by Aiden Hickey
March 13, 2024
Cape Bretoner, wha? ⟷ Canadian, eh?
In my last piece, I touched briefly upon the unique accent associated with English speakers in and from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, along with how the migration of Gaelic speakers from Ireland and the Scottish Highlands—who began settling on the Island throughout the mid-nineteenth century—played a critical role in shaping the phonetic characteristics of the Cape Breton accent. In this piece I turn to the innovative vocabulary of Cape Breton English. With the fairly recent publication of Mackinnon and William’s Dictionary of Cape Breton English (DCBE) comes a good opportunity to explore how Cape Bretoners alter the meaning of standard English words and even invent their own!
Along with innumerable people who grew up in Canada, I spent a great deal of my time playing and watching hockey. As a consequence, a word like “puck”, for instance, became an essential part of my everyday lexicon, used inside and outside of the house: at hockey practice, at Halifax Moosehead games, the local pond, and the living room, of course. Phrases such as “Shoot the puck”, “Pass the puck”, “Dump the puck”, and (usually before early-morning practice) “Where are the pucks?”, reflected my early stock in trade.
It was only later on, during a weekend visit at my grandparents home in North Sydney, Cape Breton, when I learned that the word “puck”—crystallized in my mind’s eye as a hockey puck—could also be used as a verb. My grandfather had been telling me stories of the childhood roughhousing that used to go on between my mother and uncles when I began to realize the genuine distinctiveness of Cape Breton English . . . “I still mind pullin’ in the driveway and seein’ Jimmy puck Jennifer right in the mouf,” my grandfather said. At this point, around the age of sixteen or seventeen, I had gotten familiar with my grandparents' tendency to drop the "th" sound. But what did “puck” mean in this context, and what about “mind”?
To answer these questions and to present you with nine more examples, I have put together eleven of my favourite Cape Bretonisms, culled mainly from conversations with my parents and grandparents, although there are several listed below which I’ve had the happy experience of encountering again in Mackinnon and William’s wonderfully researched dictionary. Definitions for items one to eight have been derived from DCBE. Definitions for items nine to eleven, and all of the sentence examples below, are my own.
1. after
preposition – 'to be' + 'after'. To have done something or to have recently done something
“Freddy’s been after a long day of smackin’ in Sydney, and I’d imagine he’s pretty tired.”; “I’m just after having lunch with my friends.”
2. biff
transitive verb – To throw something or throw something out
“Youse better keep an eye on Carl, for I seen him biffin’ rocks at the cat yesterday.”; “If nobody wants to eat em’, I’m goin’ to biff the leftovers.”
3. kitchen racket
noun – An informal and usually unplanned house party typically held in a kitchen with music, singing and dancing
“Betty, that was a right fun kitchen racket youse had last Friday.”
4. mind
transitive verb – To remember
“When you come fishin’ on Friday, mind to bring some bait.”
5. puck
transitive verb – To strike something or someone with force
“The dishwasher was givin’ Paul a hard time, so he pucked it with his foot.”; “When we’re after this kitchen racket, I’m gonna puck you for saying that about me.”
6. right
adverb – Compare with 'completely, extremely, very'
“Good Lord, the traffic in Halifax is right wicked.”
7. smack
transitive and intransitive verb – To gather and/or transport live lobsters to a canning factory or buyer
“If youse is looking for work, go see if Danny is hirin’ people to smack.”
8. smart
adjective – Compare with 'agile, graceful, swift'
“Julia’s one right smart figure skater.”; “Look at him runnin': Tommy’s right smart for an old geezer.”
9. never’d
adverb – Equivalent to 'never' + 'did'
“Carl says he’s gonna puck you for sayin’ that he was biffin’ rocks at the cat yesterday, because he never’d.”
10. stunned
adjective – Compare with 'dim-witted'
“I hate to say it, but Paul’s son is right stunned.”
11. youse
pronoun – Equivalent to 'you'
“Youse must be from away.”
If it happens to be the case that you are indeed “from away” (that you’re from anywhere but Cape Breton Island), and yet you are still interested in learning more about the vocabulary of Cape Breton English, I am including a video which features two of the Island’s well known popular media figures, Justine Williamson and Greg Vardy (otherwise known as Tracy and Martina). In this video, the duo introduce a number of Cape Bretonisms to people unfamiliar with the Island’s vocabulary; and there are also a few colloquial/slang terms included which have escaped the official record of DCBE. I hope youse enjoy it!
This piece is part of the series Englishes in the Maritimes.
References
Davey, W.J; Mackinnon R.P. (2016). Dictionary of Cape Breton English. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.