[HPforGrownups] re dialects/grammar

[Sheryll Townsend]

No: HPFGUIDX 9248


--- Snuffes MacGoo <msmacgoo at one.net.au> wrote:
> "used to could"
> 
> Maybe I'm a more badly spoken Aust than most but I
> use this phrase. 
> Course it sounds more like 
> "she useda coulda run all day but now I gotta make
> sure she take 
> breaks cause she's never gunna done learn that it
> makes her back's 
> sore but eh?"
> 
> (ie I have a sight hound who loves to run all day
> but now must be 
> made to take breaks or she will hurt herself.) The
> `but eh?' or `eh 
> but?' and making things that are statements
> questions is very common. 
> The use of `learn' instead of `teach' is common too
> ie  (chiding 
> someone after they have done something silly) `don't
> s'pose that'll 
> learn ya not to do it again but eh?'

I've been sitting back for the last few days,
chuckling over these posts. It dawned on me that I'm
guilty of a few myself, having spent some of my
formative childhood living in Newfoundland. They don't
just have a dialect, it would have to be considered a
separate language - though it is English. My maternal
grandmother (who was born in England) was appalled at
how I spoke when we came back from Newfoundland,
especially when I told her to "stay where you be, I'll
come where you're at"! I still spend a great deal of
time in the Maritimes, where we say things like
'boughten' bread to refer to what you buy as opposed
to make yourself. Other than that, Canadians are prone
to adding 'eh' to the end of all sentences - unless
you live in Quebec, then you add 'quoi' (though it
must be pronounced so that you sound like some type of
pregnant duck!).

Enough, I'm rambling, eh. Must be time for bed, eh?

Sheryll

=====
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

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