New Zealand English is the dialect of English spoken in New Zealand.
New Zealand English is close to Australian English in pronunciation. Possibly the only difference between New Zealand and British spelling is in the ending "-ise" or "-ize". New Zealanders use the "-ise" ending exclusively, whereas Britons use either ending, and some British dictionaries and style manuals prefer the "-ize" ending.
Many local everyday words are not English at all, being traditional Māori language names for local flora, fauna, and the natural environment, and some other Māori words have made their way into the vernacular.
In 1998, Oxford University Press produced a Dictionary of New Zealand English that it claimed was based on over 40 years of research. This research started with Harry Orsman's 1951 thesis and continued with his publishing this dictionary as the editor. To assist with and maintain this work, the New Zealand Dictionary Centre was founded in 1997.
Examples of centuries old Māori names for native birds are the kiwi, kea, kakapo, tui and pukeko, the extinct moa, and the kotuku or white heron. There are also fish such as hoki, kahawai, tarakihi or terakihi and mako shark, and shellfish like toheroa and paua.
Most of the native trees also have Māori names such as the kauri, rimu, totara, kowhai, matagouri and pohutukawa. Other vegetation with Māori names includes the kumara, a type of sweet potato.
The word kiwi has acquired other meanings, most commonly as an informal term for New Zealander, or as an adjective instead of New Zealand. The use of kiwi to refer to kiwifruit is not part of New Zealand English.
Many Māori words or phrases that describe Māori culture have become part of New Zealand English. Some of these are:
Other Māori words may be recognised by most New Zealanders, but generally not used in everyday speech:
New Zealanders also refer to Māori people, in the plural as Māori, not as 'Māoris', and this is often pronounced as 'maw-rri' with a trilled 'r'.
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 te reo 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
The dominant influence of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) upon New Zealand English is lexical. An 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.
The use of Māori words is increasing, particularly in the North Island, although there are regional variations. For instance, in most of the country the native wood pigeon is called "kereru", but in Northland it is called "kukupa" and sometime "kuku", and on theChatham Islands the "parea"
"Kia ora" literally means "be healthy" but it has also become a standard term of greeting, meaning "hello" or "welcome". It also signifies agreement with a speaker at a meeting. Other Māori greetings, "Tena koe" {one person} or "Tena koutou" {three or more people} are also widely used. Similarly the phrase for goodbye, "Haere Ra", which may also be the origin of the once much widely used NZ phrase for goodbye "Hooray".
Greeting someone on a cold morning is sometimes expressed as "Makariri nei?", (cold isn't it?). This phrase may have spawned the bastard Māori-English word "maka-chilly" which probably started as a joke and is not widely used. The slang word "buggered" is often equated with the Māori word for "broken", "Pakaru", and is synonymous with "Pakarued"
There are also many non-Māori words that are unique to New Zealand English, or shared with Australia.
The most noticeable difference in pronunciation is probably the flat "i", so that "six" is pronounced in a way sounding like "sucks". This is a part of the vowel shift that has occurred in New Zealand.
Below, the latter word is how the former word sounds to the ears of a non-New Zealander:
Note that many of the differences listed below are avoided by New Zealanders speaking "properly", as in public speaking for example, in which case the main differences are the shifted vowel sounds listed here.
Typically, a New Zealander 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 British English.
This has also been seen (rarely) in the pronunciation of the word three, where the schwa appears between the 'th' and the 'r', creating a two-syllable word.
In thicker New Zealand accents, words like "chair" and "cheer", (/tSE@/, /tSI@/) are pronounced the same way (/tSI@/, i.e. as "cheer" in British, American or Australian English). The same occurs with "shared" and "sheared", both are pronounced /SI@d/. This pronunciation is not universal, many New Zealanders do in fact distinguish these words. (SAMPA used for phonetic transcriptions.)
Younger speakers tend to merge toward /I@/, while middle-aged speakers tend to merge toward /E@/. This merging has been seen in some other varieties of English, but notably not in Australian English.
