The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and become distinctive only in the last 150 years".[5] The varieties of English that had the biggest influence on the development of New Zealand English were Australian English and Southern England English, with lesser influences from American English, Hiberno-English, Scottish English and the British prestige accent Received Pronunciation (RP).[6] An important source of vocabulary is the Māori language of the indigenous people of New Zealand, whose contribution distinguishes New Zealand English from other varieties.[6]
Non-rhotic New Zealand English is most similar to Australian English in pronunciation, but has key differences.[7] A prominent difference is the realisation of /ɪ/ (the KIT vowel): in New Zealand English this is pronounced as a schwa. New Zealand English has several increasingly distinct varieties, and while most New Zealanders speak non-rhotic English, rhoticity is increasing quickly, especially among Pasifika and Māori in Auckland and the upper North Island.[8][failed verification]
Dictionaries
The first dictionary with entries documenting New Zealand English was probably the Heinemann New Zealand Dictionary published in 1979.[9] Edited by Harry Orsman (1928–2002), it is a 1,337-page book with information relating to the usage and pronunciation of terms that were 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 the many terms found in New Zealand English but not elsewhere, such as "haka" (1827), "boohai" (1920), and "bach" (1905). A second edition was published in 1989 with the cover subtitle "The first dictionary of New Zealand English and New Zealand pronunciation". A third edition, edited by Nelson Wattie, was published as The Reed Dictionary of New Zealand English by Reed Publishing in 2001.[9]
The first dictionary fully dedicated to the New Zealand variety of English was The New Zealand Dictionary published by New House Publishers in 1994 and edited by Elizabeth and Harry Orsman.[10][11] A second edition was published in 1995, edited by Elizabeth Orsman.[citation needed]
In 1997, Oxford University Press produced the Harry Orsman-edited The Dictionary of New Zealand English: A Dictionary of New Zealandisms on Historical Principles, a 981-page book, 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. It has published several more dictionaries of New Zealand English, including The New Zealand Oxford Paperback Dictionary, edited by New Zealand lexicographer Tony Deverson in 1998, culminating in the 1,374-page The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary in 2004, by Tony Deverson and Graeme Kennedy.[12] A second, revised edition of The New Zealand Oxford Paperback Dictionary was published in 2006,[13] this time using standard lexicographical regional markers to identify the New Zealand content, which were absent from the first edition.[citation needed]
Another authoritative work is the Collins English Dictionary, first published in 1979 by HarperCollins, which contains an abundance of well-cited New Zealand words and phrases, drawing from the 650-million-word Bank of English, a British research facility set up at the University of Birmingham in 1980 and funded by Collins publishers.[14] Although this is a British dictionary of International English there has always been a credited New Zealand advisor for the New Zealand content, namely Professor Ian Gordon from 1979 until 2002 and Professor Elizabeth Gordon from the University of Canterbury since 2003. New Zealand-specific dictionaries compiled from the Collins English Dictionary include the Collins New Zealand Concise English Dictionary (1982), Collins New Zealand School Dictionary (1999) and Collins New Zealand Paperback Dictionary (2009).[citation needed]
Australia's Macquarie Dictionary was first published in 1981, and has since become the authority on Australian English. It has always included an abundance of New Zealand words and phrases additional to the mutually shared words and phrases of both countries. Every edition has retained a New Zealand resident advisor for the New Zealand content,[15] the first being Harry Orsman.[16] and the most recent being Victoria University of Wellington lexicographer Laurie Bauer.[15]
A light-hearted look at English as spoken in New Zealand is A Personal Kiwi-Yankee Dictionary, written by the American-born University of Otago psychology lecturer Louis Leland in 1980. This slim volume lists many of the potentially confusing and/or misleading terms for Americans visiting or emigrating to New Zealand. A second edition was published in 1990.[citation needed]
Historical development
From the 1790s, New Zealand was visited by British, French and American whaling, sealing and trading ships. Their crews traded European goods with the indigenous Māori.[17][18] The first settlers to New Zealand were mainly from Australia, many of them ex-convicts or escaped convicts. Sailors, explorers and traders from Australia and other parts of Europe also settled.[citation needed]
