We are fortunate that, in the 21st century, technology has advanced such that we are able to have access to information that once would have been lost to time. Language differs not only across space, but also across time. The technology that is available today has enabled the capture of ‘snapshots’ of language, that hold still a particular moment in time and place. The Cumberland County Genealogical Society’s Down Memory Lane series is one such collection of snapshots, which enable the study of varieties of English that may have since changed and may never have been found anywhere else. These snapshots are of speakers born between the years of 1910-1930, part of the Greatest Generation.

Few phonological studies target local Canadian Maritime English varieties. There is a brief overview of Canadian Maritime English in The Atlas of North American English by Labov, Ash, and Boberg, and a chapter in Lesser-Known Varieties in English by Kiefte and Kay-Raining Bird. The objective of this study was to compare the variety spoken in the CCGS archives to the existing descriptions of broad Canadian Maritime English and the local varieties in Halifax, Lunenburg, and Sydney, by comparing how twelve speakers pronounce vowels.

Cumberland County is an area with strong Scottish and Irish influences. Indeed, Scottish was the second-most common answer for ancestry in Cumberland County in the 2021 Canadian census, and Irish was the fourth-most. These figures can hardly be thought to have changed since the early 1900s. There is a potential that these particular influences in terms of ancestry may have influenced the variety of English in Cumberland County, as German influences have been noted in Lunenburg and Scottish influences in Sydney.

In this study, I explore hyperlocality — it is likely that this variety of English was not widespread, perhaps not beyond Cumberland County, and it is likely even to have changed since these speakers were born. As a summary for this project, I have included a technical report with detailed linguistic analysis, but also a more public-oriented interactive piece where you can listen to the differences in varieties of English to understand what Cumberland County English for those born between 1910 and 1930 sounded like.

I would like to thank the generous support of the Cumberland County Genealogical Society for this project, whose archival materials I consulted to be able to do the study.