New Zealand English
New Zealand English is the
English spoken in
New Zealand.
New Zealand English is close to
Australian English in pronunciation, but has several subtle differences often overlooked by people from outside these countries. Some of these differences show New Zealand English to have more affinity with the
English of southern England than Australian English does. Several of the differences also show the influence of
Māori speech. The most striking difference from Australian English (and all other forms of English) is the
flattened i of New Zealand English. The New Zealand accent also has some
Scottish and
Irish influences from the large number of settlers from those places during the 19th century.
Where there is a distinct difference between British and US spelling (such as colour/color and travelled/traveled), the British spelling is universally found in New Zealand - New Zealand English sticks very closely to British English in spelling, more so than does Australian English. Some Americanisms have begun to creep in through their exposure in mass media (such as "thru" for "through" in informal contexts), though these spellings are non-standard.
Despite mass media exposure (through early childhood programmes such as
Sesame Street) to the American English pronunciation "
zee" for the last letter of the alphabet, the British English "
zed" is standard. This is reflected in the short form of the country name "NZ" ("en-zed") and in a popular NZ band,
Zed. The acronym is used in many organisational names including the band
Split Enz, WINZ (Work and Income NZ, now a division of the Ministry of Social Development), TRADENZ (now NZ Trade and Enterprise), and ENZA (which was the New Zealand Apple & Pear Marketing Board's trademarked brand for export pipfruit).
-ise
Possibly the most significant difference between New Zealand and British spelling is in the ending
-ise or
-ize. Although
-ise is the more popular ending in both countries, some British dictionaries and style manuals prefer the
-ize ending. New Zealand dictionaries and style manuals use the
-ise ending almost exclusively.
Program/programme
As in British English, the word "program" is used for computer software, but the word "programme" is used for schedules, lists of events, and for items presented on television or radio.
Fiord
New Zealand is perhaps unique among English speaking countries in its spelling of the word
fjord, favouring the spelling
fiord. This is particularly apparent in the name of
Fiordland, a rugged region in the country's southwest.
Many local everyday words have been borrowed from the
Māori language, including words for local
flora,
fauna and the natural environment. See
Māori influence on New Zealand English.
The dominant influence of Māori on New Zealand English is lexical. A 1999 estimate based on the Wellington corpora of written and spoken New Zealand English put the proportion of words of Māori origin at approximately 0.6%, mostly place and personal names.
Another sphere in which Māori is ever present and has a significant conceptual influence is in the legislature, government, and community agencies (e.g. health and education). Political discussion and analysis of issues of sovereignty, environmental management, health, and social well-being rely on Māori at least in part. Māori as a spoken language is particularly important wherever community consultation occurs.
Pronunciation of Māori place names
Many Māori place names suffered from a fairly ungainly
anglicisation for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, but since the 1980s increased consciousness of Māori has led to a shift back to correct pronunciations.The anglicisations have persisted most among natives of the towns in question, so it has become something of a
shibboleth, with correct pronunciation marking someone as non-local.
Examples*Paraparaumu "
para-pram or
param*Pauatahanui "
part-a-noo-ee*Oakura "
okra*Hawera "
hara*Te Awamutu "
tee-awa-moot or
tee-a-mootu*Waikouaiti "
wacker-wite or
weka-what*Katikati "
Kati-kat*Otorohanga "
Oh-tra-hung-a or
Oh-tra-hong-a*Papatoetoe -
Papp-a-toh-e"
To further confuse matters, many southern Māori words, which have a distinctive pronunciation that differs from standard Māori, are frequently mistaken for anglicisations and "corrected". These include the pronunciation of Oamaru as Om-a-roo
and of Kawarau as Ka-warra
.
A mixture of southern Māori speech patterns and anglicisation leads to a third trend, the removal of the final vowel of place names, or the reduction of final vowels to a schwa. This is particularly common in the southern South Island. This pattern also results in local shibboleths, and result in pronunciations such as Wakatip
for Lake Wakatipu, and o-taag-uh'' for Otago.
There are also a number of dialectical words and phrases used in New Zealand English, although most of these are regarded as very informal, and are far more common in speech than writing. See main article
New Zealand words.
