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“Aren’t We Proud of Our Language?”
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English Linguistics
''Aren't We Proud of Our Language?'': Authenticity, Commodification, and

the Nissan Bonavista Television Commercial
Ruth King and Jennifer Wicks
Journal of English Linguistics 2009 37: 262 originally published online 26 June 2009
DOI: 10.1177/0075424209339924
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Authenticity, Commodification, and the

Nissan Bonavista Television Commercial
Ruth King
York University, Toronto, Canada
Jennifer Wicks
University of Toronto, Canada
This article involves an analysis of a television commercial set in rural Newfoundland,

Canada in which the main actor’s performance of Vernacular Newfoundland English is
accompanied by subtitles consisting of ostensibly humorous nonparallelisms rendered
in Standard English. The discursive strategy employed by the ad’s creators, of high-
lighting difference, “others” the character and by extension actual speakers of the local
variety. The appearance of the commercial on national television resulted in intense
debate, particularly in Newfoundland and to some extent in mainland Canada. A video
parody responding to the original commercial and an online discussion of the issues on
a variety of Web sites are also analyzed. The debate focuses on (in)authenticity (in
particular, on who has the right to perform the vernacular) and on the commodification
of regional language and culture in media representations.
Keywords: authenticity; Canadian English; commodification; Newfoundland English;

parody; television commercials; tourism and discourse
O ver a thirty-day period in the fall of 2006, a commercial for a new Nissan sport
utility vehicle (SUV), named the Nissan Bonavista after a small town on the
northeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada, was aired on all major Canadian televi-
sion networks. The town, with a present-day population of just under four thousand
(Statistics Canada 2008), has historical significance as the site of the Italian seafarer
Giovanni Caboto’s “discovery” of North America in 1497 while under contract to
Authors’ Note: This article is based on a paper presented at Sociolinguistics Symposium 17, held in
Amsterdam in April 2008. We thank the other members of the Media Representations of Minority
Languages workshop—Joan Beal, Sandra Clarke, Philip Comeau, Nik Coupland, Philip Hiscock, and
Barbara Johnstone—along with audience members for many comments and useful suggestions. We also
thank this journal’s editors, Anne Curzan and Robin Queen, along with an anonymous reviewer, for their
comments on a draft of the present article. Special thanks to Gary Butler for discussion of issues around
Newfoundland identity and to Sandra Clarke for discussion of features of Vernacular Newfoundland
English. The order of author names is alphabetical. All errors are their own.
262
King, Wicks / Vernacular Newfoundland English 263
England’s King Henry VII, and it is today a popular tourist site. In the commercial,
a local car salesperson, ostensibly speaking Vernacular Newfoundland English
(hereafter VNE), extols the SUV’s virtues to a potential buyer; the salesperson’s
pitch is subtitled in Standard English. The commercial immediately became subject
to intense debate, in Newfoundland and in mainland Canada as well. Complaints
were made to the Nissan company, to the networks, and to their regional affiliates in
Newfoundland. Negative appraisals, focusing on regional stereotyping, also appeared
in local and national newspapers and in numerous online forums. On the other hand,
many other online contributions to the debate regarded the commercial in a favor-
able light, arguing for pride in one’s (linguistic) heritage and the ability to take a
joke, a theme that had emerged in earlier research by King and Clarke (2002) on the
contested nature of Newfoundland identity.
In this article, we analyze the original Nissan television commercial, one of the
video parodies it engendered, and the online debate that took place on a number of
Web sites in the period coinciding with and immediately following the commercial’s
run. We first contextualize this debate as one in a long line of disputes surrounding
Newfoundland identity, this one played out in a number of media. As Jaffe (2007:
149-172) notes, “Media broadcasts in minority language contexts are never ‘just’
about communication or entertainment: they are always interpreted as representa-
tions of language within politically and ideologically charged frameworks.” We look
at how a minority dialect is commodified in the original commercial as a means of
selling a product and at how one particular parody of the commercial responds to
that commodification. We consider the recurring tropes of evaluation of the com-
mercial in a variety of online forums, responses that debate the (in)authenticity of
the commercial’s representation of VNE and its speakers. Central to the debate is the
right to perform the vernacular: the fact that the actor is nonlocal is a major theme
in the discussion that followed the commercial’s airing. The responses also add a
new dimension to the issue of commodification of the local variety, specifically the
link made by some commentators between the commercial and representations of
Newfoundland in the promotion of heritage tourism.
Newfoundland and Newfoundland English
The island of Newfoundland is a former British colony that became, along

with mainland Labrador, a province of Canada in 1949. Settled by working-class
West Country English and southeast Irish migrants from as early as the seventeenth
century, Newfoundland retains distinctive regional culture and dialect features
(Clarke 2004a, 2004b). However, both have long been the subject of mainland
Canadian ridicule. As a number of writers, including Byrne (1997, 1999) and King
and Clarke (2002), have maintained, since 1949 Newfoundland has been stereo-
typed as follows:
264 Journal of English Linguistics
a place out of step with time, inhabited by the numbskull figure of the Newfie joke, too
stupid to realize his own ineptitude and alien status versus mainstream North American
society, but eternally happy, embarrassingly hospitable, and full of fun, deferential to
his betters (read any non-Newfoundlander), but fiercely proud of his homeland and
way of life. (Byrne 1997:238)
This place is inhabited by “Newfies,” originally an out-group label used to refer to

