The rich heritage of Newfoundland English, influenced by the dialects of the English, Irish, and Scottish immigrants to the province, receives well-deserved attention in this well-crafted dictionary. Author R. A. Bragg aims to elevate Newfoundland English from being thought of as mere slang or accent to a standardized language, and to preserve the heritage of North America’s first English language for the future.

This dictionary offers both Newfy to English and English to Newfy translations with 1,500 fully annotated entries. The dictionary is completed by usage and pronunciation guides that present a regularized language structure, as well as three maps. As this dictionary shows, traditional Newfy talk is unique, relevant, and altogether “wunnerfo.”

A sixth-generation descendant of southwest Newfoundland, Russell A. Bragg, BA, BEd, MA (Linguistics), National Marshall McLuhan Fellow, claims Suffolk, West Country, Scots Argyll, Channel Islands, and Bay St. George Mi’kmaw ancestry. A graduate thesis on Mi’kmaw at Memorial University, a professional career in coastal Newfoundland, a 600-page science fiction novel in the USA, and introductions to the 2013 republishing of Rev. Dr. Silas T. Rand’s Dictionary of the Language of the Micmac Indians and Jeremiah S. Clark’s Micmac Dictionary preceded Traditional Newfy Talk. Russell lives in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia.

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