The English of Newfoundland offers intriguing opportunities for the study of salience, identity, and rapid sociolinguistic change. The province is linguistically homogenous; nearly all inhabitants speak only English, a distinct local variety derived from dialects spoken by migrants from southwest England and southeast Ireland. Some residents still identify as having English or Irish roots, despite virtually no immigration since the 1830s. Newfoundland was relatively isolated until the mid-20th century, when World War II brought an influx of Canadian and American troops, and, in 1949, Newfoundland became part of Canada. These events began a period of resettlement and urbanization that included an overhauling of the school system and the development of offshore oil resources. Perhaps the most significant event in recent years has been the cod moratorium of 1992; its imposition forced many Newfoundlanders to abandon their traditional ways of life, causing outport communities to decline.

Today, traditional linguistic variables compete with newer linguistic forms, and linguistic choices figure prominently in residents’ representations of self and place. In these situations, locally salient variables become vital evidence for understanding the ways in which speakers’ orientations reflect changing social norms. To determine how locally salient variables function as indicators of linguistic change, we investigate one phonological and one syntactic variable, both of which are stereotypical of Newfoundland English: the stopping of interdentals (eg this thing as dis ting) and nonstandard verbal s-marking (eg You knows it). These features are regarded as indexers of affiliation with Newfoundland and also remain an active part of traditional rural speech.