native Newfoundlanders by British, Canadian, and American military personnel
stationed in Newfoundland during World War II (Story, Kirwin, & Widdowson 1982,
cited in King & Clarke 2002:540). Today the label is used by some Newfound
landers themselves, in particular expatriates, and it has been the subject of fierce
debate in recent years. The struggle over “Newfie” is the subject of a study by King
and Clarke (2002), who consider use of the label both in Newfoundland and in main-
land Canada along with reactions to its use. Three in-group positions emerge: for
some Newfoundlanders, Newfie is a positive term, a source of pride; for others it
should be used by and to members of the in-group only; and for still others it is an
ethnic slur.1 King and Clarke document the relationship between attitudes toward the
group label and toward cultural practices such as the “Newfie joke” (the brunt of
such jokes is the numbskull figure identified with other groups elsewhere).
Along with the Newfie joke, there are a number of related cultural practices in the
(re)production of the Newfie construct, which is sometimes labeled “Newfie-ism”
(see Byrne 1997, 1999; Chafe 2007). (Newfie-ism is also in use in Newfoundland
today in nonacademic contexts to refer to a type of oppression comparable to sexism
and racism.) Since the 1970s, cheap Jamaica rum has been sold under the label
“Screech” and summer tourism involves the “Screech-in,” in which “come-from-
away” inductees become honorary Newfies after drinking the rum, kissing a codfish,
and reciting a few phrases in stylized VNE.2 Newfie joke books produced by various
local entrepreneurs were popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and Newfie jokes still pro-
liferate on the Internet. The ensuing decades have also spawned a variety of consumer
items aimed at tourists that exploit the stereotype of the stupid Newfie: the Newfie
rolling pin (it is square), the Newfie mug (the handle is inside), and so on. This theme
is continued on a variety of Internet sites, where images related to Newfie-ism
abound: for example, the Newfie light fixture (a light bulb hanging from a coat
hanger suspended from the ceiling) and the Newfie revolver (the barrel is pointed
toward the shooter). At the time of writing, these images could still be found on such
Web sites as Joe-ks (http://www.joe-ks.com/newfie.htm). There is even a French–
English bilingual version of the Newfie revolver at http://www.lino.com/~jforcier/
jokes/revolver.html. As we shall see below, attitudes toward the Nissan Bonavista
commercial are closely associated with attitudes toward Newfie and Newfie-ism and,
by extension, particular understandings of Newfoundland identity.
Part of the stereotyping of Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders centers on lan-
guage, as evidenced by the role of language in the Screech-in. Pringle (1985) has
suggested that Newfoundland English is one of three stereotyped accents in Canada,

and language attitude surveys conducted in Newfoundland (Clarke 1981) and in
mainland Canada (McKinnie & Dailey-O’Cain 2002) report negative evaluations of
Newfoundland English and its speakers. Indeed, Newfoundland varieties of English,
distinct from mainland Canadian vernaculars (see Clarke & Hiscock 2009),3 remain
heavily stigmatized, to the point that, as Clarke notes,
After years of hearing in school that their speech is “incorrect,” it is difficult for uni-
versity educated students to become convinced of even such basic linguistic facts as
that local non-standard varieties are legitimate linguistic systems, that they really do
have a logical and coherent grammatical structure, and that such varieties are simply
“different” from standard ones, rather than deficient. (Clarke 1998:17)
Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders continue to be disparaged almost sixty

years after the province joined Canada. For instance, a recent research report on
strengthening and renewing Newfoundland’s place within Canada found that the
most common stereotypes of Newfoundlanders held by mainland Canadians include
“uneducated/stupid/unskilled/unsophisticated.” Newfoundlanders themselves main-
tained that mainland Canadians considered them “stupid.” Some 22 percent of
Newfoundlanders surveyed suggested that “lazy/don’t work/don’t want to work”
was the most common stereotype held by mainlanders (Ryan Research &
Communications 2003:428).
Traditional employment, centering on the fishery, has declined to the point that
local author Bernice Morgan in her 1994 novel Waiting for Time describes New
foundlanders as “the country’s greatest reserve labour pool [treated as] Canada’s
Okies” (quoted in Morgan 1994:208, cited by Byrne). Today, Newfoundlanders seek
employment in the province of Alberta’s oil and gas industries.4 Some become expa-
triates, while others commute to their home communities, with several weeks away
rotating with weeks at home. The pattern of outmigration has become so intense that
the province lost 10 percent of its population between 1991 and 2001; recent years
have seen the death rate exceed the birth rate (Statistics Canada 2008).
There is some cause for optimism as the province develops its own oil and gas
industry: 2007 marked the first population gains in sixteen years (Statistics Canada
2008) and the lowest unemployment rates in twenty-six years (Government of
Newfoundland & Labrador 2008). However, most of the demographic and financial
gains are found in the relatively populous Avalon peninsula, where the provincial
capital, St. John’s, is located. As Murphy (2008) notes, “There are two Newfound
lands. The capital city and environs are in a fever of development, while vast
stretches of coastal communities are inert and underpopulated, mere phantoms of
what once they were.” It is in this context, a longstanding pattern of outmigration
and a large expatriate population, denigration of Newfoundlanders and VNE in main-
land Canada,5 and differing attitudes on the part of Newfoundlanders themselves
toward Newfie-ism, that debates such as the one described below take place.
The Nissan Bonavista Commercial: Chronology
Launched in 2006, the X-Trail Bonavista SUV was described by Nissan as a

“special edition value-added product” (i.e., it includes extra features offered with
little or no extra cost to the consumer). The name follows Nissan Canada’s practice
of naming products after particular areas of the country (previous campaigns had
focused on western and northern Canada, with vehicles called the Chilkoot Trail,
the Chinook, and the Klondike). According to Derek Lunghino, corporate manager,
marketing operations for Nissan Canada, the television advertisement for the
Nissan X-Trail Bonavista was created by TBWA Chiat/Day advertising agency, a
Toronto-based company that Nissan had previously employed to create commer-
cials for the luxury brand Infinity (personal communication, 28 June 2007). The
vehicle name was created by a product planner, Jill Young, a Nissan employee
originally from Newfoundland. Working in conjunction with TBWA Chiat/Day,
Young also assisted with the content of the television advertisement and was part
of the marketing team that approved the final version of the commercial. According
to Lunghino, the intent was to create a “funny” commercial, and the team was
happy to have an actual Newfoundlander working on the project, giving them
access to an insider perspective on the region.
The sixty-day promotional campaign included thirty days of television advertise-
ment. Nissan purchased full network access: just about every major station in
Canada airing shows in Nissan’s targeted demographic, “Gen-X families,” ran the
commercial.6 Lunghino also noted that Nissan received what he termed “over-
whelming” response to the commercial through their consumer affairs line. He
estimated that approximately 75 percent of this feedback was positive, with negative
feedback coming solely from Newfoundlanders, particularly from what he described
as “the older population.” He reported that Nissan’s staff developed a response to
written complaints only, in which it was stated that the intent of the advertisement
was to have fun and sell cars, not to offend. The response also stated that the ad
would only air for a total of thirty days. It did not address the concern of many of
the commercial’s critics, such as the perceived inauthenticity of the representation
of Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders in the commercial, discussed below.
The Original Commercial
Central to the overwhelming response to the original commercial, both positive