When in 1788 the colony of New South Wales was formed, most of New Zealand was nominally included, but no real legal authority or control was exercised. However, when the New Zealand Company announced in 1839 its plans to establish colonies in New Zealand this and the increased commercial interests of merchants in Sydney and London spurred the British to take stronger action. Captain William Hobson was sent to New Zealand to persuade Māori to cede their sovereignty to the British Crown and on 6 February 1840, Hobson and about forty Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands.[19] From this point onward there was considerable European settlement, primarily from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; and to a lesser extent the United States, South Africa, and various parts of continental Europe. Some 400,000 settlers came from Britain, of whom 300,000 stayed permanently. Most were young people and 250,000 babies were born. New Zealand ceased to be part of New South Wales and became a British colony on 1 July 1841.[citation needed]
Gold discoveries in Otago (1861) and Westland (1865), caused a worldwide gold rush that more than doubled the population from 71,000 in 1859 to 164,000 in 1863. Between 1864 and 1865, under the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863, 13 ships carrying citizens of England, Ireland and South Africa arrived in New Zealand under the Waikato Immigration Scheme.[20] According to census data from 1871, around half the early settlers were English, a quarter were Irish, a quarter were Scots and 5% were Australian.[8] The European population of New Zealand grew explosively from fewer than 1000 in 1831 to 500,000 by 1881. By 1911 the number of European settlers had reached a million.[citation needed] The settlement of peoples from various foreign countries and the intermingling of the people with the indigenous Māori brought about what would eventually evolve into a "New Zealand accent" and a unique regional English lexicon.[citation needed]
A distinct New Zealand variant of the English language has been recognised since at least 1912, when Frank Arthur Swinnerton described it as a "carefully modulated murmur". From the beginning of the haphazard Australian and European settlements and latter official British migrations, a new dialect began to form by adopting Māori words to describe the different flora and fauna of New Zealand, for which English did not have words of its own.[21]
The New Zealand accent appeared first in towns with mixed populations of immigrants from Australia, England, Ireland, and Scotland. These included the militia towns of the North Island and the gold-mining towns of the South Island. In more homogeneous towns such as those in Otago and Southland, settled mainly by people from Scotland, the New Zealand accent took longer to appear,[22] while the accent was quick to develop in schools starting from the 1890s.[8]
Since the latter 20th century New Zealand society has gradually divested itself of its fundamentally British roots[23] and has adopted influences from all over the world, especially in the early 21st century when New Zealand experienced an increase of non-British immigration which has since brought about a more prominent multi-national society. The Internet, television,[24] movies and popular music have all brought international influences into New Zealand society and the New Zealand lexicon. Americanisation of New Zealand society and language has subtly and gradually been taking place since World War II and especially since the 1970s,[25] as has happened also in neighbouring Australia.[citation needed]
Legal status
While both the Māori language and New Zealand Sign Language have official status, as detailed in legislation, this is mostly limited to the right to use these languages in legal proceedings and other limited circumstances.[26] English has no equivalent legal protection, but its widespread use is commonly accepted and generally assumed by common law,[27] though requiring a completely "English only" workplace without a justifiable reason could be seen as discriminatory.[28] In February 2018, Clayton Mitchell MP from New Zealand First led a campaign for English to be legally recognised as an official language in New Zealand.[29][30] Justice Minister Amy Adams said "English is a de facto official language by virtue of its widespread use," while Professor Andrew Geddis called Mitchell's bill "legal nonsense".[27]
Not all New Zealanders have the same accent, as the level of cultivation (i.e. the closeness to Received Pronunciation) of every speaker's accent differs. An identifiable feature of New Zealand English is its chain shift where the TRAP vowel has moved up to the place of the traditional DRESS vowel, which in turn has moved up towards the traditional KIT vowel, which in turn is centralised. This makes "bat" sound like "bet", "bet" sound like "bit", and "bit" sound like "but" to foreign ears. For example "six" is [səks] in New Zealand English but [sɪks] in Australian English. General New Zealand English is non-rhotic, however Southland is semi-rhotic due to the accent's Scottish influence.[citation needed]
Vocabulary
New Zealand English has a number of dialectal words and phrases.[32] These are mostly informal terms that are more common in casual speech. Numerous loanwords have been taken from the Māori language or from Australian English.[citation needed]
