Newfoundland Language and Culture Quiz

Answer: Hardtack or ship's biscuit

One had to soak the hardtack in water for a long time, to soften it up enough to boil it and mash it. The resulting fish-and-brewis dinner was usually served with scrunchions, delicious little bits of rendered park fat! Mmmm...

Answer: Glass of rum and Coke, and some dark fruitcake

Newfoundlanders who were growing up in the fifties and sixties, were amazed to hear that "mainland" kids (i.e., kids from the rest of Canada) left out milk and cookies. It wasn't thought that milk and cookies would provide the same stamina, which was considered highly desirable, as fruitcake with a stiff drink.

Answer: Stop being in a bad mood

When a person has moved outside the province, s/he must be careful when telling people that someone they know is just crooked; the expression denotes in Newfoundland culture, someone who is hard to get along with, but one's listeners will often interpret the word "crooked" as somehow dishonest.

Answer: Peter Guiney

The provenance of "Peter Guiney" is probably lost in the mists of time. Whoever he is or was, he has become a useful person to blame when no-one else will own up!

Answer: Anything for the mummers?

In Newfoundland, children dressed in Hallowe'en costumes were known as mummers, but adults could be mummers as well. In some communities "around the bay", as the outports used to be known, the old custom of mummering at Christmas was still observed in the twentieth century, with the mummers going from house to house so that they could have some food and (especially) drink, and the people in the house could try to guess who was who, under the disguises.

Answer: Bakeapples and partridgeberries

Partridgeberries are a local type of cranberry, while bakeapples, which have nothing to do with apples, baked or otherwise, look something like raspberries, and are a sort of amber-orange color. They also grow in Finland, where they are known as cloudberries.

Answer: Whisht!

There is some debate as to the spelling of "whisht"; the "Dictionary of Newfoundland English", the scholarly reference work on such matters, gives several different versions.

Answer: First rate, b'ye, how's yourself?

Newfoundland males used to be universally addressed as "b'ye", a corruption of the word "boy", according to the linguistic experts. Their age doesn't matter, they are still b'yes! There is a very famous Newfoundland folk song (one of many), called "I'se the b'ye."

Answer: The sun is splitting the rocks!

On the Avalon Peninsula in eastern Canada, where the capital of Newfoundland, St. John's is located, the sun does NOT shine, on an average, on 306 days out of the year. You can do the math; that is a whole lot of fog, rain, snow, sleet and hail. If there is a sudden freeze, there may be what is called an ice storm in the rest of the world. To the Newfoundlanders, who must be ever optimistic, it is known by the lovely name of a "silver thaw." This is when each branch of each tree is covered with glittering ice.

Answer: A hangashore

A poor "hangashore" originally meant someone not brave or strong enough to go out on a fishing vessel; he just hung around the shore, or wharf. Later the term came to mean any sad and pathetic sort of male person, though not an elderly one.