and negative, was the salesperson–actor’s attempt at the local vernacular. While
subtitling regional varieties is not unique to this context (incidents of subtitling of
Scots dialect speakers on British television and of Bavarian speakers on German
television are cases in point) nor uncontroversial more generally, this instance goes
a step further in that the speaker’s actual words are not translated but rephrased in
more mainstream English, heightening the distance between the local variety and
normative English and, by extension, between Newfoundlanders and mainland
Canadians. For instance, the traditional greeting “How’s she getting on?” is rendered
simply as “Hi,” ostensibly for comic effect (in line 1 of example (1) below). That
such subtitling would be necessary or interpretable to Canadian viewers was justi-
fied in the words of one blogger as follows: “In Canada, the NL accent has a reputa-
tion for being unintelligible” (MichaelMcKinlay.com 2007; also see Clarke &
Hiscock 2009). However, claims of uninterpretability are not supported by empirical
evidence: speakers of standard Canadian English appear to have no more trouble
understanding VNE than do standard speakers of British English for distinctive
regional varieties such as the northern English dialects discussed by Beal (2009).
The full transcript of the commercial is given in (1). We reproduce lexical, morpho-
logical, and syntactic features in the transcript and present phonological features in
the discussion that follows.7
(1)
Dialogue Subtitles
Car salesperson:
How’s she getting on, me son? –hi
She was born and bred back home, eh? –Inspired by beautiful Newfoundland
She’s called the Nissan X-Trail Bonavista. –It’s the Nissan X-Trail Bonavista Edition
Take a gander at that Pana Roof, buddy. –The Pana® Roof . . .
If that don’t put a gust in your spinnaker, –It’s cool.
I don’t know what would.
And look at the wheels on her, eh? –17 inch alloy wheels
She got enough alloy on her to fill a bucket –Exceptional!
She got the climate control on the inside –Automatic climate control . . .
in case you got the mother-in-law along with –heated seats . . .
eh [widə].
You gotta haul and you gotta wash her and all
You got the washable floorboard in the back. –and washable cargo area . . .
Like me mother always said –make it pretty versatile.
She said, “You got a single line you can add two hooks.” –It’s a great deal.
Customer:
I’ll take it. –Lord thundering!
The actor’s performance involves a fair approximation of VNE. He employs a

number of features of colloquial English worldwide, such as the pronunciation of
interdental fricatives as alveolar stops (e.g., that [ðæt]), use of an alveolar nasal
instead of a velar one (e.g., getting [gɛtņ]), and consonant cluster simplification
(e.g., gust [gʌs]). He refers to the vehicle itself in the feminine, following traditional
gender assignment in West Country–origin varieties of English and indeed many
colloquial varieties of English worldwide. He employs the traditional Newfoundland
greeting, “How’s she getting on, me son?” with the (unstressed) possessive form of
“me,” a feature which VNE shares with a number of vernacular varieties of English.
However, the actor deletes word-initial [h] across the board, not only in environ-
ments where it is indeed deleted in VNE, such as when the preceding word ends in
a consonant (back home, on her, wash her), but also in an environment that typically
favors [h] presence (two hooks), that is, intervocalically, when the second syllable is
stressed (Clarke 2004b). Furthermore, where VNE has fronted and raised realiza-
tions of /a/, the actor tends to back and sometimes round the vowel, as in on [ɑn] or
[ɒn] (Clarke 2004b).
At the level of collocation, the expression “put a gust in your spinnaker” is not
local; indeed, many Newfoundlanders whom we polled were not entirely sure of
what a “spinnaker” actually was. On the other hand, a well-known expression, “Lord
thundering,” which is typically used as an expression of intense emotion, including
surprise, fright, and so on, is an odd translation for the car buyer’s neutrally rendered
“I’ll take it” but is entirely consistent with the discursive strategy employed by the
ad’s creators of highlighting difference. As Newfoundlanders ourselves, we hear the
actor’s performance as involving a generalized accent more resembling one found in
parts of Canada’s neighboring Maritime Provinces than in Newfoundland.8 The com-
bination of the actor’s language use and accompanying subtitling presents VNE as
incomprehensible, hyberbolic, and exotic, with the effect of “othering” the car sales-
person as well as Newfoundlanders more generally (cf. Jaworski 2007). The over-
generalized nature of the representation is taken up in criticism of the commercial,
both in the video parody and in the discussion board data discussed below.
The Parody
A video parody aired not long after the initial airing of the commercial.9 The com-
mercial, made for a St. John’s car dealership, O’Neill Motors, starred Pete Soucy and
was intended solely for Newfoundland audiences. Soucy is a local actor well known
for portraying Snook, a smart-talking downtown St. John’s “character,” the “corner
boy.” Snook is shown standing in front of a new Nissan compact (not an SUV) at
the dealership. As shown by the transcript in (2), Snook gets at the heart of much
local criticism of the commercial. Note that the text here was produced by Soucy
himself (personal communication, August 2007).10
(2)
Monologue Subtitles
How you getting on?
Listen, the Cape Breton Bonavista buddy couldn’t –he’s in hospital . . . Dougie put him there.
make it.
So the boys calls me up to tell you about this nifty –wicked car
Nissan Versa.
Only $14,498 at O’Neill Motors on Topsail Road. –wicked deal / Nissan Versa $14,498
Right roomy, too.
I said, “Right on!”
High time you went local there, two hooks!
I’ll take it. (laughs) –wicked altogether
Snook’s opening “How you getting on?” echoes the first line of the regular com-
mercial but addresses the viewer. Unlike the case of the original commercial, the
subtitles here elaborate on Snook’s monologue. One source of comment from the
initial airing of the original commercial was that the actor didn’t (quite) sound like
a Newfoundlander: it was soon revealed that the actor was actually from neighboring
Cape Breton, part of the province of Nova Scotia. In the parody, Snook announces
that he is doing the commercial because “the Cape Breton Bonavista buddy couldn’t
make it.” This is the first in a series of instances of intertextuality with the commer-
cial that create the platform for the video’s critique. The subtitle here gives the rea-
son for this: “He’s in hospital . . . Dougie put him there.” Since Dougie is another
“corner boy” to whom Snook often refers in his monologues, this is a reference that
local viewers would understand. Snook goes on to extol the car’s virtues, as in the
original, but with subtitles repeating that the car, the price, everything, is “wicked.”
Snook himself, the lone actor in the commercial, decides to buy one, and then edi-
torializes, “High time you went local there, two hooks,” again drawing our attention
to the sentiment that the actor should have been a Newfoundlander and referencing
the last line of the original commercial, with the dispreferred rendering of two hooks
with [h] absence. Throughout, Snook uses the general colloquial English phono-
logical features noted in the commercial itself and also indexes Newfoundland
identity through his use of verbal –s (“the boys calls me up”), perhaps the most
stereotyped feature of VNE (see Clarke 1997; Clarke & Hiscock 2009; van Herk &
Childs 2008). While the original commercial may succeed in othering
Newfoundlanders, the parody targets the commercial’s original performer/
performance while at the same time validating the local variety.
Since beginning our work on this topic, we have played the commercial and the
parody for a variety of non-Newfoundland audiences, including graduate seminar
participants and conference audiences. While many find the original funny or
embarrassing, or both, the parody tends to be impenetrable, perhaps largely because
it requires local knowledge. While the original commercial plays on difference, the
parody is a culturally rich text that relies on shared understanding. The right to per-
form as a local is clearly linked to the notion of authenticity (cf. Coupland 2003;
Bucholtz 2003; among many others), is the parody’s central theme, and, as we shall
see below, is a theme taken up by commentators in other media.
The Blogs
Authenticity is the theme of our third source of data, Web sites that contain com-
mentary on the television commercial, dating from the first week of September 2006
and continuing to the present. The bulk of the data are from September to November
2006, the time period when the commercial ran. The online forums include a
response site provided by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) titled Your
Table 1
Web Sites Containing Commentary on the Nissan Bonavista Commercial
Number
Web Site Name or Host Type of Site Feedback Format of Postsa
YouTube (3 videos: original Video sharing Comments from site visitors in 169
ad; 2 video parodies) response to video
Product of Newfoundland Personal blog Comments from site visitors in 126
response to original post
John Gushue . . . dot Personal blog Comments from site visitors in 39
dot dot response to original post
Canadian Broadcasting Mainstream Comments from site visitors in 23
Corporation (CBC), news response to article “Tongues wag
Your View in Bonavista over Nissan ad”
Oh me nerves! Personal blog Comments from site visitors in 18
Car Talk Canada Automotive site Comments from site visitors in 7 (44 in total;
response to article 7 pertaining
to the ad)
Hypergraffiti Personal blog Comments from site visitors in 5 (7 in total;
response to original post 5 pertaining
to the ad)
Michael McKinlay Personal blog Comments from site visitors in 3
Tina Chaulk Personal blog Comments from site visitors in 2
a. Number of posts at the time of analysis. Some of these sites closed on a specific date (e.g., CBC Your
View), whereas others (e.g., YouTube) remain open for comments indefinitely.
View, specialist and niche sites, personal blogs, and YouTube. Table 1 provides an
overview of the data sources.
The personal blog discussion forums are for the most part hosted by Newfoundland
residents or expatriates, as evidenced by such blog names as Product of New
foundland and Townie Bastard (residents of St. John’s, Newfoundland’s capital
city, refer to themselves and are referred to by other Newfoundlanders as “Townies”)
or by biographical information either present on the site or obtained from the site’s
host. The personal blog and specialist or niche site posts date from September to
November 2006. While the YouTube videos still drew commentary two and a half
years after the commercial ran, we concentrate here on posts from fall 2006 or
shortly thereafter. In total, we analyzed close to four hundred posts, taking into
account the nature of the site itself, the disclosed characteristics of the person
posting (e.g., non-Newfoundlander, expatriate Newfoundlander, Newfoundland
resident), attitudes expressed toward the commercial, and themes raised in the post.
We focus here on common themes found in individual postings but turn at
the end to a consideration of the threads in which they are embedded. As we shall
see, these themes all relate in some way to the notion of authenticity.
The Biographical Statement