New Zealand adopted decimal currency in 1967 and the metric system in 1974. Despite this, several imperial measures are still widely encountered and usually understood, such as feet and inches for a person's height, pounds and ounces for an infant's birth weight, and in colloquial terms such as referring to drinks in pints.[33][34][35] In the food manufacturing industry in New Zealand both metric and non-metric systems of weight are used and usually understood owing to raw food products being imported from both metric and non-metric countries. However per the December 1976 Weights and Measures Amendment Act, all foodstuffs must be retailed using the metric system.[36] In general, the knowledge of non-metric units is lessening.[citation needed]
The word spud for potato, now common throughout the English-speaking world, is first recorded in New Zealand English.[37]
As with Australian English, but in contrast to most other forms of the language, some speakers of New Zealand English use both the terms bath and bathe as verbs, with bath used as a transitive verb (e.g. I will bath the dog), and bathe used predominantly, but not exclusively, as an intransitive verb (e.g. Did you bathe?).[citation needed]
Both the words amongst and among are used, as in British English. The same is true for two other pairs, whilst and while and amidst and amid.[citation needed]
Australian English influences
New Zealand English terms of Australian origin include bushed (lost or bewildered), chunder (to vomit), drongo (a foolish or stupid person), fossick (to search), larrikin (mischievous person), Maccas (slang for McDonald's food), maimai (a duckshooter's hide; originally a makeshift shelter, from aboriginal mia-mia), paddock (field, or meadow), pom or pommy (an Englishman), skite (verb: to boast), station (for a very large farm), wowser (non-drinker of alcohol, or killjoy), and ute (pickup truck).[citation needed]
American English influences
Advancing from its British and Australian English origins, New Zealand English has evolved to include many terms of American origin, or which are otherwise used in American English, in preference over the equivalent contemporary British terms. Some examples of such words in New Zealand English are the preferred usage of the American bobby pin over the British hair pin,[38]muffler for silencer,[39]truck for lorry, station wagon for estate car,[40]stove for cooker, creek[41] over brook or stream, eggplant for aubergine, median strip for central reservation,[42]pushup for press-up, and potato chip for potato crisp.[43]
Other examples of vocabulary directly borrowed from American English include the boonies, bucks (dollars), bushwhack (fell timber), butt (bum or arse), ding (dent), dude, duplex, faggot or fag (interchangeable with the British poof and poofter), figure[44] (to think or conclude; consider), hightail it, homeboy, hooker, lagoon, lube (oil change), man (in place of mate or bro in direct address), major (to study or qualify in a subject), to be over [some situation] (be fed up), rig (large truck),[45]sheltered workshop (workplace for disabled persons),[46]spat[47] (a small argument), and subdivision, and tavern.[48] Regarding grammar, since about 2000 the American gotten has been increasingly commonly used as the past participle of "get"[49] instead of the standard British English got.[50] In a number of instances, terms of British and American origin can be used interchangeably. Additionally, many American borrowings are not unique to New Zealand English, and may be found in other dialects of English, including British English.[citation needed]
In addition to word and phrase borrowings from Australian, British and American English, New Zealand has its own unique words and phrases[51] derived entirely in New Zealand, many of which are slang terms. The following list summarises some such words and phrases:
... and that (phrase) – a substitution for unnamed other(s), activity(ies), thing(s). e.g. "We had a beer with Darryl and that." "I picked up the tools and that." (also in UK)[citation needed]
Aussie (noun) – Australia.[52] This extension of the term to mean the country is unique to New Zealand. In Australia and internationally, Aussie means Australian (person or thing), as opposed to Australia (the country.) The normal adjectival usage is also used in New Zealand.[citation needed]
bach (noun) – cheaply built and basic holiday home; located at beaches throughout the country[53]
boost it/boosting (verb) – to speed or to go fast, derived from boost, in reference to vehicles (e.g. turbo-boosting a car)[citation needed]
big-huge something large, big, or huge as in "there was a big-huge spider crawling down the wall!"[citation needed]
chur (interj) – many uses, the most common being a form of greeting, or a contraction of "cheers" most commonly heard in "chur, bro". It is also used as an alternative to "good on you"[citation needed]
convert (verb) – to steal a car, hence also the name for car theft being car conversion[citation needed]
eh? (particle) – used to elicit a response. Used much more in New Zealand than in the stereotypical Canadian English.[58]
Gib board, Gibraltar board (noun) – the common NZ term for drywall, plasterboard interior wall lining (a genericised trademark; Gib is a trademark of Winstone Wallboards Ltd)[citation needed]
