In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a couple of kilometers and a few decades away from the rest of Canada, is the island of Newfoundland. While Newfoundlanders and Labradorians (the rugged inhabitants of the mainland portion of the province) purportedly speak English, it is a dialect that is as unique as the province’s landscape itself.
Take English, as it was spoken in ye Olde World 300 years ago, double, perhaps triple the speed, drop the h’s or add letters at random, and scatter in a few long forgotten, ancient idioms, and you will get a flavour of Newfoundland English as it is spoken today.
The customary Newfoundland greeting of “Whaddaya at?” means “How ya gettin’ on?”, “What are you up to?”, and even just “Hello!”.
With slight changes in inflection “Whaddayaat?” can also mean “Lord t’underin’ jesus what have you gotten yourself into now?”, “Are you sure you thought this through”, and “Your actions are baffling me”.
And looking around the world today, there are a lot of happenings, and a whole lot of people, of whom we all should be asking …
Whaddayaat?