Across all sites, many participants begin their posts with their personal history
relative to Newfoundland, which we interpret as a strategy for establishing their
right to speak. For example, 68 out of 126 posts on Product of Newfoundland
contain such a statement, as do 66 out of 169 on YouTube. While the electronic
context might be argued to lead one to explicitly highlight contextual factors (more
so than in face-to-face interaction), our finding is similar to that of Johnstone and
Baumgardt (2004:125) in their study of online discussion of Pittsburghese: “Parti
cipants often use personal-experience narratives to establish their right to speak by
virtue of their ‘local knowledge’ and as inductive support of evaluations of local
speech.” Although in our data we find full-fledged narratives in only a minority of
cases, aspects of one’s personal history relative to Newfoundland and Newfound
landers are typically mentioned at the outset.11 These statements, from Newfoundland
residents, expatriates, and non-Newfoundlanders, range from residing in a commu
nity a fifteen-minutes drive from the town of Bonavista (3) to having a boss raised
in the provincial capital (8).
(3) I am from catalina, Newfoundland which is about 15mins from bonavista and went
to school in bonavista. . . . (justinmason2004, YouTube, October 2006)12
(4) I am a Newfoundlander who lives away from home and not by choice. (Anon,
Product of Newfoundland, 8 September 2006)
(5) As an expat living in Ottawa . . . (Gerry, YouTube, October 2006)
(6) I married a Newfie . . . I am born and raised in Alberta but spent 4 years in
Newfoundland. (Hjhiscock, Product of Newfoundland, 21 September 2006)
(7) I have worked with many “Newfies” in construction and not one of them were
self-conscious about or made apologies for their accent. (Carl from Calgary, CBC:
Your View, 18 September 2006)
(8) Incidentally, my boss, who was raised in St. John’s, laughed his head off when he
saw it. (Daryl from Edmonton, CBC: Your View, 18 September 2006)
In the above, posters establish their authority as commentators by announcing their