handle (noun) – a 425–500 mL glass of beer with a handle, as sold in pubs[citation needed]
hardout/hard – used to show agreement, or used to show emphasis/intensity. Examples: Agreement: "Yeah hard/hardout". "He was running hardout."[59]
heaps (adjective, adverb) – abundant, plenty, plentifully. Examples: "There are heaps of cops surrounding the house." "I love you heaps." "Give it heaps!" – give it your best effort![32] often in cooking someone would say, "that's heaps" meaning 'that's too much' (also used in Australia)[citation needed]
jandals (noun) – the NZ term for flip-flops. Originally a trademarked name derived from "Japanese sandals".[64]
jug (noun) – a kettle (also used in Australia)[65]
kai (noun) – Māori word meaning food, or something to eat, used by Māori and Pākehā alike[66]
kūmara (noun) – sweet potato,[67] specifically those historically cultivated by Māori.[citation needed]
Kiwi (adj) – Not only does Kiwi mean 'a New Zealand person', but it is sometimes used to replace the name of New Zealand in NZ businesses or titles, such as KiwiRail, Kiwibank and KiwiBuild, or New Zealand-related nouns, e.g. "Kiwi-ism". It is also used to address something that is particularly related to New Zealand, e.g. "that house is pretty kiwi" (also used in Australia). N.B. Kiwifruit is always called "kiwifruit".[citation needed]
luncheon sausage (noun) – devon sausage (also called "fritz" or "belgium" in some parts of New Zealand)[citation needed]
metal road (noun) – a dirt road overlaid with gravel to assist drainage and keep dust down, typically found in rural settings[citation needed]
puckerood (adj) – broken; busted; wrecked.[68] From Māori "pakaru" – to shatter[69]
ranchslider, ranch slider, (noun) – a NZ term for a sliding door, usually of aluminium frame and containing glass panels (a genericised trademark; Ranchslider is a registered trademark of Fletcher Window & Door Systems).[70][71][72]
rark up (verb) – to criticise, confront or hurry along[citation needed]
shot! – (acknowledgement or interj) – "thank you", or used as an expression of joy or to give praise. Can also be used as congratulations or acknowledgement of good work – "Shot for your run time!" Can also be said "Good shot!"[citation needed]
slab (noun) – a case of twelve to twenty four cans of beer packed together and bought as a whole (also used in Australia)[citation needed]
stink (adjective) something bad, unfortunate, undesirable, unfair as in "that's a pretty stink situation".[citation needed]
tiki tour (noun) – a guided tour; exploration; a meandering route taken in order to waste time[citation needed]
togs (noun – always the plural form) – a swimming or bathing costume, swimsuit, bikini (also used in Australia)[citation needed]
town house (noun) – a small self-contained, free standing house with little or no front or back yard, often with a shared driveway with neighbouring houses.[73] The NZ meaning is unique and differs from the American, Asian, Australian and European meaning of townhouse (typically terraced houses) as well as the older UK meaning (city houses of nobility) (also used in Australia)[citation needed]
tramping (noun) tramp (verb) – Bushwalking, hiking. Usage is exclusive to New Zealand[citation needed]
up the boohai / up the Puhoi [River] / in the wop wops – to be lost or stranded, of unknown whereabouts or when unwilling to divulge whereabouts. In the outback, or in the boondocks[citation needed]
whānau – extended family, from grandparents to grandchildren (Māori word, used by New Zealand government: "If the mother is too young, the whānau can help her to take care of her baby"[citation needed])
Correction fluid. Twink is a New Zealand brand name which has entered the vernacular as a generic term, being the first product of its kind introduced in the 1980s. The common Australian general term is white-out.[76] Liquid Paper is also a brand name which is sometimes used as a generic term in Australia or New Zealand. As with other countries (but not Australia) the European brand Tipp-Ex is also available in New Zealand and is sometimes used as a generic term as well.
In Australia, controlled-access highways can be named as either freeway (a term not used in NZ; generally used in Victoria) or motorway (used in NZ, as well as New South Wales, Queensland, etc.), depending on the state. Tolled roads are common in some cities in Australia, and the term freeway is not used for roads that require a toll for use, the implication being that their use is not "free". "Highway" is common outside major cities in Australia.
Although the greeting "g'day" is as common in New Zealand as it is in Australia, the term "howdy" can be heard throughout New Zealand[77][78][bettersourceneeded] but not as frequently in Australia. This contraction of "how do you do?" is actually of English origin (South English dialect c.1860), however is contemporarily associated with cowboys and Southern American English, particularly Texan English where it is a common greeting. It is possible the NZ origin is from the earlier British usage. In present day, "howdy" is not commonly used, with "how are you?" being more ubiquitous. When a rising intonation is used the phrase may be interpreted as an enquiry, but when slurred quickly and/or with a descending intonation, may be used as a casual greeting.
