Mapping Lexical Variants in Newfoundland English

Abstract

This paper reports on an attempt to produce areal displays of some lexical variants collected in the preliminary fieldwork for SAVINE (Survey of Areal Variations in Newfoundland English). We attempted to interview six older informants (three male, three female) in each of twenty communities. We divided the province into ten areas (based largely on our previous work on phonological and grammatical variation); a smaller or more rural (R-type) and a larger or more urban (U-type) community was utilized in each area. We found that one cannot easily read a map containing all the responses in cases where there are several variants. We present two "solutions" to this problem-one involves subgrouping the variants on separate maps, another involves displaying the variants on a graph of frequency versus locality. The former solution enables one to concentrate on the distribution of particular variants; the latter solution distinguishes single-variant, transitional, and mixed areas. The lexical variants tend to confirm our previous areal divisions based on phonology and grammar. However, the lexical situation reveals additional areal complexities, which may be conditioned by spatial, temporal, social, and ecological factors. The use of six informants per community improves our picture of areal transitions and reveals the (areal) complementary distribution of variants.¹