and in [[New Zealand English]].

Newfoundland English traditionally lacked [[Canadian raising]], but that has changed to some extent in the generations since Newfoundland's 1949 joining Canada. People in the Avalon Peninsula, which underwent Irish settlement, display obvious Canadian raising pattern for /ɑɪ/ but not typically for the /ɑʊ/ diphthong. The latter feature has long existed in Newfoundland English but is not very common except in the rural South Coast community of [[Newhook]]. There, it exists in the speech patterns of more women than men.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Sandra |date=2012 |title=Phonetic change in Newfoundland English |journal=Word Englishes |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=515}}</ref>

Many speakers of Newfoundland English have a complete merger of {{IPA|/ɪ/}} and {{IPA|/ɛ/}} (a '''[[Phonological history of English close front vowels#Pin–pen merger|''kit''–''dress'' merger]]'''), usually realized with {{IPA|[ɪ]}} (in words like ''bit'' and ''bet'') but with {{IPA|[ɛ]}} before {{IPA|/r/}} (in words like ''beer'' and ''bear'').{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=500}} The merger is common in Irish-settled parts of Newfoundland and is thought to be a relic of the former Irish pronunciation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Clarke |first=S. |title=Legacies of Colonial English |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-521-83020-6 |editor-last=Hickey |editor-first=R. |page=252 |chapter=The legacy of British and Irish English in Newfoundland}}</ref>

=== Tempo ===
Speakers of Newfoundland English may seem to speak faster than other Canadian English speakers. The perceived tempo difference may be a coupling of obvious pronunciation differences with Newfoundland's unusual sayings and is a contributing factor to the difficulty that outsiders sometimes experience with understanding the dialect.