Newfoundland English “What Are You At?” Means “What Are You Up To?”

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Hi, this is Mandy Flowers calling from San Antonio, Texas.

Welcome to the show, Mandy.

What can we do for you?

This is actually something that happened about twenty years ago.

It was a while ago.

And I had a friend who was Canadian.

And at the time I was living in, we were both living in South Korea.

And, I met most of my Canadians outside of The US.

But she used to say something to me, and it always confused me.

And I I was never really sure how to answer when she would say it.

And so I I I just wondered about it.

I know what I know about her is that she was from Newfoundland, and she was from an island called St. John’s Mhmm.

In Newfoundland.

And so I assume that that must have something to do with where it comes from.

But, anyway, so she would call me and she would say, like, I would answer the phone, and I would answer the phone, and I would say, hello.

And she would say, hey, what are you at?

This just confused me.

What are you at?

Yes.

Did she have a follow-up to that, like, a second phrase that she would say after?

Yeah.

She would say, I’ll come where you’re two.

Yeah.

There’s the fulfillment.

It’s kind of like shaving a haircut waiting for the two bits.

And I never knew what she was asking me.

If she was asking me where I am or what I’m doing or how I’m doing, it was, I didn’t know if it was like, what’s up, which is, you know, a weird way to ask how people are.

So I would usually just give an answer that answered all of those things.

I’d be like, I am at my house doing laundry, and I’m going to go to the store later, and I’m fine.

Thanks for asking.

I would give her this ridiculous long reply because I just tried to cover all my bases.

And she would always laugh at me, but she would never correct me.

So she always would giggle, you know?

So it came up, I was going through my old journals, recently, and I came upon this where I was like, what is this?

What is she asking me?

And so I felt maybe you could shed some light on it.

It’s such a good insight, the way you’ve told this story into the speech of Newfoundland.

And actually, this particular phrasing, What are you at?

I’ll come where you’re at.

I was also heard in Prince Edward Island.

But it’s so well known in Newfoundland that it’s what linguists call unregistered.

I usually call them chamber of commerce words where people are highly aware that they say it.

It has a strong association with local identity, and they don’t consider it like a socially risky at all.

It’s just it’s a marker of how they speak.

And particularly important here, and I think if we break this down, most people who don’t speak that dialect would stumble on the at and the to because they seem like not quite the right words in those slots, right?

Yeah.

I was never quite sure.

She was asking me, I’ll come where you’re to, if she was saying she’ll come to where I’m at right now or to where I’m going.

Like, she’ll meet me somewhere.

It’s basically saying, Where are you?

I’ll come join you.

Or, and sometimes it is, What are you up to?

Or maybe let’s do it together.

But it just can really depends on the context.

The at and the to here are what are called locative or sometimes stative, which meaning they serve almost like a verb when they’re, they explain kind of activity in a particular location.

Here’s another example from a CBC interview that I plucked from a book of Newfoundland and Labrador English.

It goes, I’d like to live in Europe someday or here wherever the money’s to.

So it’s it’s kind of like almost always a follow-up to the verb.

It almost serves as a verb itself.

In any case, there are a couple of really great books on this.

And one of them pointed out that there was a song in 1966.

There was apparently a hit in Newfoundland by Dick Nolan, because it was kind of a comeback to Newfoundland year, where they had like a campaign that if you had gone away from Newfoundland, they were encouraged you to come back.

But his song was called Come Where We’re At.

And it had many lyrics in it.

They were very similar to the expression that you gave us.

What are you at?

I’ll come where you’re at.

So how do you reply to that?

Like, what would a Newfoundland person say its answer?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

They would generally say, something like, they were just talking about what they’re doing, just like you did.

You actually answered pretty well for somebody who’s For from somebody from away, you did okay.

I covered all the bases with my Yeah.

Very long Okay.

I just wondered if there was, like, an equally colloquial way to answer that.

And maybe she was laughing at me because I didn’t use it.

No.

She’s just laughing probably because she knew that it was a localism, and she was just delighted to to be able to have this strong sense of being who she is, even in a strange place like Seoul, Korea.

I mean, strange if you’re from Newfoundland, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Strange if you’re from anywhere, but Seoul, really.

It stuck with me all these years.

Well, maybe stay where you’re at, and maybe we’ll come where you’re to when we hit the road and do our live shows.

Looking forward to it.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Take care.

Bye bye.

Take care.

All right.

Bye bye.

Well, come where we’re to.

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