↑ Crib is mainly used in the southern part of the South Island, bach in the rest of New Zealand.
↑ In larger cities in New Zealand convenience store is used due to immigration (and to current NZ law forbidding a dairy from selling alcohol), though dairy is used commonly in conversation.
↑ The word jandals was originally a trademarked name derived from "Japanese sandals".
↑ The term judder bar is regional in its usage in New Zealand, and is rarely encountered in some parts of the country.
Some New Zealanders often reply to a question with a statement spoken with a rising intonation at the end. This often has the effect of making their statement sound like another question. There is enough awareness of this that it is seen in exaggerated form in comedy parody of New Zealanders, such as in the 1970s comedy character Lyn Of Tawa.[79] This rising intonation can also be heard at the end of statements that are not in response to a question but to which the speaker wishes to add emphasis. High rising terminals are also heard in Australia.[80]
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. The most common use of this is in the phrase "She'll be right" meaning either "It will be okay" or "It is close enough to what is required". Similar to Australian English are uses such as "she was great car" or "she's a real beauty, this [object]".[citation needed]
Another specific New Zealand usage is the way in which New Zealanders refer to the country's two main islands. They are always (except on maps) referred to as "the North Island" and "the South Island". And because of their size, New Zealanders tend to think of these two islands as being 'places', rather than 'pieces of land', so the preposition "in" (rather than "on") is usually used – for example, "my mother lives in the North Island", "Christchurch is in the South Island". This is true only for the two main islands; for smaller islands, the usual preposition "on" is used – for example, "on Stewart Island", or "on Waiheke Island".[citation needed]
Many local everyday words have been borrowed from the Māori language, including words for local flora, fauna, place names and the natural environment.
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.[81]
Some Māori words occur in New Zealand English, such as kia ora (hello).[82]
Māori is ever present and has a significant conceptual influence in the legislature, government, and community agencies (e.g. health and education), where legislation requires that proceedings and documents be translated into Māori (under certain circumstances, and when requested). Political discussion and analysis of issues of sovereignty, environmental management, health, and social well-being thus rely on Māori at least in part. Māori as a spoken language is particularly important wherever community consultation occurs.[citation needed]
Dialects and accents
Recognisable regional variations are slight, except for Southland and the southern part of neighbouring Otago, with its "Southland burr", where the postvocalic R is pronounced rather than clipped. This southern area traditionally received heavy immigration from Scotland (see Dunedin). Several words and phrases common in Scots or Scottish English persist there; examples include the use of wee for "small", and phrases such as to do the messages meaning "to go shopping". Other Southland features which may also relate to early Scottish settlement are the use of the TRAP (short A) vowel in a set of words which usually use the PALM vowel (long A), such as dance or castle, which is also common in Australian English. Another feature is the maintaining of the /ʍ/ ~ /w/ distinction (e.g. where which and witch are not homophones).[83]
Recent research (2012) suggests that postvocalic /r/ is not restricted to Southland, but is found also in the central North Island where there may be a Pasifika influence, but also a possible influence from modern New Zealand hip‐hop music, which has been shown to have high levels of non‐prevocalic /r/ after the NURSE vowel.[83]
Taranaki has been said to have a minor regional accent, possibly due to the high number of immigrants from the south-west of England. However, this is becoming less pronounced.[84]
Some Māori have an accent distinct from the general New Zealand accent; and also tend to include Māori words more frequently. Comedian Billy T. James and the bro'Town TV programme were notable for featuring exaggerated versions of this.[85] Linguists recognise this as "Māori English", and describe it as strongly influenced by syllable-timed Māori speech patterns.[86] Linguists count "Pākehā English" as the other main accent, and note that it is beginning to adopt similar rhythms, distinguishing it from other stress-timed English accents.[87]
It is commonly held that New Zealand English is spoken very quickly.[88][89] This idea is given support by a study comparing adult New Zealand English and American English speakers which observed faster speaking and articulation rates among the New Zealand English group overall.[90] However, a similar study with American and New Zealand English-speaking children found the opposite, with the speaking and articulation rates of the New Zealand children being slower.[91] The same study proposed that differences in the relative number of tense and lax vowels between the two speaker groups may have influenced the speaking and articulation rates.[91]
