The Newfie Accent Explained?
A suprising Canadian medical headline today may shed light on the study of linguistics. An Ontario woman, with no personal ties to the Canadian Maritimes, began speaking with a Newfoundland accent after suffering a stroke.
Following her stroke in 2006, Rose Dore checked herself into a Hamilton, Ont., hospital where staff assumed she was from the East Coast based on the way she spoke.
It wasn’t until her family arrived that health-care workers realized they had a special case on their hands. Staff contacted speech specialists who mapped Dore’s language patterns and concluded she was experiencing foreign-accent syndrome.
A new report, published in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, found that although the 52-year-old woman’s accent isn’t identical to that of a Newfoundlander there are striking similarities. [full article here]
So I guess it’s possible that Newfie’s don’t talk that way for cultural or historical reasons, but because they’ve suffered neurological damage. Many Canadians have always suspected that very thing.
Please come to my home in Newfoundland and tell me to my face that I have brain damage. I dare you, “Pete”.
I’m not sure if you’re joking or not, but rest assured, I was. I don’t seriously think there’s something wrong with my Maritime brethren in Newfoundland, but that was a headline that was too ripe to pass up. Nice blog, by the way. I’ll blogroll it.
I don’t think I would be the one with brain damage if someone suggested something as lousy as that article to me.
I thing you guys are taking that article, and my blog post, waaa-aaa-aaay too seriously. Yes, the hospital staff were idiots, and clearly suffering from some sort of prejudicial brain damage themselves. But it’s still a FUNNY ARTICLE. Sheesh.
I guess the stereotype about Newfoundlanders having a great sense of humour is equally fallacious.
Well I thought it was funny… I’m a Newfie too by the way.
Things like this can’t be taken too seriously or you’ll think you’re being insulted left right and center. Lighten up a little bit guys.