Mainlanders

While at work a few days ago I had a discussion with a co-worker about what it meant to be a mainlander. It was my contention that the term ‘mainlander’ referred to just about anyone, though particularly North Americans, not from Newfoundland (the province not the island). This would mean that an Ontarian and Brit would both be mainlanders, while someone from Lab City would not be a mainlander. While we did not discuss the grey area of Labradorians, she did question whether or not an American, or anyone not from Canada, could properly be referred to as a mainlander. Actually, she believed that Americans should not be considered mainlanders and that the term referred only to Canadians.

The obvious first step seemed to be to check the dictionary of Newfoundland English (which is freely available online). Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, the dictionary did not explicitly define ‘mainlander’ only ‘mainland’ (mainlander only comes up in relation to ‘mainland’). They go one to define to ‘mainland’ as the provinces and territories that comprise the rest of Canada. Generally, it seems that this would be a relatively undisputed definition, but it also does not really help when it comes to defining what a ‘mainlander’ is.

It seemed that the next obvious step would be to consult people that might reasonably be expected to regularly use the word or at least have a fairly good grasp on the various contexts in which it could or should be used. To achieve this end I emailed about 20 individuals who had all been raised and educated in Newfoundland (and as far as I know they were all born here also, though there may be one or two exceptions).

The email that was sent was incredibly short and was intended to not include any material that might bias the answer of the respondents. The thrust of the email asked how the term would be defined and used. Within several minutes I started to receive replies.

While several people agreed with my co-worker and suggested that a mainlander is someone from anywhere in Canada other than Newfoundland, a few other individuals provided definitions closer to my own. In particular, the suggestion was that if you were not a Newfoundlander than you were a mainlander (a two category classification system into which almost everyone can be placed). The question then becomes how far this term can be stretched. In one case it was argued that certainly all North Americans could be considered mainlanders. A follow up question then is whether or not Europeans should also be considered as mainlanders (particularly in light of their past and they way in which Newfoundland was ruled from afar by some of these countries).

Two additional issues that were raised related to the status of Labradorians and those individuals from identifiable cultural groups. While no one suggested that Labradorians should be classed as mainlanders there was clearly apprehension about what they should be called (as it has already been stated – this is a two class system). A further point was whether or not Quebeckers, Acadians, Prince Edward Islanders, and Cape Bretoners should be considered mainlanders. At least two people suggested that they would have a harder time using the term mainlander to refer to an individual that could be a member of any of these groups.

All of this to say that there doesn’t appear to be consensus (at least among my friends) as to whom the term refers. The only element of the definition that did seem to be universally agreed upon is that Ontarians are definitely mainlanders.