NZ Europeans and NZE

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Where did the migrants come from?

What dialects were the settlers using when they came?

How was the language socially evaluated?

What typically occurs when dialects mix?

When did the NZ "accent" develop?

NZE
Based on Available Research

Urban English
Variety spoken by NZ Europeans
Variety spoken by middle class
Variety spoken by ‘established’ NZers

 

Prior to 1900s, little evidence of a distinctive variety of NZE
            Samuel McBurney’s (1887) list
                  I die (Oi Doi)

Prior to 1910, comments tend to focus on distinct accent
             Indifference placed on pronunciation of ‘places, it, painted’

Analyses of NZE:
Phonetics
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Lexicon
Pragmatics


Phonetic Differences:
Consonants
    Few differences
    Primarily sociolinguistic in nature
Vowels
    More distinctions
    Considerable variation
Prosodics

Vowels

Fleece	Cloth/Lot	Mouth
Kit	Foot	Goat
Dress	Goose	Near
Trap	Nurse	Square
Strut	Face	Thought/Force
Balm/Palm/	Price	Cure
Start	Choice	Cure

Phonology:
Ear/Air contrast
Sure/Shore contrast
Mergers before r and l

Ear/Air

Beer, hair, there, sheer, shear, bear, here, where, near, fare, dare, deer, fear, year, veer, lair, cheer, queer, leer, hear, chair, wear, rear, tier, rare, tear, pare, peer, pair, care, fair, mare, gear, jeer

Source: Gordon & Deverson 1998