Main article: phonemic differentiation.
Front vowels and the flattened 'i'
A
vowel shift has occurred in New Zealand English. Front vowels, with one exception, are pronounced higher in the mouth than in England English. RP /i/, the unrounded close front vowel, has moved to /ə/ (schwa). Some non-NZ speakers mistakenly assert that, when New Zealanders say "fish and chips" they say "fush and chups". This may be asserted because of the lack of a letter for schwa. Below the latter word is how the former word sounds to the ears of a non-New Zealander:
*pan ' pen
*pen ' pin
*pin ' pun
*peek ' peck
Note that many of the differences listed above sound this way as New Zealanders pronounce their nouns differently due to their accent, not that they do not speak properly.
Additional Schwa
Some New Zealanders will insert the
schwa to words such as
grown,
thrown and
mown, resulting in
grow-en,
throw-en and
mo-wen. However,
groan,
throne and
moan are all unaffected, meaning these word pairs can be distinguished by ear, unlike in
English English.
This has also been heard (rarely) in the pronunciation of the word
three, where the schwa appears between the 'th' and the 'r', creating a two-syllable word, and in words such as
dwarf and
Dwane/
Duane where the shwa appears between the 'd' and the 'w' (or 'u'), leading to puns like "Duosyllablic Duane".
Distinction between and
In thicker New Zealand accents, words like "chair" and "cheer", (, ) are pronounced the same way (, that is as "cheer" in British, American or Australian English). The same occurs with "share" and "shear" (both pronounced ), bear and beer, spare and spear. This pronunciation is not universal, and many New Zealanders do distinguish these words (
IPA used for phonetic transcriptions).
Younger speakers tend to merge toward , while middle-aged speakers tend to merge toward . This merging has been seen in some other varieties of English, but notably not in Australian English.
Lack of distinction between and
There is a tendency for some words in New Zealand English to be pronounced with rather than the found in Southern British English, especially in those cases where the vowel with this particular sound is a stressed "a". Thus words like "warrior" and "worrier" are harder to differentiate in New Zealand English than in many forms of English.
Lack of distinction between ferry and fairy
For many speakers of New Zealand English, the vowel in
ferry is raised and becomes indistinguishable from
fairy. The vowel length distinction, however, is almost always retained.
Use of mixed vowels
The common New Zealand pronunciation of the trans- prefix rhymes with "ants" and is likely to be a result of American English influence. This produces mixed pronunciation of the a's in words like "transplant" whereas in northern (but not southern) British English the same vowel is used in both syllables.
Rising Inflection
New Zealanders will often reply to a question with a statement spoken with a rising inflection on the last couple of words (known in linguistics as a
high rising terminal). This often has the effect of making their statement sound like another question. This effect is heightened by the common local practise of adding "eh" to the end of sentences ( ie "It was choice[great] eh", "I got a job eh" ). There is enough awareness of this that it is seen in exaggerated form in comedy parody of working class/uneducated New Zealanders. High rising terminals are also heard in various other regional forms of English.
Use of 'She' as third person neuter
In informal speech some New Zealanders use the third person feminine
she in place of the third person neuter
it as the subject of a sentence, especially when the subject is the first word of the sentence. Thus phrases such as "She's a beaut day" (that is, it's a beautiful day) are not uncommon. The most common use of this is in the phrase "She'll be right" meaning either "It will be OK" or "It is close enough to what is required".
Although foreigners can find it hard to distinguish the New Zealand dialect from the Australian, there are differences in the pronunciation of vowel sounds, which are considerably more clipped in New Zealand English.(
Canadians, similarly, are sometimes mistaken for U.S. Americans by non-North Americans.)The main distinguishing sounds are the short 'i' and 'e', as well as words like "chance", as described below.
Short 'i'
The short 'i' in New Zealand English is pronounced as a
schwa .In Australian English, the short 'u' is often thought to be the vowel closest to the New Zealand pronunciation. So Australians frequently joke about New Zealanders having "fush and chups" instead of "
fish and chips". However, it is really closer to an almost dropped vowel, so it's more like "f'sh and ch'ps".
