Twacking around Duckish Minicast - 4 March 2009

Time for another linguistic mystery. <br/><br/>Where would you be if you decided to go twacking around duckish, and then you came home and wrote about it in a scribbler? Any idea? <br/><br/>If you're going twacking around duckish, you're likely in Newfoundland. The type of English spoken there may be the most distinctive collection of dialects in Canada. Some of it sounds a lot like Irish-accented English. Other dialects in Newfoundland have echoes of the speech of immigrants from the West Country of England.<br/><br/>Visit Newfoundland, and you'll be greeted by some colorful vocabulary. The verb to twack means 'to go shopping and ask about the prices, but then not buy anything.' I guess that's the Newfie version of 'window shopping.' Duckish means 'dusk' or 'twilight.' And a scribbler is a 'notebook.' <br/> <br/>If you want to hear some terrific examples of Newfoundland English, check out the International Dialects of English Archive online.<br/><br/>http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/canada/newfoundland/newfoundland.htm<br/><br/>Here's another online treat for word lovers: the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. <br/><br/>Start rummaging around on this lovely site, and you'll discover a yaffle â that means an armful â of great words, like dumbledore. That's right, spelled just like the Harry Potter character. In Newfoundland, a dumbledore is a 'bumblebee.'<br/><br/>We'd love to know what regionalisms have caught your ear lately. Send them along to words@waywordradio.org. <br/><br/>As they say in Newfoundland, we'd be wonderful happy to hear from you.<br/><br/>--<br/><br/>Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br/><br/>Email: words@waywordradio.org<br/><br/>Phone: U.S. toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, London +44 20 7193 2113, Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br/><br/>Site: http://waywordradio.org.<br/>Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br/>Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br/>Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br/>Twitter