relationship to Newfoundland, whether in terms of birth, kin, acquaintances, and/or
geography.
Feature Dropping
Also similar to a finding of Johnstone and Baumgardt’s (2004:115) study is the
use of the discursive strategy these authors refer to as “feature dropping” (i.e.,
attempting to write in the local vernacular), which they argue is a means by which
participants demonstrate their right to evaluate through the display of their knowl-
edge of the local dialect. Johnstone and Baumgardt add that feature dropping also
serves as a means by which rapport is built with other participants. In the Nissan
case, we find that feature dropping is employed by some of those contributors who
have a positive attitude toward the commercial. As our examples below show, fea-
ture dropping is used by Newfoundland respondents, as in (9) and (10), and also by
non-Newfoundlanders who “catch [themselves] with a slight dialect,” as in (11).
Newfoundlanders or not, feature droppers declare their knowledge of the culture and
both their ability and right to judge. Feature dropping is almost entirely confined to
people with a positive view of the commercial.
(9) I’m a Newfie, barn n bred an I finds dis good fer a laugh! (colinlxi, YouTube,
September 2006)
(10) I tinks its absolutely deadly that dey got da rigg [i.e., the vehicle] to represent
Newfoundland. (Andrew Benson, John Gushue . . . dot dot dot, 11 September
2006)
(11) Their dialect is so cool, and often my husband and I catch ourselves with a slight
dialect. Enjoy the commercial folks, don’t overanalyze. Lard tundarin’ jesus der
mi cocky, she’s funny! (Anon, Product of Newfoundland, 9 September 2006)
The writer in (9) quotes a phrase from the original commercial, “barn n bred”
(< born and bred) and represents orthographic <th> with an alveolar stop “d.” She
or he also uses the VNE verbal –s pattern in “I finds.” The writer in (10) uses similar
features, using alveolar stops instead of orthographic <th> (“tinks” for <thinks> and
“dey” and “da” for <they> and <the>, respectively) along with employing verbal –s
(“I tinks”). Interestingly, the features used, by the Newfoundland participants at
least, figure among the set of performable features discussed by Clarke and Hiscock
(2009) and are also found in the original commercial and in the parody. The non-
Newfoundlander in (11) also quotes from the ad itself, “Lard tundarin,” used here
with a different function than in the original, and employs a common VNE expres-
sion “mi cocky,” that is, “me cocky,” typically used with reference to (and used by)
Newfoundland males (Young 2006). As part of the Screech-in ceremony mentioned
above, tourists must repeat several phrases in stylized VNE to become “honorary
Newfies,” including “me cocky” or “me old cock.” The utterance here thus parallels
the exaggerated version of VNE used in such ceremonies. This
contributor resembles a number of other non-Newfoundlanders who use feature
dropping in that they mimic the language of the commercial (“Lard tundarin’” is a
popular choice).
However, the use of the feminine gender here to refer to the commercial itself
(“she’s funny”) is decidedly odd. A number of scholars have documented the assign-
ment of feminine gender to boats and indeed to vehicles in general in VNE and in
West Country source dialects (Paddock 1982; Wagner 2003). Clarke (forthcoming)
notes that the feminine may also be used to refer to an ongoing situation or context
at hand and in traditional expressions such as “she’s gone, boy, she’s gone” (where
“she” might refer to the old way of life, the economic decline, etc.).13 We interpret
this particular instance of feature dropping as a case of overgeneralization of femi-

nine gender assignment on the part of a non-Newfoundlander. Such overgeneraliza-
tion is reminiscent of the linguistic behavior of young white adolescent males
crossing into African American Vernacular English, whose linguistic usage has been
explored by a number of researchers, including Bucholtz (1999) and Cutler (1999).
Crossing, of course, is also involved in the Screech-in ritual aimed at tourists and
may also be extended to some non-Newfoundlanders’ online comments, as clearly
is the case here.14
The Actor’s Performance

A major focus of the blogs is stereotyping, including linguistic stereotyping,
specifically whether or not an “authentic” version of Newfoundland and New
foundlanders is represented in the commercial. Much of the commentary here arises
from the fact that the car salesperson is played by a non-Newfoundlander. The
following quotations are from discussants who are not themselves negatively
predisposed toward the commercial but disapprove nonetheless of the use of a
non-Newfoundland actor:
(12) Nissan’s use of a non-Newfoundland actor seems like exploitation of an ethnic

stereotype. (Christine from Montreal, CBC: Your View, 15 September 2006)
(13) Some people will always been offended. I think it’s a good commercial and a
good-natured one. Though it would be much funnier if they had a real Newfound
lander doing it. (Phillip, Oh me nerves!, 11 September 2006)
(14) Bummer on picking a Nova Scotian though to portray the Newfie. Every Newfie
caught that one. (Mr H from Canada, CBC: Your View, 16 September 2006)
Other discussants, both Newfoundlanders and non-Newfoundlanders alike, men-

tion their difficulty in understanding the car salesperson. While they do not articulate
what exactly is “wrong” with his speech, they recognize it as not being Newfoundland
English. However, for the Newfoundland expatriate writer in (17), lack of under-
standing does not, somewhat surprisingly, detract from her being “proud of our
language.” Although she or he claims that she or he “had to read the words to under-
stand the guy,” we note that the subtitles, consisting as they do of attempts at humor-
ous parallel utterances, do not in fact help in this regard.
(15) You idiots, I’m a Newfoundlander, and just to let you know, we don’t speak like
that. If you want to make a commercial on us, I suggest you achually come to
Newfoundland and do some research :/ ASSHOLES (paperclipsxx, YouTube,
May 2007)
(16) As a Newfoundlander, I cannot say that I am offended. However, I was left feel-
ing confused. I could barely understand a word this guy was saying. (Daniela, Oh
me nerves!, 14 September 2006)
(17) I’m from NF and i personally had to read the words to understand the guy but
aren’t we proud of our language. Everyone knows we talk with an accent. (Anon,
Product of Newfoundland, 24 September 2006)
The conflict between being “proud of our language” and viewing the commercial
as “inauthentic” may seem rather odd; however, “Newfie pride” is closely tied to the
idea of not taking things too seriously and having the ability to “laugh at ourselves.”
Note that the representation of VNE in the commercial is a theme that emerges on
the Newfoundland Web sites in particular, such as Product of Newfoundland and
John Gushue . . . dot dot dot, as might be expected given that most commentators
may be assumed to be Newfoundlanders or expatriates (as the remaining
Newfoundland sites had a small number of posts relating to the commercial, it is
difficult to speak of patterns).
The commercial’s subtitling is also the subject of commentary. The first poster
quoted below appreciates the use of subtitles, while the following two discussants
are offended. Note that the blogger in (18) is most likely a Newfoundlander or
Newfoundland expatriate, given his family name and the site on which he posts;
notice that the writer in (19), who self-identifies as a Newfoundlander, posting on
the same site, has a quite different reaction.
(18) Without the subtitles the commercial would have made no sense at all to those
who are not accustomed to the accent. Especially that last line that sounds like “if
you’ve got a single wine, you can have two oaks.” (Sean Foley, Product of
Newfoundland, 23 September 2006)
(19) THE SUBTITLES ARE OFFENSIVE. It should have the proper translation for
what the guys are saying, and if other people can’t understand that, than too bad,
because we don’t need anyone putting words in our mouths. (Pat, Product of
Newfoundland, 13 September 2006)
(20) I’m sorry, but I really do take offence to this commercial. It implies direct igno-
rance and sends a message to the entire country that our concept of the english
language is so ineligible that we need to be sub-titled and or translated. Not a
good thing!!!! (copitt, YouTube, March 2007)
Commentary on the actor’s performance and on subtitle use is thus typically

polarized on the discussion boards, as the examples given above illustrate.
Newfoundland Identity/ies
As noted above, the airing of the Nissan Bonavista commercial is hardly the first
incident to instigate a debate on Newfoundland language and culture. Fairly recent
incidents have included the very public refusal of the well-known Newfoundland
folk–rock band Great Big Sea to dress in traditional fisher costumes for a national
Canada Day (July 1) celebration in 1997 and the airing that same year of an episode
of Ellen DeGeneres’s old situation comedy, Ellen, in which a character utters an

