Taking as a point of departure the seminal study of Newfoundland English by William Kirwin (2001), the current chapter examines afresh the role of regional inputs from south-west England and south-east Ireland in determining the linguistic ecology of English in Newfoundland, Canada’s most easterly province. The chapter reassesses Kirwin’s achievement in identifying relevant dialectal input and offers a consideration of the sociolinguistic status of the early English speakers on the island and the development of independent forms of English with the advent of permanent settlement there. The geographical distribution of settlers also represents a focus with the concentration of speakers in the capital St John’s and on the surrounding parts of the Avalon Peninsula. Features from all linguistic levels – pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary – are scrutinised, with the examination of vocabulary resting on the Dictionary of Newfoundland English with a view to determining the probable British/Irish sources of Newfoundland-specific lexis, independent developments in this part of Canada notwithstanding.

The English language has been attested in Ireland since the late twelfth century but did not become widespread until the beginning of the seventeenth century when vigorous planting of English settlers took place. Distinct forms of Irish English began to develop which were a mixture of diverse dialectal inputs from England and transfer phenomena from Irish as the native population began to switch to the language of the colonisers. Almost as the same time as planting of English settlers started there was a movement out of Ireland, either by deportation or voluntary emigration, largely due to economic circumstances. This led to areas in overseas anglophone regions showing centres of Irish emigration, e.g. Appalachia with eighteenth-century Ulster Scots or the north-eastern coast of the USA with nineteenth-century southern Irish Catholics. At these locations the linguistic impact of Irish English was slight but traces can be found still which testify to this input.

The spread of English during the colonial period (ca. 1600–1900) led to the rise of different overseas varieties. The shape of these varieties was determined by a series of factors, such as the number of settlers, the relationship of regional dialects with this group, contact with other populations, the possible existence of pidgins, and later the rise of creoles at overseas locations. In the postcolonial period, the situation changed radically with former colonies continuing on a path toward indigenous varieties with profiles of their own and with an increasing effect of transnational factors and a reorientation away from Britain-based models of English toward an America-based one.