Spelling
Where there is a difference between British and US spelling (such as cancelling/canceling and jewellery/jewelry), the British spelling of double-L is universally used. The British use of single-L is also universally used in words such as enrol.[citation needed]
New Zealanders use tyres, not tires, except for trademarks such as Cooper Tires.[92]
The Commonwealth spelling of kerb (at roadside) is used over US curb.[93]
New Zealand spelling of -re words such as centre, fibre, litre, and theatre has always followed the British spelling as opposed to the American center, fiber, liter, and theater.[citation needed]
Nouns with the -ce suffix such as defence and licence are usually spelt with -ce as opposed to the American defense and license.[citation needed]
With -our words like colour/color or favour/favor the spelling of -our is always used[94] unless a Trademark, such as Colorsteel[95] or The Color Run,[96] etc. Foreign official awards such as the FBI Medal Of Valor always retain their US spelling in New Zealand texts. Additionally the online version of The New Zealand Herald newspaper republishes articles with US spelling when the original article is written with US spelling, such as articles from the Associated Press. Since the advent of word processors with spell-checkers, in modern assignment writing in New Zealand universities [which?] the rule is to use either 100% British spelling or 100% American spelling, the emphasis being consistency.[97]
New Zealand English retains the distinctions between program ("computer heuristic") and programme ("schedule", "broadcast show"), disk ("information storage device") and disc ("flat circular object"), and analog (as in analog stick) and analogue (all other senses) as found in British and often in Australian[98] English.
It is usual to form past tenses and past participles of certain verbs with -t and not -ed. For example, learn becomes learnt, spoil becomes spoilt, burn becomes burnt, dream becomes dreamt/dɹemt/, and smell becomes smelt. These verb forms are pronounced with a final unvoiced /t/ sound, meaning spoilt is pronounced /spoɪlt/ not /spoɪld/. This contrasts with American English, where -ed is far more common and is pronounced /d/ (e.g. dwelled/dweld/ is an American form of dwelt/dwelt/). Learned, the adjective meaning "wise", is universally spelt thus and pronounced as two syllables (/ˈlɵːnəd/). The past tenses and past participles of earn and boil are earned and boiled respectively, though they may be pronounced ending with a /t/ sound.[citation needed]
Words with the digraphs ae and oe in British English are usually spelt as such in New Zealand English (e.g. faeces not feces) rather than with just e as with American English. There are some exceptions where certain words are becoming universally spelt with e such as encyclopaedia, chamaeleon, hyaena, and homoeopathy which are now spelt encyclopedia, chameleon, hyena, and homeopathy respectively. This is also occurring in British English in these cases too.[citation needed]
In hyperbolic statements, the spellings of ton and tons are commonly used (e.g. I have tons of friends and I feel tons better), despite the metric system with its tonne having been introduced in the 1970s.[citation needed]
In words that may be spelt with either an -ise or an -ize suffix (such as organise/organize) it is acceptable to use either in New Zealand English but -ise has taken precedence over several decades. This contrasts with American and Canadian English, where -ize is generally preferred, and British English, where -ise is also generally preferred. In Australian English -ise is strictly used.[99]
New Zealand favours fiord over fjord, unlike most other English-speaking countries. The fiord spelling was the normal one in English until the early 1920s,[100] and is preserved in many place names worldwide. In New Zealand it is used in Fiordland, a rugged region in the south-west.[citation needed]
When spelling words borrowed from Māori, New Zealand English can either spell them with macrons or without (e.g. Maori and Māori are both accepted spellings).[citation needed] Macrons have become more widespread over time.[101]
Australia and New Zealand always use jail over the British gaol (which is now considered obsolete, even in the United Kingdom).[102][103][104]
Gram, the unit of mass, is commonly spelt as such and not gramme, which is somewhat found in British English. The same holds true for the word's derivates (e.g., kilogram is more common than kilogramme).[citation needed]
Contractions (i.e. shortened words that retain the final letter of the full word) do not terminate with a full stop. Thus the abbreviation of Doctor is Dr and that of Mister is Mr, as opposed to Dr. and Mr. in American English. Initialisms and acronyms such as USA and NASA (or Nasa) also do not include full stops. This has been the practice in New Zealand since the late 1970s.[citation needed]
Australian English is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and de facto national language; while Australia has no official language, English is the first language of the majority of the population, and has been entrenched as the de facto national language since British settlement, being the only language spoken in the home for 72% of Australians. It is also the main language used in compulsory education, as well as federal, state and territorial legislatures and courts.
