Transcript New Zealand English - uni

New Zealand English
Swetlana Braun
Marijana Bubic
Jana Burdach
Linda Rohlfing
Rabea Schwarze
Content
• Origin
• Variations
• Pronunciation
• Vocabulary
• Comparison of NZE and Australian
English
Origin
NZ Accent…
Very simimilar to its giant
neighbour Australia
Differences reflect the different
histories of settlement and
aborigial relations
the last habitable landmass in the
world to be colonised
first English-speaking settlers
arrived in 1792 (Australian rather
than British)
Officially founded when British
and Maori chieftains signed the
1840 Treaty of Waitangi, the
founding document of NZ
New Zealand
Origin
Treaty of Waitangi
(1840)
settleling from Australia and
Britain (a.w.a. Ireland and
America) enormously increased
Large-scale organised settlement
=>by mid-century the indigenous
Maori were outnumbered by the
incoming Pakeha
Influenced by accents and
English varieties, all the settlers
brought along
Could be traced back to areas all
over Britain and Ireland, probably
"pre-mixed" in Australia
NZ English
Origin
spoken by a largely agricultural people, first
inhabitants of NZ
very important source of NZE vocabulary
Maori
language
makes it uniquely different from any other
English dialect
most of the Maori words coming into NZE were
for plants and animals, which where unknown
to the settlers
The closest dialectal relative of
NZE is Australian English
In many ways
NZE is
decendent
from it
similar developments
because of similar inputs
from English, Scottish, and
Irish dialects
NZ English
Variations
• Pitcairn English
- Developed from mutineers settling on
Pitcairn in 1790. Some people were
removed to Norfolk in 1859. An in-group
language used to assist in the
preservation of identity.
- People speak standard English as first
language.
- Classification: Cant, English-Tahitian
• New Zealand Maori or Te Reo Māori
- Formerly fragmented into a number of
regional dialects
(North Auckland, South Island, Taranaki,
Wanganui, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua-Taupo,
Moriori),
some of which diverged quite radically
from what has become the standard
dialect.
- There are some regional variants of
pronunciation and accent, and a small
number of lexical differences, but it is
basically a single language across the
country.
- Used officially for legal needs. Until the
20th century spoken throughout
NewZealand. 33% of the fluent speakers
are over 60 years old, 38% are between
45 and 59 (1995).
- All or most of the Maori-speakers use
English as second language.
- Classification: Eastern-Polynesian, Tahitian
• South Island:
• Pronunciation:
- "Southland burr" in which a trilled 'r'
appears; rhotic
-> 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 (non-rhotic= pronounce
"r" only if it is followed by a vowel)
=> Immigration from Scotland
• Lexis:
- wee = small
- to do the messages = to go shopping
- Many of the region's place names also
reflect their Scottish origin:
e.g. Invercargill and Dunedin
Pronunciation
• New Zealand English is close to
Australian English in pronunciation
• But - shows more affinity to English of
Southern England
- shows influence of Māori Speech
- shows some Scottish and Irish
influences
• main differences of New Zealand English
in comparison to other Englishes are
shifted vowel sounds
Front vowels and the flattened 'i'
• front vowels are pronounced higher in the
mouth than in British English
• the most noticeable difference is the flat
"i", which is lower and further back so that
„illusion“ is pronunced in a way sounding
like „allusion“
• „allusion, illusion“
• „Pete pit pet pat“
The Additional Schwa
• Newzealanders will insert the schwa to
words such as grown, and mown, resulting
in grow-en and mo-wen
• but groan and moan are unaffected which
means that these word pairs can be
distinguished by ear, unlike in British
English
• „groan, grown“
• „moan, mown“
Distinction between /eə/ & /ɪə/
• Words like "chair" and "cheer", (/tʃeə/,
/tʃɪə/) are usually pronounced the same
way (/tʃɪə/, that is as "cheer" in British,
American or Australian English). The same
occurs with "share" and "shear" (both
pronounced /ʃɪə/), bear and beer, spare
and spear.
„kea, care, cheer, chair“
„beer, bear“
„spear, spare, shear, share“
Lack of distinction between /ɔ/ &
/ɐ/
• There is a tendency for some words to be
pronounced with /ɔ/ rather than /ɐ/,
especially in those cases where the vowel
with this particular sound is a stressed
"a".
• 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 is almost
always retained
„ferry, fairy“
Use of mixed accents
• The common New Zealand pronunciation
of the trans- prefix rhymes with "ants„.
This produces mixed accenting of the a's
in words like "transplant" whereas in
British English and most dialects apart
from Australian English the same accent is
placed on both syllables.
„example, transplant“
Vocabulary
-unique to New Zealand• Choice!  excellent
• Chur bro  shortened
from“cheers
brother“, thanks!
• Jandals  blend of Japanese
Sandal, meaning
flip-flop
• Togs  swim suit
• Heaps  a lot of
Vocabulary
-shared with Australia or other
countries• G´day!/ Gidday!
(also AusE);
Gidday mate!
(NZE)  Good Day
• Sweet as  awesome (as as an
intensifier, eg. hot
as)
Phrases
-unique in New Zealand• Bring a plate  bring a plate of food
• Up the Puhoi (a river in
NZ) without a paddle  difficulties without an
obvious solution
• “How are you feeling?” –
“Oh, a box of birds”  feeling very good, happy
• To give s.o. hassles  to hassle s.o. into doing
s.th. or annoying
them
• Kiwi  New Zealander, also
used as an adjective
A lot more on…
• … www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwi.htm
Sources
• www.ualberta.ca/~johnnewm/NZEnglish/
(visited on May 24th, 2006)
• www.answers.com/topic/new-zealand-english
(May 28th, 2006)
• www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/nzdc/index.htm
(May 28th, 2006)
• http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp
?name=NZ (May 30th, 2006)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Engl
ish (May 30th, 2006)