PATTERSON ON NEWFOUNDLAND DIALECT. Ixxvll 
collar to denote working on a ship preparatory to sailing either 
for seal or cod fishing. A curious one of which I can get no explana- 
tion is she'd lick her cuff, that is, submit to any humiliation, to be 
let go to a dance or secure what object she has in view. But one 
of the most amusing uses of a word is that of miserable simply as 
intensive. Thus a person will speak of a miserable fine day. Occasion- 
ally there is something poetic in their expressions, as when the land is 
described as just mourning for manure. 
In these two papers I am far from having exhausted the subject, but 
I believe that they will be sufficient to show that in the peculiarities of 
Newfoundland speech we have an interesting field of inquiry. Here is 
a people living in a secluded position, but retaining words and forms 
of speech brought by their fathers from England, which elsewhere 
have passed away entirely, or are preserved only as provincialisms in 
some limited districts. In this quarter the study of these has been 
neglected hitherto. Persons laying claim to education have regarded 
them simply as vulgarisms, and have expressed some surprise that I 
should have deemed them worthy of thoughtful investigation. They 
could scarcely conceive that the rude speech of unlettered fishermen 
was really part of the language of Shakespeare, Milton and Chaucer. 
What I have done will, I trust, stimulate further enquiry, and that 
without delay. Education and intercourse with people of other lands 
will soon modify if not entirely wear away these peculiarities. It is to 
be hoped, therefore, that while the opportunity lasts there will be found 
among those having intercourse with them, persons to prosecute the 
inquiry farther, and to seek to gather the fullest information on a 
subject interesting in itself, but especially so as bearing on the past of 
our English mother-tongue. 
Remarks on the subject of Dr. Patterson’s paper were made by W. 
H. Harrineton, Esa., and Dr. Rem. 
SEVENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 
Legislative Council Chamber, Halifax, 11th May, 1896. 
The PRESIDENT in the chair. 
It was announced that W. Hacur Harrineton, Esa, F. R. S. C., 
of Ottawa, Canada, had been elected a Corresponding Member at the 
last meeting of the council. 
