stress in the word "Newfoundland"

[Gavril]

Hello,

I was in Newfoundland (Canada) this past week, and on at least one occasion, I heard a local person pronounce the word "Newfoundland" with stress on the final syllable ("-land") rather than the initial syllable, as I had been used to. In this person's pronunciation, the vowel of "-land" remained [æ] rather than contracting to schwa.

Another local person pronounced the word "Newfoundlander" with stress on the "-land-", but that may be the standard way of stressing that word (I haven't heard "Newfoundlander" used often enough to know).

Is it common across Newfoundland to pronounce the name of the province with final stress, rather than initial stress?

 

[tepatria]

There are many ways to pronounce Newfoundland and all seem to be accepted. I've heard New found land, New fund land, New fund land, New fund land and Newfoundland (where the found part it pretty slurred). I'd say go with the Newfies.They certainly should know how to say their name!

 

[natkretep]

My only contact from Newfoundland says Newfəndlənd - where ə = uh.

 

[Giorgio Spizzi]

Hullo, Nat.

Your contact's pronunciation is an orgy of schwas . My old Daniel Jones's English Pronouncing Dictionary gives me [ˌnju:f(ə)ndˈlænd ] as the local form and the nautical pronunciation in England. Also the positioning of the primary stress (on "land") and of the secondary stress (on "new") are slightly different.
It is possible that your indigenous friend is right and D.J. wrong, of course.

GS

 

[natkretep]

Only one pronunciation? Collins shows:

ˈnjuːfəndlənd, -fənlənd, -ˌlænd, njuːˈfaʊndlənd

Random House shows:

/ˈnufənlənd, -ˌlænd, -fənd-, ˈnyu-; nuˈfaʊndlənd, nyu-/

Interesting that both give the schwa-ful version first. The version with the (primary) stress on land is not indicated!

 

[AquisM]

Not that I've met any Newfoundlanders before, but I have always pronounced it as (and heard it pronounced as) new-fund-lund /njuːfəndlənd/, like Natkretep. I have never heard of these alternative pronunciations. :O

 

[ewie]

I've heard it pronounced 43 different ways. Every time I say it, it comes out differently

 

[exgerman]

I don't know about the locals, but the rest of North America says /nuː/, not /njuː/, wherever the accent is. I personally use it with accent on the first or the last syllable interchangeably.

 

[Daican]

According to the OED the valid pronunciations are
Brit. /ˈnjuːfn(d)lənd/ , /ˌnjuːˈfaʊn(d)lənd/ ,
U.S. /ˈn(j)ufən(d)lən(d)/ , /ˈn(j)ufən(d)ˌlænd/ , /ˌn(j)uˈfaʊn(d)lənd/ , /ˌn(j)ufənˈlænd/

but in this case I would give priority to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary which lists:


ˌnuːfəndˈland ˈnuːfəndlənd ˈnuːfəndland njuːˈfaundlənd

Personally I only heard the versions with the schwa in the middle syllable when growing up, but have heard the emphasised found from time to time.

 

[PaulQ]

The essence of the pronunciation is to avoid the name sounding like: "An island has been discovered. This new found land will be called PaulQ Island."