New Zealand English
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Kiwi_(Actinidia_chinensis)_2_Luc_Viatour.jpg
Alex Hastings // ENG 370 // Western Washington University
Introduction
As shown in the above clip from HBO's Flight
of the Conchords, New Zealand accents are commonly misinterpreted as
Australian by people unfamiliar with both dialects. New Zealanders, or ‘Kiwis’ as they call
themselves after their country's famous wingless bird species, are notorious for being offended by the assumption that they are
Aussies.
With Australia being the bigger country (23 million to NZ's 4 million*) and their accents being so similar, it's understandable why so many people make that mistake. New Zealand is also a young country, whose distinct dialect just recently appeared after World War II when it began to develop features that separated it from Australian English (New Zealand English, wikipedia.org). In American pop culture, there are arguably more references to/popular figures from Australia. If you ask the average U.S. citizen what they know about New Zealand, they’ll probably say something along the lines of “Lord of the Rings was filmed there” if anything at all. Although New Zealanders get confused for Australians frequently by people from different countries, Australians never seem to be incorrectly labeled as New Zealanders.
The small but mighty island nation of New Zealand appears to be living in the shadow of the Land Down Under. However, as time passes and New Zealand grows as a country, culture, and economy, our exposure to Kiwis and their dialect will increase. In some ways, it already has.
For instance, when I first discovered Flight of the Conchords (shown above), I was surprised to learn that Bret and Jemaine, whose musical misadventures in New York City are followed in the show, were New Zealanders, not Australians. I don't think I had ever really been exposed to New Zealanders or their dialect before Flight of the Conchords. I also wasn't able to label New Zealand on a map, somehow always confusing it for the island of Madagascar. At first, I couldn't tell the difference between an Australian dialect and a New Zealand dialect. It wasn't until watching an episode of the show where Jemaine describes Australian accents as "an evil version of [New Zealand] accents" that I realized there must be some way to distinguish between the two. A quick Google search yielded a few famous pronunciation comparisons, such as the classic "fish and chips" example: where Australians say "feesh and cheeps", New Zealanders say "fush and chups". Where Australians call ships "sheeps", New Zealanders know them as "shups". Although this is a much better example of the differences between the two than Jemaine's (hilarious) "where's the car" comparison, it's not a comprehensive analysis by any means.
Based on this minimal information, I thought that New Zealanders lowered vowel sounds while Australians raised them. So, years later, when I assumed my coworker was Australian based on the way she raised the vowel in "dress", I was mortified when she gave me a blank stare before stating dryly: "I'm from New Zealand". Clearly, a 10-minute Google search was not going to suffice when it came to understanding the features of New Zealand English. I needed a better understanding of linguistics, primarily phonology, to easily and accurately tell the difference between a Kiwi and an Aussie.
This time, I'll be approaching New Zealand English from a more scientific standpoint; analyzing the phonology as well as its historical origins in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of this new, emerging dialect. I will be spending the majority of my time with the vowel shift phenomenon, for this is arguably the easiest way to identify a New Zealand speaker from any other English speaker, including Australian. Additionally, I will analyze the historical influence of English-speaking immigrants to New Zealand, the reasons behind the vowel shift being accentuated, and the role that a distinctly New Zealand dialect plays in the young nation's establishment of its identity.
*source: New Zealand, wikipedia.org & Australia, wikipedia.org
With Australia being the bigger country (23 million to NZ's 4 million*) and their accents being so similar, it's understandable why so many people make that mistake. New Zealand is also a young country, whose distinct dialect just recently appeared after World War II when it began to develop features that separated it from Australian English (New Zealand English, wikipedia.org). In American pop culture, there are arguably more references to/popular figures from Australia. If you ask the average U.S. citizen what they know about New Zealand, they’ll probably say something along the lines of “Lord of the Rings was filmed there” if anything at all. Although New Zealanders get confused for Australians frequently by people from different countries, Australians never seem to be incorrectly labeled as New Zealanders.
The small but mighty island nation of New Zealand appears to be living in the shadow of the Land Down Under. However, as time passes and New Zealand grows as a country, culture, and economy, our exposure to Kiwis and their dialect will increase. In some ways, it already has.
For instance, when I first discovered Flight of the Conchords (shown above), I was surprised to learn that Bret and Jemaine, whose musical misadventures in New York City are followed in the show, were New Zealanders, not Australians. I don't think I had ever really been exposed to New Zealanders or their dialect before Flight of the Conchords. I also wasn't able to label New Zealand on a map, somehow always confusing it for the island of Madagascar. At first, I couldn't tell the difference between an Australian dialect and a New Zealand dialect. It wasn't until watching an episode of the show where Jemaine describes Australian accents as "an evil version of [New Zealand] accents" that I realized there must be some way to distinguish between the two. A quick Google search yielded a few famous pronunciation comparisons, such as the classic "fish and chips" example: where Australians say "feesh and cheeps", New Zealanders say "fush and chups". Where Australians call ships "sheeps", New Zealanders know them as "shups". Although this is a much better example of the differences between the two than Jemaine's (hilarious) "where's the car" comparison, it's not a comprehensive analysis by any means.
Based on this minimal information, I thought that New Zealanders lowered vowel sounds while Australians raised them. So, years later, when I assumed my coworker was Australian based on the way she raised the vowel in "dress", I was mortified when she gave me a blank stare before stating dryly: "I'm from New Zealand". Clearly, a 10-minute Google search was not going to suffice when it came to understanding the features of New Zealand English. I needed a better understanding of linguistics, primarily phonology, to easily and accurately tell the difference between a Kiwi and an Aussie.
This time, I'll be approaching New Zealand English from a more scientific standpoint; analyzing the phonology as well as its historical origins in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of this new, emerging dialect. I will be spending the majority of my time with the vowel shift phenomenon, for this is arguably the easiest way to identify a New Zealand speaker from any other English speaker, including Australian. Additionally, I will analyze the historical influence of English-speaking immigrants to New Zealand, the reasons behind the vowel shift being accentuated, and the role that a distinctly New Zealand dialect plays in the young nation's establishment of its identity.
*source: New Zealand, wikipedia.org & Australia, wikipedia.org