anti-Newfie slur. At an international conference on dialectology (Methods X) held
in St. John’s in 1999, the presentation of the paper on which King and Clarke (2002)
is based—focusing as the paper did on differing opinions held with regard to the
Newfie label—even led to a flurry of debate in the local and national press. Evidence
that this debate continues to rage in Newfoundland is to be found in recent reactions
to “stupid Newfie” graffiti in downtown St. John’s. These reactions were expressed
in the 9 April 2009 print and online edition of the St. John’s arts and entertainment
newspaper The Scope.15
As King and Clarke (2002:548) note with respect to the group label Newfie,
“Proponents of Newfie typically link the term to pride and confidence and often
characterize those who oppose the label as small-minded. Such people are said to
‘fret’ over small matters and try to impose ‘political correctness.’” Such a stance
typically involves the suggestion that opponents to the term and related cultural
expressions lighten up. This same position is echoed in our data in reactions to the
Nissan Bonavista commercial, as the stereotypical ability to laugh at oneself and
not take such representations so seriously is invoked by many. There is a clear
link between positive attitudes toward the commercial and toward the label
Newfie. In (21) to (23) below, the term is used as a self-label; as (7) above shows,
the correlation also holds for non-Newfoundlanders. Note that CFA, an abbrevia-
tion of Come From Away found in (22), is a common label in the province for
non-Newfoundlanders.
(21) Get a life. I’m proud to be Newfie. I have the wonderful Newfie sense of humour
and I found this ad very funny. (Cin, Product of Newfoundland, 17 October
2006)
(22) We often make fun and tell jokes about ourselves, but once a CFA person tells a
joke about us or refers to us as newfies we get all up in arms . . . Grow up ya
crybabies, be a proud newfie and don’t take everything so serious. (Anon, Product
of Newfoundland, 8 September 2006)
(23) I am a newfie and proud to say we have a car named for one of our towns. I think
the commercial is great. It is sad to see that some of our fellow Newfies have lost
their ability to laugh at ourselves. (Anon, Product of Newfoundland, 9 September
2006)
(24) [in response to Nflders who criticized the ad] Do the rest of Canada a favour
Nfld . . . Grow up and get over yourselves. (Anon, Product of Newfoundland, 9
September 2006)
Some variation on this particular version of Newfoundland culture, this

Newfie-ism, is evoked by many of the procommercial commentators. Indeed, in
response to a polarized discussion between two contributors, another comments
as follows:
(25) There are two very distinct philosophies here—one being a Newfie group and the
other being a Newfoundlander group. (John Mutford, Product of Newfoundland,
9 September 2006)
This contributor alludes to the distinction between those who proudly claim the term
Newfie for themselves and those who are offended by the use of Newfie and thus
shun the term in favor of Newfoundlander. The observations made in the present
study indicate a similar division among those who liked the commercial (Newfies)
and those who were offended by its representation (Newfoundlanders). Another
contributor also comments on the group label as an ethnic slur:
(26) First of all, can we please stop calling ourselves “Newfies?” The same endearing
intent that we afford ourselves when we use this description of ourselves is NOT
the same those in Upper Canada feel when they use it. To them, it’s another “N”
word. One they feel they can use more freely to degrade a population they deem
defenseless in order to make themselves [feel] more important. Let’s stop doing
it to ourselves and letting others away with it at the same time! (Ian from NS,
Product of Newfoundland, 6 October 2006)
Such commentary is also typical of the earlier print media study (King & Clarke
2002). In the data analyzed for the present study, however, a new theme, related to
Newfoundland and Labrador’s tourist industry, emerges.
Tourism and the Commodification of Newfoundland Culture

The sociologist James Overton (1996) has documented the particular versions of
Newfoundland invented for tourism from the nineteenth century to the late twentieth
century. Peopled by a “hardy, fun-loving race” (according to a Department of
Tourism pamphlet of the mid-70s), the image of “Canada’s happy province” (as
1960s-era license plates proclaimed) has been replaced by a new present tourist
image of Newfoundland as a place out of time.
Precursors of the current tourist campaign date back to the early 1990s. In 1993,
a Government of Newfoundland and Labrador advertising campaign aired both in
the province and on the mainland promoted the following image of the province,
with the theme “Imagine That!”:
The place where the dawn breaks earliest. The New Year comes soonest. Where the
Atlantic meets the New World. The oldest city in North America. The Far East of the
Western World. Imagine that. (quoted in Whalen 1998:3)
As Whalen (1998:2) notes, “Tourism ads do more than encourage visitors to

come to a particular place; they come out of and feed into those interpretative prac-
tices that make a region visible to itself and others.” A more recent advertising
campaign that has been running since January 2006 likewise presents a romantic
picture of an isolated, traditional culture. One widely aired ad presents a coastal view
with, in the foreground, rickety, old clotheslines lined with handmade quilts, being
hung by an elderly, smiling woman. The voiceover asks, “Where is this place
exactly?” and then responds, “It’s about as far from Disneyland as you can possibly
get.” While most of the campaign is centered on rural themes, there is a more “mod-
ern,” urban version of the province presented in one ad shot in downtown St. John’s.
It features the popular band Great Big Sea playing to a packed house. Arguably, this
commercial plays on the stereotype of Newfoundlanders and their love of partying,
a modern instantiation of the happy, carefree Newfoundlander. The voiceover
intones, “As the sun goes down, the place goes up,” which leads immediately into
Great Big Sea front person Alan Doyle singing the chorus of one of the group’s big-
gest hits, the rollicking “Ordinary Day.” It should be noted, of course, that such
promotions are certainly not unique to Newfoundland. For instance, Heller (2003:478)
describes how the changing economic base in minority francophone areas of Canada
(like the changing economic base of Newfoundland) has resulted in “investing in
activities which capitalize on authentic cultural products in the context of an increas-
ing interest worldwide in heritage tourism.”
In the discussion board data, a proglobalization discourse (e.g., the stance that any
transmission of information about Newfoundland is good for tourism) emerges.
Many procommercial contributors to the forums take up this theme. They suggest that
Newfoundlanders should feel honored and proud to have their province featured on a
nationally aired television commercial. The writer in (27) implies that (any?) atten-
tion is better than no attention at all, while the writer in (29) explicitly references the
“world of difference” theme (Overton 1996) of the recent tourist ad campaigns.
(27) We live in a global village where it’s very difficult any presence on the world
stage . . . in my view, it’s nice to see a Newfoundland town get some atten-
tion . . . and be able to stand out vs blend in or even worse not be known at all.
(David from Michigan, CBC: Your View, 17 September 2006)
(28) It’s good for tourism. At least now once people hear of the X-trail, they will want
to know where Bonavista is, and be interested in seeing what it’s all about.
(Bonavista Girl, YouTube, October 2006)
(29) The more exposure Newfoundland gets as someplace “different”, the better for
tourism. I bet a lot of people would go to Newfoundland just to hear people talk
like that, it’s entertaining. (Pender, Oh me nerves!, 12 September 2006)
The commentators here tend to embrace the slick, picturesque advertisements

