Ran across this site through another board.

http://ngb.chebucto.org/Articles/folk-lore.html

Has a list of Newfoundland English words and phrases, including (attn: Harry Potter fans) gilderoy.

and (attn: crossthread fans) douse

Dear Faldage: Is this a typo? I can't figure out what the meaning is.
"bostoon; to complain hudly " What is the meaning of "hudly" I can only guess "loudly".

here's another version of the glossary, which has "complain loudly": http://home.cogeco.ca/~nfldroots/hisnf2.htm

Yeah, there's a bunch typos on that site.

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/dictionary/d7ction.html

The above is the link to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, which I've posted a million times before but it never hurts posting it again.

Two of my own favourites that have migrated into my speech (and for some reason are not found on that site) are:

sook someone who whines a lot or acts like a baby, this can also be turned into the adjective sooky. Eg. "Our cat is a big sook; she just sleeps by the heater all day and then begs for food. Big sooky fuzzball."

streel Drag along or trail behind, as in "After she came out of the washroom she had toilet paper stuck to her shoe, streeling along behind her."

Bean, how do you say "chopped liver" in Newfish?

>Sook, sooky

Thanks, Bean. Both of these are also in common use in NZ, in fact, I used sooky in a post in I&A a week or so back. I noted a few other words on the list that are also still in fairly common use here, used with the same sense as in NF. The ties that bind, eh?

Have you read The Chrysalids? I just finished re-reading it the other night. In it, the characters live in Labrador (although they talk about Newfoundland), and (if you don't want to ruin the story don't highlight this) at the end of the book, end up in New Zealand. Of all the places on earth!

I, also, found a lot of words that are either in use in UK (although some of them are either rare or regional) or would be understood by a fair few people of my sort of advanced years, even if they wouldn;t actually use the words.

In particular, I was attracted to "gommil; a moron or half-stupid person. My mother used the phrase, "You gormless gommeril" to mean exactly that - usually directed at me, of course

When I first saw :bostoon" I wondered if it were derived from "Boston". Boston is a contraction
of St. Botolph's town. I can't figure any connection though.

RC's gommil reminded me of another favourite which I now use all the time:

stunned: (adj) stupid (best pronounced with the Newfoundland-style u which sounds like the Liverpudlian u) Sample sentence: "B'y, are you too stunned to see that that's not gonna work?"

Note that b'y is THE classic Newfoundland word, equivalent to the Aussie mate and used to address someone (girl or boy!) or just for emphasis. That's one I can't ever sound natural saying.

The Dictionary of Newfoundland English gives, for bostoon:

bostoon n also bosthoon. EDD bosthoon Ir; DINNEEN bastún. A clumsy, stupid fellow (1937 DEVINE 10).
1925 Dial Notes v, 326 Bosthoon—an extremely ignorant man.

AnnaS, I dunno about chopped liver but saltfish and hard bread is fish and brewis (brewis is pronounced more like brooze). Sounds unappealing though I've never had a chance to try it.

">Sook, sooky

Thanks, Bean. Both of these are also in common use in NZ, in fact, I used sooky in a
post in I&A a week or so back."

And in Australia. "Sook" struck me as a wonderful word and I acquired the habit of using it when I lived there. Somehow just the sound of it is so descriptive.

Many ofthe words I understood right off the bat - having an Irish family helps there! Another word I heard used was titivate which has a different meaning altogether from titilate. My Grandmother would say someone who spent a lot of time on thier appearance was "all titivated up."

Oh yes, I recognise this one. "She's just titivating herself" meaning putting the final touches to her appearance before going out, and somehow it always was she.

Bingley