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Old Posted Jan 17, 2016, 2:16 PM
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Location: Sin Jaaawnz, Newf'nland
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I learned something new about the pronunciation of Newfoundland today - or, rather, specific dates.

Until the early 1900s, the pronunciation varied but most people fully pronounced "found" and put the emphasis on "land". So "New-found-laaaaaaand". Lots of old people still say it that way.

The Broadcasting Corporation of Newfoundland (our pre-Confederation equivalent of CBC) standard was that all syllables should be given equal weight but a slight emphasis on "land" was permissible.

It was Joey Smallwood who tried to popularize Nyoo-fn'land. The "Nyoo" never caught on broadly, but the "fn'land" did.

And weirdest thing was I read it a few days ago in the National Post and went to the Rooms to check it out. They had it almost right. And I never knew these timelines.

And even though the pronunciation has become mostly homogenous across the island, people who were born in the 1940s and earlier tend to still put way more emphasis on "land" than younger people. For them, land is longer than the other two syllables combined.
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