The Story Behind the Newfoundland Accent

Why does Newfoundland English sound so different, where did it come from, and what do the way we speak and the expressions we use tell us about our history?

The Battery, St. John’s - a neighbourhood shaped by the city’s coastal setting and generations of local life.

If you've been watching Netflix's Below, you may have found yourself paying attention to something other than the mysterious creature lurking beneath the water.

The accents.

The series has sparked conversations about the way its characters speak. Some viewers have remarked on the resemblance to Irish accents, while others have wondered whether people in Newfoundland really sound like that.

It's a fair question. Newfoundland English has a distinctive sound, but the story behind it is about much more than sounding Irish. It's a story of migration, fishing communities, generations of local history and the way language develops over time.

And sometimes, you don't realise just how distinctive your own way of speaking is until you leave home.

“You don't sound like you're from Newfoundland!”

When I moved away to attend university, I encountered something that some Newfoundlanders who leave home will recognise.

People didn't always notice my accent. Or they expected me to speak much differently than I did.

That changed when they heard me speaking to my mother on the phone.

Suddenly, there it was.

It wasn't that I was deliberately speaking differently at home. It was simply that the people and surroundings I grew up with had shaped the way I spoke, and that became more noticeable in a familiar conversation.

I had another reminder of this years later, when a colleague picked up on an expression I used: “I was after telling her.”

I hadn't thought much about it. It was just something I said.

But my colleague recognised it as a Newfoundland expression, and it made me realise how many of the words and turns of phrase we use without thinking aren't necessarily shared by people elsewhere in Canada.

That's one of the interesting things about an accent. You don't have to try to sound a particular way to carry the history of where you come from. Sometimes, you don't even realise you're doing it.

Why do people in Newfoundland sound Irish?

The short answer is that Newfoundland English developed through centuries of settlement, particularly from southwestern England and southeastern Ireland.

St. John’s Irish connections run deep, reflected in the city’s history, culture and language.

From the 16th century onwards, English fishing vessels travelled across the Atlantic to Newfoundland for the cod fishery. Many workers from southwestern England initially arrived for the fishing season and returned home afterwards. Over time, some stayed, and seasonal migration gave way to permanent settlement.

Irish migration also became an important part of this history. From the late 17th century onwards, Irish workers arrived to take part in the fishery. Migration increased during the 18th century, and permanent settlement expanded in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Many Irish migrants came from southeastern Ireland, particularly around Waterford and neighbouring counties.

These settlers brought their own ways of speaking English. Over time, their speech influenced one another, developed locally and was passed down through generations.

The result wasn't simply English with an Irish accent added to it. Newfoundland English developed as a distinct variety, shaped by different regional dialects, local circumstances and the experiences of the people who lived here.

Some features came from the English West Country. Others reflected Irish English. Still others developed or changed within Newfoundland itself.

That mixture is a big part of what makes the province's speech so distinctive.

The English and Irish settlers who shaped Newfoundland's communities also left their mark on the places we live today. You can read more in the article, How English and Irish Settlement Shaped St. John's.

For more on English migration and settlement, see the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage overview of English settlement. The site's article on Irish migration provides more detail about the movement of Irish workers and settlers to Newfoundland.

Describing the Newfoundland accent as simply Irish, then, misses much of the story.

A little phrase with a long history

One of my favourite examples of Newfoundland English is the expression that caught me off guard: “I was after telling her.” In other words, I had just told her.

To someone unfamiliar with it, the wording might sound unusual. To many Newfoundlanders, it's simply a natural way to speak.

The construction is known to linguists as the after perfect. It's associated with Irish English and is also found in Newfoundland English.

It can describe something that has just happened or has recently been completed. Depending on the context, a speaker might say, “I'm after doing it” where another speaker might say, “I've just done it.”

This isn't random bad grammar or a phrase people invented because they didn't know another way to say something. It's a recognisable grammatical pattern with a history of its own.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage article on language discusses the after perfect as one of the grammatical patterns found in Newfoundland English, alongside distinctive vocabulary and pronunciation.

A feature of language can travel between communities and become part of how people speak more generally.

You don't have to know your family history in detail to use a phrase that reflects the linguistic history of the place where you grew up. And you don't have to think of yourself as speaking a dialect to be speaking one.

There isn't just one Newfoundland accent

One thing that gets lost when people talk about “the Newfoundland accent” is how much speech varies across the province.

The way someone speaks in a small outport community on the southern Avalon isn't necessarily the way someone speaks in western Newfoundland or Labrador. Different communities have their own histories, influences and patterns of speech.

There are differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, rhythm and grammar. Some features are associated with particular regions, while others vary between generations, social groups and individual speakers.

Memorial University's Voices of Newfoundland and Labrador project documents speech samples from 58 communities across the island and 11 communities in Labrador. The recordings provide a fascinating picture of the regional differences found throughout the province.

That variety is worth remembering when we hear a Newfoundland accent on television. A character's speech might reflect a particular community or a blend of regional influences, rather than sounding like everyone across the island.

Accents also change over time. The way younger generations speak today won't necessarily be identical to the speech of their grandparents. Language evolves, even in places with strong traditions of local speech.

Why has Newfoundland English survived so distinctly?

Newfoundland's history helps explain why its English developed such a recognisable character.

For centuries, many communities were closely connected to the fishery and to one another through local networks of work, family and trade. These connections helped local patterns of speech develop and pass from one generation to the next.

The fishing industry helped shape Newfoundland’s communities, culture and distinctive way of speaking.

At the same time, Newfoundland was never cut off from the wider world. People travelled, migrated, attended school, worked elsewhere and brought new influences home. The different places people came from also meant that speech developed differently from one community to another.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage overview of society and culture explores how geography, the marine environment, the fishing economy and British and Irish settlement helped shape the province's distinctive culture.

Language is one part of that wider story. It carries traces of earlier settlement while continuing to reflect the lives of people speaking it today.

What Below gets people talking about

The interest in Below has people talking about something Newfoundlanders have always known: we have a distinctive way of speaking.

The series is set in Snooks Arm, a fictional Newfoundland fishing community. Its characters have their own local voices, but there isn't one Newfoundland accent. Speech varies from one community to another, shaped by local history, family and the people we grow up around.

For viewers outside the province, some expressions and sounds may be familiar, while others may seem distinctly Irish or simply unfamiliar. And that's part of what makes Newfoundland English so interesting.

But there's a history behind the way we speak. To understand it, we have to look beyond the television screen to the fishing vessels that crossed the Atlantic, the English and Irish settlers who made their homes here, and the generations who developed their own ways of speaking.

It's a story that goes well beyond a television series. It's part of Newfoundland's history, carried on in everyday conversation.

More than an accent

When people hear a Newfoundland accent for the first time, they often notice its resemblance to Irish speech. That resemblance has historical roots, but it's only one part of the story.

Newfoundland English also reflects the English West Country, the development of local communities, the influence of geography and the way language changes over generations.

Sometimes, that history turns up in the smallest ways: a phrase you've always used, a sound that becomes more noticeable when you speak to family, or a colleague who recognises something in your speech that you never realised was distinctive.

You might not think about the history behind the way you speak. You might not even hear your own accent until you leave home.

But it's there, carrying traces of the people and places that came before you.

So the next time someone asks why people in Newfoundland sound Irish, there's a more interesting answer than simply saying our ancestors came from Ireland.

Our accents tell a story of their own, shaped by the people who crossed the Atlantic, the communities they built and the generations who made Newfoundland their home.