British English is the set of varieties of the English language native to the island of Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the British Isles taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English, Welsh English, and Ulster English. Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity".
Māori, or te reo Māori, commonly shortened to te reo, is an Eastern Polynesian language and the Indigenous language of the Māori people, the Indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. A member of the Austronesian language family, it is closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and Tahitian. The Maori Language Act 1987 gave the language recognition as one of New Zealand's official languages alongside New Zealand Sign Language which was added as an Official language in New Zealand in 2006. There are several regional dialects of the language. Prior to contact with Europeans, Māori lacked a written language or script. Written Māori now uses the Latin script, which was adopted and the spelling standardised by high-ranking Northern Māori in collaboration with English Protestant clergy in the 19th century.
English plurals include the plural forms of English nouns and English determiners. This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plurals are formed from the corresponding singular forms, as well as various issues concerning the usage of singulars and plurals in English. For plurals of pronouns, see English personal pronouns.
Pākehā is a Māori-language term for New Zealanders who have no Polynesian ethnic ancestry, primarily European New Zealanders. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. Most inclusively the term can apply to any non-Māori New Zealander. Papa'a has a similar meaning in Cook Islands Māori.
Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Modern Standard Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. English is also an official language in seven states and seven union territories of India, and the additional official language in seven other states and one union territory. Furthermore, English is the sole official language of the Indian Judiciary, unless the state governor or legislature mandates the use of a regional language, or if the President of India has given approval for the use of regional languages in courts.
The Macquarie Dictionary is a dictionary of Australian English. It is considered by many to be the standard reference on Australian English. It also pays considerable attention to New Zealand English. Originally it was a publishing project of Jacaranda Press, a Brisbane educational publisher, for which an editorial committee was formed, largely from the Linguistics department of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. It is now published by Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd. In October 2007 it moved its editorial office from Macquarie University to the University of Sydney, and later to the Pan Macmillan offices in the Sydney central business district.
"Kiwi" is a common self-reference used by New Zealanders, though it is also used internationally. Unlike many demographic labels, its usage is not considered offensive; rather, it is generally viewed as a symbol of pride and affection for most people of New Zealand.
The Half-Gallon Quarter-Acre Pavlova Paradise was a popular book by Austin Mitchell, published by Whitcombe and Tombs, with illustrations by Les Gibbard. It provided a witty, satirical description of life in 1960s New Zealand, and Kiwi culture.
English rarely uses diacritics, which are symbols indicating the modification of a letter's sound when spoken. Most of the affected words are in terms imported from other languages. The two dots accent, the grave accent and the acute accent are the only diacritics native to Modern English, and their usage has tended to fall off except in certain publications and particular cases.
Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language that is the official language of the Cook Islands. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to New Zealand Māori, but is a distinct language in its own right. Cook Islands Māori is simply called Māori when there is no need to disambiguate it from New Zealand Māori, but it is also known as Māori Kūki ʻĀirani or, controversially, Rarotongan. Many Cook Islanders also call it Te reo Ipukarea, literally "the language of the Ancestral Homeland".
Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American spelling. Many of the differences between American and British/English in the Commonwealth of Nations date back to a time before spelling standards were developed. For instance, some spellings seen as "American" today were once commonly used in Britain, and some spellings seen as "British" were once commonly used in the United States.
Overseas Experience (OE) is a New Zealand term for an extended overseas working period or holiday. Sometimes referred to as "The big OE" in reference to the extended duration of the travel - typically at least one year, and often extended far longer. It is however generally expected that the person returns after a few years with work and life experience and wider outlook. This is considered important to career development, especially among professionals.
During the 19th century, New Zealand English gained many loanwords from the Māori language. The use of Māori words in New Zealand English has increased since the 1990s, and English-language publications increasingly use macrons to indicate long vowels. Māori words are usually not italicised in New Zealand English, and most publications follow the Māori-language convention of the same word for singular and plural.
English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England. The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain.
