The English Language in Nova Scotia

Essays on Past and Present Developments in English across the Province

Edited by Lilian Falk, Margaret Harry

Can we offer you some Patti-pans? Some fungee or lassybread? How about a derasifying padana?

Before you absquotilate in a dander, come aboard of this anthology, and explore some of the fascinating ways in which the English language has developed in Nova Scotia. This book covers such topics as pronunciation, semantics, grammatical structures, language contact, dialect features, ethnic and gender roles. nicknames, and place names.

Contents

• Contributors
• Preface
• Historical Introduction (John G. Reid)
• Ch. 1: The Vowel Phonemes of Halifax and General Canadian English (A. Murray Kinloch)
• Ch. 2: Some Observations on the South Shore Lexicon (Lewis J. Poteet)
• Ch. 3: The Dialect of Lunenburg (M.B. Emeneau)
• Ch. 4: Between Emphasis and Exaggeration: Verbal Emphasis in the English of Cape Breton (Lilian Falk)
• Ch. 5: The Use of Nicknames in Cape Breton  (William Davey and Richard MacKinnon)
• Ch. 6: The Place Names of Nova Scotia (Margaret Harry)
• Ch. 7: Reactions to Three Types of Speech Sample from Rural Black and White Children (John Edwards)
• Ch. 8: The Career of Black English: A Literary Sketch (George Elliott Clarke)
• Ch. 9: Written Mi’kmaq English as Used by the Mi’kmaw Communities in Cape Breton (Stephanie Inglis)
• Ch. 10: Incorporations from English into Nova Scotia Acadian french (Karin Flikeid)
• Ch. 12: Three Nineteenth-Century Literary Representations of Nova Scotia Dialect (Lilian Falk)
• Glossary
• Index

About the Authors

Lilan Falk taught the History of the English Language and courses on Canadian English at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax. One of her special interests has been Nova Scotian varieties of English. Since her retirement she has presented and published studies on the connections between Britain and Nova SCotia in late nineteenth century literature and art.

Margaret Harry teaches English and Linguistics at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, specializing in the History of the English Language, particularly Old and Middle English, and also in Folklore. She has made several appearances on local television and radio discussing the folklore and language of the Maritimes. She also teaches Science Fiction.