involved in recent Newfoundland heritage tourism, ads that invoke nostalgia for
a place lost in time, some place “different” where life is somehow more “real.”
For such commentators Newfoundland is a cultural commodity, if perhaps not as
egregiously packaged as the version more traditionally found in much pro-Newfie
discourse, such as items that play on the goofy Newfie stereotype (e.g., Newfie joke
products).
Critical Perspectives
As we have seen, fans of the Nissan Bonavista commercial typically associate
their position with Newfie pride and, as is the case with the writer in (30), contrast
those with dissenting opinions as being ashamed of being Newfies, evaluative tropes
found in other recent debates around Newfoundland identity/ies. A case could be
made that such a stance involves a reclamation or reappropriation of Newfie and
Newfie-ism. However, this would involve acknowledging that stereotypical repre-
sentations of Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders may cause or have caused
offense or that Newfie itself may be used or may have once been used in an insulting
fashion. Yet while some Newfoundlanders certainly do embrace Newfie, but as an
in-group label only (which may be viewed as reclamation), in the data examined
here there is rarely acknowledgment of any problem, past or present, beyond the
shame attributed to anti-Newfie commentators.
(30) A proud Newfie wouldn’t be ashamed of his accent. Why try to talk like someone
we aren’t? I wouldn’t change my accent for the world. It’s what makes me unique
from the rest of the world. (Bonavista Girl, YouTube, October 2006)
(31) People here need to stop being so offended . . . that to me shows more shame than
anything else. This is who we are. We do talk fast and we do use words that other
people, not from here, have never heard; people may or may not understand us,
but really, who cares?! (Erin, CBC: Your View, 15 September 2006)
However, participants who view the commercial negatively typically contextual-

ize it by referring to Newfoundland’s historic position as a marginalized culture, by
referencing portrayals of Newfoundland as “Canada’s retarded little brother,” as in
(31), or by comparing representations of Newfoundland ethnicity to those of other
ethnicities, as in (32):
(31) I’m glad I haven’t lost my newfie sense of haha over this, but I do understand
some being upset. Sometimes, Newfoundland can be portrayed as Canada’s
retarded little brother. (Sherry, Hypergraffitti, 10 September 2006)
(32) Hey Canada, What your reaction be if the same commercial was done with an
Indian or Pakistani accent? (Steve from Oakville, CBC: Your View, 18 September
2006)
Consider as well the following exchange around the issue of ethnicity, which took
place on YouTube. The first participant, in (33a), positions Newfoundlanders as a
marginalized group on a par with “blacks,” while the second commentator depoliti-
cizes the issue in (33b).
(33a) What would the reaction be if they put a black man in the Newfoundland role,
speaking in Ebonics, subtitled, to make the very clear point that the black man
could not speak proper English? Would that be considered funny? Would we tell
offended black people to lighten up? The end result would at least be cries of
racism and the commercial would be pulled from the air. We “Newfies” have
become the “jigger niggers” of Canada. (Thehellion, YouTube, October 2006)
(33b) I don’t think the point is that he can’t speak *proper* English; I think the point
is that we Newfoundlanders have a distinct dialect, one that “outsiders” can’t
always understand. Being unique and non-standard *doesn’t* equate with being
inferior. (Carlanime, YouTube, October 2006)
The next participant takes up the sense of humor theme in (33c), arguing that anyone
who cannot laugh at herself or himself “must not be a Newfie.”
(33c) I never ever met a Newfoundlander who couldn’t laugh at him/herself. Newfies
have the best sense of humour of any culture. You must not be a Newfie.
(Radmilamilinkov, YouTube, October 2006)
In (33d), the final participant in this thread brings in the distinction between laugh-
ing with and laughing at and returns to the comparison with other ethnic groups.
(33d) Newfoundlanders do laugh at themselves but does that mean, everytime some-
one’s makes fun of them they have to grin and bear it? You must recognize the
difference between insult and humour. If you are familiar with any of the numer-
ous accents and dialects on the island, you would be hard pressed to find one that
matches this accent. It would be politically incorrect to use an East Indian or
Chinese accent so why is it okay to use a Newfoundland accent? And yes, I am
a Newfoundlander! (Butlershere, YouTube, October 2006)
Another critical response involves those who report their personal experiences
with negative stereotypes of Newfoundlanders and directly link the commercial with
the stereotype of the stupid Newfoundlander:
(34) I think it’s kind of sad. I work and travel around the world and just last week I
was told by a mainlander in France that “Newfoundlanders are known for being
dimwitted.” I think our willingness to accept stupid things like this commer-
cial . . . or worse to get ANGRY at people who are rightfully offended by it just
keeps us down. I’m a proud Newfoundlander and I’m very PROUD to say I was
offended by yet another commercial that portrays one of the wonderful accents of
this province as something to be made fun of in a TV commercial. (Anon, Product
of Newfoundland, 8 September 2006)
This contributor invokes the idea of pride in Newfoundland but quite differently
from those who are “proud to be a Newfie.” Rather than denying that the stereotype
of the stupid Newfoundlander exists, she or he directly engages with proponents of