Conversely, the closest sound in New Zealand English to the Australian short 'i' is 'ee' , so New Zealanders may hear Australians talking about the "
Seedney Harbour Breedge". The 'i' in Australian English is lengthened relative to England English, possibly as a result of the influence of Italian immigrants. So New Zealanders frequently joke about Australians having "feesh and cheeps". Documentary films from the first half of the 20th century featuring both Australian and New Zealand voices show that the accents were more similar before the second world war and diverged mostly after the 1950s.
Recent
linguistic research has suggested that the short, flat 'i' heard in New Zealand comes from dialects of English spoken by lower-class
English people in the late
19th century, though why it persisted in New Zealand while disappearing from Australia is not known. It is, however, also encountered in
Scottish English, and given the relatively higher level of Scottish emigration to New Zealand than Australia, this may also be an influence. The pronunciation of English vowels by native Māori speakers may also have influenced the New Zealand accent. There is a Māori/Polynesian accent distinct from the accent of white New Zealanders.
Short 'e'
The short 'e' in New Zealand English has moved to fill in the space left by 'i', and sounds like a short 'i' itself to other English speakers.For example, you may hear New Zealanders talk about having "iggs for brickfast" or hear an air hostess asking to 'kollikt your hid-sits' (collect your head-sets).
Chance, dance etc.
The New Zealand pronunciation of words like "dance" uses the same vowel sound as the "a" in "car", in other words , resembling the
broad A of
British English. The common Australian pronunciation rhymes with "ants": . However, either form may be used in Australia, with the former used in areas with a high concentration of British settlers and slightly more common in inner urban areas.
More/sure
Under American influences, many youth pronounce "more" and "sure" as
mua and
shua, whereas their Australian counterparts continue to pronounce them as
maw and
shaw as do all older New Zealanders.
Schwa in unstressed syllables
New Zealanders tend to be more likely to turn a vowel in an unstressed syllable into a schwa, although this is far from a universal trait. A clear example of this trait is shown in the pronunciation of
Queensland, which in IPA terms would be to a New Zealander (rhyming with "seasoned"), but to an Australian (rhyming with "freehand"). However, both pronunciations occur in Australia.
Letter 'h'
Pronunciation of the name of the letter 'h' is , as in Great Britain and North America, as opposed to the aspirated of
Hiberno-English origin found in
Australian English, although this is still widely debated within educational institutions within Australia. (This refers only to the pronunciation of the letter's name, not to the pronunciation of words beginning with that letter.)
Letter 'l'
Pronunciation of the letter 'l' at the end of a word such as kill, is sometimes voiced as a 'w'.This is further found in provincial cities and towns. Some speakers will not differentiate the sound of the word 'bill' from 'bull', and both will have the final 'l' sound changed to a 'w'.Even words such as 'build' will be affected and will sound like 'buwd'. A common use of this is the word 'milk' usually said 'muwk' (rhyming with 'bull(k)' to a speaker outside of New Zealand).Although this varies greatly in different areas and between different
socio-economic groups within New Zealand itself. This seems to be most commonly found in South Auckland.
Vocabulary differences
Other differences in the dialects relate to words used to refer to common items, often based on major brands:
| NZ | Australia!Explanation |
|---|
cellphone/mobile/mobile phone
(cell) | mobile phone
(mobile) | A portable telephone. |
| chilly bin | Esky | insulated container for keeping drinks and food cool |
| dairy | milk bar
delicatessen | A kind of convenience store |
| downtown | city centre
or CBD | Commercial heart of a major city |
| duvet | doona | A padded blanket |
| jandals | thongs | backless sandals (or flip-flops in other English dialects: 'J (apanese S) andals') |
| judder bar/speed bump | speed hump | Traffic speed limiting device |
| Private Bag | Locked Bag (also Private Mail Bag) | Special mail delivery for large organisations |
| Swannie (Swanndri) | Driza-Bone | The quintessential back-country farmer's coat of each country |
| togs | bathers
swimmers
cossies
togs (used mainly in Northern N.S.W.
and Queensland) | Swimwear (see Australian words for swimwear) |
| trolley | shopping trolley | A device for transporting shopping within supermarket precincts |
| trundler | shopping jeep | A two-wheeled device for transporting shopping from local shops. Now rarely seen. |
|
In New Zealand, the word "milk bar" refers only to the milk bar of the
1950s and
1960s, a place that served non-alcoholic drinks, primarily milkshakes, tea and sometimes coffee. Ice creams were also served.