Most New Zealand place names have a Māori or a British origin. Both groups used names to commemorate notable people, events, places from their homeland, and their ships, or to describe the surrounding area. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the whole of New Zealand before the arrival of Europeans, but post-colonisation the name Aotearoa has been used to refer to the whole country. Dutch cartographers named the islands Nova Zeelandia, the Latin translation of the Dutch Nieuw Zeeland. By the time of British exploration, the country's name was anglicised to New Zealand.
Number 8 wire is a 0.16-inch-diameter (4.064 mm) gauge of wire on the British Standard Wire Gauge that has entered into the cultural lexicon of New Zealand.
This article covers the phonological system of New Zealand English. While New Zealanders speak differently depending on their level of cultivation, this article covers the accent as it is spoken by educated speakers, unless otherwise noted. The IPA transcription is one designed by Bauer et al. (2007) specifically to faithfully represent a New Zealand accent, which this article follows in most aspects.
The distinction between rhoticity and non-rhoticity is one of the most prominent ways in which varieties of the English language are classified. In rhotic accents, the sound of the historical English rhotic consonant,, is preserved in all pronunciation contexts. In non-rhotic accents, speakers no longer pronounce in postvocalic environments: when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, in isolation, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the words hard and butter as /ˈhɑːrd/ and /ˈbʌtər/, but a non-rhotic speaker "drops" or "deletes" the sound and pronounces them as /ˈhɑːd/ and /ˈbʌtə/. When an r is at the end of a word but the next word begins with a vowel, as in the phrase "better apples," most non-rhotic speakers will preserve the in that position since it is followed by a vowel in this case.
↑ Maclagan, Margaret; Lewis, Gillian; Gordon, Elizabeth; Trudgill, Peter (2000). "Determinism in new-dialect formation and the genesis of New Zealand English". Journal of Linguistics. 36 (2): 300. doi:10.1017/S0022226700008161. S2CID143393175.
↑ Hay, Jennifer; Maclagan, Margaret; Gordon, Elizabeth (2008). New Zealand English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
↑ Maclagan, Margaret; Lewis, Gillian; Gordon, Elizabeth; Trudgill, Peter (2000). "Determinism in new-dialect formation and the genesis of New Zealand English". Journal of Linguistics. 36 (2): 300. doi:10.1017/S0022226700008161. S2CID143393175.
↑ Bauer, Laurie (2011). "Origins of NZ English"(PDF). School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. Archived(PDF) from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
↑ Deverson, Tony; New Zealand Dictionary Centre (2006). The New Zealand Oxford paperback dictionary (2nded.). Auckland: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195584790.
↑ "Why I'm moving into a bus with an 11-year-old, a dog and a cat". Stuff. 21 March 2021. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 17 April 2021. I read about a woman who bartered her way up from a bobby pin to a small cabin. I don't have enough faith or spare time for that, and I can never find a bobby pin when I need it
↑ Nixon, Kate (3 January 2011). "Queensland beach shack". Homes.ninemsn.com.au. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
↑ judder bar. Collins English Dictionary— Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved 3 September 2012 from collinsdictionary.com
↑ Kennedy, Graham & Shinji Yamazaki 1999. The Influence of Maori on the New Zealand English Lexicon. In John M. Kirk (ed), Corpora Galore: Analyses and Techniques in Describing English. Amsterdam: Rodopi: 33–44
↑ Ainsworth, Helen (2004). Regional Variation in New Zealand English: The Taranaki Sing-song Accent (PhD). Victoria University of Wellington. hdl:10063/551.
↑ Szakay, Anita (2007). Identifying Māori English and Pākehā English from Suprasegmental Cues: A Study Based on Speech Resynthesis (Thesis). University of Canterbury. hdl:10092/975.
Crystal, David (2003), The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language (2nded.), Cambridge University Press
Deverson, Tony, and Graeme Kennedy (eds.) (2005). The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
Gordon, Elizabeth; Maclagan, Margaret (2004), "Regional and social differences in New Zealand: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol.1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp.603–613, ISBN3-11-017532-0
Grant, L.E., and Devlin, G.A. (eds.) (1999). In other words: A dictionary of expressions used in New Zealand. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.
Leland, Louis S., jr. (1980). A personal Kiwi-Yankee dictionary. Dunedin: 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. ISBN978-0-19-558380-9.
Trudgill, Peter; Hannah, Jean (2002), International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English (4thed.), London: Arnold
Further reading
Hay, Jennifer; Maclagan, Margaret; Gordon, Elizabeth (2008). New Zealand English. Dialects of English. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN978-0-7486-2529-1.
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