Newfie-ism.
Conclusion
This article has presented a case study of dialect commodification: the Nissan
Bonavista commercial featuring allegedly local Newfoundland vernacular and the
responses the commercial engendered. These responses take up a variety of themes
relating to (in)authenticity. We argue that the commercial itself is exploitative, regard-
less of whether it is viewed as simply “good for a laugh” or as having the discursive
effect of othering Newfoundlanders. The parody of the commercial and the online
forum discussions focus on language use and its relation to Newfoundland identity/
ies. Here are echoed many of the arguments discussed in King and Clarke (2002) with
reference to the debate in the print media surrounding the contested group label
Newfie. Furthermore, an insider–outsider effect (e.g., for some, Newfie may be used
among insiders as a term of solidarity, but not by outsiders) found in earlier debates
is recast in terms of rights, including the right to perform the vernacular—even some
fans of the commercial express dismay at the choice of a nonlocal actor—and the
right to judge: online posters typically begin with their personal biography relative to
Newfoundland (e.g., I/my wife/my coworker is a Newfoundlander), not unlike discur-
sive strategies in online discussion of Pittsburghese reported by Johnstone and
Baumgardt (2004). However, additional perspectives also emerge, centering around
the representation of Newfoundland in the media and its effects on the province’s
growing industry, heritage tourism. The question may not be as straightforward as
whether or not the dialect should be commodified and/or exploited but rather, or in
addition, who has the right to commodify the dialect and exploit it and toward what
ends. Thus, this particular intervention around Newfoundland identity is linked to
earlier instantiations and is part of continuing ideological debate.
Notes
1. Giles and Coupland (1991, quoted in King & Clarke 2002:539) define an ethnic unit as comprising
“those individuals who say they belong to ethnic group A rather than ethnic group B, are willing to be
treated as A rather than B, allow their behaviour to be interpreted and judged as A’s rather than B’s, and
share shared systems of meanings, as in norms and rules for conduct, normatively associated with com-
munity A.” See Yinger (1994:3) for a similar perspective and Coihoun (1970) for a discussion of the
Newfoundland context.
2. Folk etymology has it that during World War II an American serviceman stationed in
Newfoundland, unaccustomed to the rum’s rough taste, let out a loud yell (or screech) on imbibing, lead-
ing to the drink itself taking on the label Screech.
3. Features that illustrate the distinctiveness of Vernacular Newfoundland English (VNE) on the
phonological level include, for the Irish-based dialects, clear or palatal realizations of postvocalic /l/ and
use of the slit fricative for syllable and word-final /t/ and, for the West Country English–origin dialects,
nonphonemic [h]. Generally, VNE varieties have fronted and raised realizations of /a/. On the morpho-
logical level, VNE features include the presence of verbal –s in the present tense across all persons and
numbers (e.g., I goes home every weekend) and use of the “after” perfect to refer to past events that have
current relevance (e.g., I’m after telling you to stay out of it), the latter an Irish-origin feature that has
become part of VNE generally.
4. Newfoundlanders have long been forced to leave the island for work elsewhere, for example, to
the “Boston” States (i.e., the New England area) in the early decades of the last century, to Ontario in the
1950s and 1960s, and to Alberta in the 1970s, during that decade’s oil boom. The current Alberta oil boom
dates from the mid-1990s.
5. To outsiders, there may appear to be one (homogeneous) Newfoundland English variety. However,
Paddock (1982) maintains that there are at least five main regional varieties and a number of transition
zones, while Clarke and Hiscock (2008) suggest that there are even more finely grained dialect distinc-
tions. Of course, VNE also varies along social lines.
6. When asked about the specific target audience for this vehicle, Lunghino provided the following
information: “The Nissan X-TRAIL is the AWD [All Wheel Drive] Adaptable Equipment for the Young
Modern Family; it enables them to embrace and celebrate life through its clever blend of efficiency and
innovation.”
7. At the time of writing, the following link for the commercial was still active: http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=3m-y-qAbpL0.
8. As we shall see below, the actor is from Cape Breton, an island part of the neighboring province
of Nova Scotia. Although there is little actual documentation, the intonation patterns of Vernacular Cape
Breton English do resemble those of Newfoundland, to the extent that Cape Bretoners are sometimes
mistaken for Newfoundlanders.
9. Other parodies that followed the initial airing of the original commercial include a skit on the
national comedy show This Hour Has Twenty-two Minutes (some of the writers and performers on this
show are Newfoundlanders) and a radio parody, produced by a rival St. John’s car dealership, City Honda.
We chose the O’Neill Motors parody for comparison here as it is aimed at Newfoundland audiences and
because it presents a particularly nuanced performance.
10. At the time of writing, the following link for the parody was still active: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=7c6_CBK4ufg&feature=related.
11. All extracts are cited as in the original post. Material in square brackets is our own commentary.
12. Note we are unable to retrieve the exact dates for YouTube comments.
13. Clarke (forthcoming) cites examples from her Newfoundland English corpora such as “Depression,
whatever you might call ’er” with regard to the Great Depression.
14. We do not consider the actor’s stylized VNE found in the commercial itself, though it resembles
some aspects of non-Newfoundlander feature dropping reported here, to be an instance of crossing.
Following Rampton (1995, 2001), crossing involves deliberate movement into and out of language that
“feels anomalously Other” (Rampton 2001:49) across social or ethnic boundaries.
15. The discussion may be accessed at http://thescope.ca/2009/04/newfoundlanders-what-are-we/
(accessed 22 April 2009). We thank Gerard van Herk for bringing this information to our attention.
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Ruth King is professor of linguistics at York University (Toronto, Canada). She specializes in sociolin-
guistics, language contact, and syntax.
Jennifer Wicks is a PhD candidate in the Modern Language Centre at the Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education, University of Toronto. Her research interests focus on the labor mobility of Newfoundlanders
and the intersection of language, class, and culture.
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“Aren’t We Proud of Our Language?”

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''Aren't We Proud of Our Language?'': Authenticity, Commodification, and

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“Aren’t We Proud of Our 10.1177/0075424209339924

Authenticity, Commodification, and the

This article involves an analysis of a television commercial set in rural Newfoundland,

Keywords: authenticity; Canadian English; commodification; Newfoundland English;

Newfoundland and Newfoundland English

The island of Newfoundland is a former British colony that became, along

This place is inhabited by “Newfies,” originally an out-group label used to refer to

suggested that Newfoundland English is one of three stereotyped accents in Canada,

Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders continue to be disparaged almost sixty

The Nissan Bonavista Commercial: Chronology

Launched in 2006, the X-Trail Bonavista SUV was described by Nissan as a

The Original Commercial

Central to the overwhelming response to the original commercial, both positive

The actor’s performance involves a fair approximation of VNE. He employs a

The Biographical Statement

In the above, posters establish their authority as commentators by announcing their

this particular instance of feature dropping as a case of overgeneralization of femi-

The Actor’s Performance

(12) Nissan’s use of a non-Newfoundland actor seems like exploitation of an ethnic

Other discussants, both Newfoundlanders and non-Newfoundlanders alike, men-

Commentary on the actor’s performance and on subtitle use is thus typically

of Ellen DeGeneres’s old situation comedy, Ellen, in which a character utters an

Some variation on this particular version of Newfoundland culture, this

Tourism and the Commodification of Newfoundland Culture

As Whalen (1998:2) notes, “Tourism ads do more than encourage visitors to

The commentators here tend to embrace the slick, picturesque advertisements

However, participants who view the commercial negatively typically contextual-

of the stupid Newfoundlander exists, she or he directly engages with proponents of

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Keywords: authenticity; Canadian English; commodification; Newfoundland English;