A traditional difference, between the New Zealand "varsity" and the Australian "uni", is rapidly disappearing with the adoption of "uni" into New Zealand vocabulary.
Most Kiwis speak
Newzild "as she is spoke": geographical variations appear slight, and mainly confined to individual special local words.
However, one group of speakers is recognised as having a distinct way of talking: the south of the South Island (
Murihiku) harbours a "Celtic fringe" of people speaking with a "
Southland burr" in which a trilled 'r' appears prominently. This dialect is also
rhotic; that is, speakers pronounce the 'r' in "bird", "work" as the 'r' sound is said at the beginning of a word, and so on, while other New Zealanders do not. This southern area formed a traditional repository of immigration from Scotland. Several words and phrases common in
Scots or
Scottish English still persist in this area as well. Some examples of this include the use of
wee to mean "small", and phrases such as
to do the messages meaning "to go shopping". Many of the region's place names also reflect their Scottish origin, such as those of the region's two main cities (
Invercargill and
Dunedin) which both have
Scots Gaelic origins.
The trilled 'r' is also used by some Māori speakers, who may also pronounce 't' and 'k' sounds almost as 'd' and 'g', especially in the south of the country (see
Māori language for more details). This is also encountered in
South African English, especially among
Afrikaans speakers. The Māori 'r', though, is more like a short 'd'.
Some speakers from the
West Coast of the South Island retain a half Australian accent from the region's 19th century goldrush settlers.
The first comprehensive dictionary dedicated to New Zealand English was probably the
Heinemann New Zealand dictionary, published in 1979. Edited by
Harry Orsman, it is a comprehensive 1300-page book, with information relating to the usage and pronunciation of terms that were both widely accepted throughout the English-speaking world and those peculiar to New Zealand. It includes a one-page list of the approximate date of entry into common parlance of many terms found in New Zealand English but not elsewhere, such as "haka" (1827), "Boohai" (1920), and "bach" (1905).
In 1997,
Oxford University Press produced the
Dictionary of New Zealand English, which it claimed was based on over 40 years of research. This research started with Orsman's 1951 thesis and continued with his editing this dictionary. To assist with and maintain this work, the
New Zealand Dictionary Centre was founded in 1997. Since then it has published several more dictionaries of New Zealand English, culminating in the publication of The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary in 2004.
A more light-hearted look at English as spoken in New Zealand,
A personal Kiwi-Yankee dictionary, was written by American-born
Otago University psychology lecturer Louis Leland in 1980. This slim but entertaining volume lists many of the potentially confusing and/or misleading terms for Americans visiting or migrating to New Zealand. A second edition was published during the 1990s.
*
Australian English*
Culture of New Zealand*
Māori influence on New Zealand English*
New Zealand humour*
New Zealand words*Cryer, Max. (2002).
Curious Kiwi Words. Auckland, NZ: HarperCollins
Publishers (NZ) Ltd.
*Grant, L.E., and Devlin, G.A. (eds.) (1999).
In other words: A dictionary of expressions used in New Zealand. Palmerston North, NZ: Dunmore Press.
*Leland, Louis S., jr. (1980).
A personal Kiwi-Yankee dictionary. Dunedin, NZ: John McIndoe Ltd.
*Orsman, H.W., (ed.) (1997).
The Dictionary of New Zealand English: a dictionary of New Zealandisms on historical principles. Auckland: Oxford University Press.
*Orsman, H.W., (ed.) (1979).
Heinemann New Zealand dictionary. Auckland, NZ: Heinemann Educational Books (NZ) Ltd.
*
Origins of New Zealand English*
New Zealand Dictionary Centre**
New Zealand English in the 21st century*
Kiwi Words & Phrases