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. There is enough awareness of this that it is seen in exaggerated form in comedy parody of working class/uneducated new Zealanders.
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 face a similar problem, frequently being 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.
The short 'i' in New Zealand English is pronounced as a schwa (SAMPA /@/). In Australian English, the short 'u' is the vowel closest to the New Zealand pronunciation, so an Australian hears "fush and chups" when a New Zealander is saying "fish and chips". Conversely, the closest sound in New Zealand English to the Australian short 'i' (SAMPA /I/) is 'ee' (SAMPA /i/), so New Zealanders may hear Australians talking about the "Seedney Harbour Breedge".
Recent linguistic research has suggested that this trait is sourced 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 a mystery.
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".
The New Zealand pronunciation of words like "dance" uses the same vowel sound as the "a" in "car", i.e. /dAnts/, resembling the broad A of British English. The common Australian pronunciation rhymes with "ants", i.e. /d{nts/. However, either form may be used in Australia, with the former usually used in South Australia, and common in New South Wales.
"More" and "sure" are pronounced mua and shua, whereas in Australia they would be pronounced as maw and shaw.
Pronunication of the letter 'h' is 'aitch', as in Britain and North America, as opposed to the aspirated 'haitch', found in Australian English, in turn of Hiberno-English origin.
Pronunication of the letter 'l' at the end of a word such as kill, is sometimes voiced as a 'w'. This is further found in lower class areas. 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' to a speaker outside of New Zealand). Although this varies greatly in different areas and between different socio-economic groups in New Zealand itself.
Other differences in the dialects relate to words used to refer to common items, often based on major brands:
| NZ | Australia | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| jandals | thongs | backless sandals (or flip-flops in other English dialects) |
| chilly bin | Esky | insulated container for keeping drinks and food cool |
| Swanndri | Driza-Bone | The quintessential back-country farmer's jacket of each country, a woollen shirt and oilskin jacket respectively. |
| dairy | milk bar | A kind of convenience store. |
| duvet | doona | A padded blanket |
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.
Most Kiwis speak Newzild "as she is spoke": geographical variations appear slight, and mainly confined to individual special local words. One group of speakers, however, hold a recognised place as "talking differently": the South of the South Island (Murihiku) harbours a "Celtic fringe" of people speaking with a "Southland burr" in which a back-trilled 'r' appears prominently. The area formed a traditional repository of immigration from Scotland.
The trilled 'r' is also used by some Māori, who may also pronounce 't' and 'k' sounds almost as 'd' and 'g'. This is also encountered in South African English, especially among Afrikaans speakers.
It is in metaphorical phrases that NZ English has made most progress or divergence. Often they reflect significant differences in culture, for example:
Ladies, a plate is often seen as part of the advertisement for social functions. It means that the function is self catering; people attending are meant to bring a plate full of food. Many new arrivals in New Zealand have mistaken this and turned up with an empty plate, but only once.
Up the Puhoi without a paddle meaning to be in difficulties without an obvious solution. The Puhoi is a river just north of Auckland. Over the years the phrase has evolved and is now often heard as "Up the Boo-eye without a paddle". It is also sometimes attributed to other New Zealand rivers. It will be interesting if the phrase can withstand competition from the modern and very colourful variant "Up shit creek without a Paddle".
A variant of the latter is up the boohai shooting pukeko with a long-handled shovel, meaning a fictitious place.
Wide enough for an Ox team to do a U-ie Said of very wide roads.
Sticky Beak meaning someone unduly curious about other people's affairs, ie nosey parker. Sticky beak is used in both New Zealand and Australia with the same meaning but slightly different emphasis. In Australia "sticky beak" is quite pejorative, to be called sticky beak is definitely a criticism whereas in New Zealand it is used with more affection, it is often used as a tease.
Box of Birds or even more colloqially "Box of Fluffies" meaning to feel very good. "How are you feeling? Oh, a Box of Birds"
Rattle yer Dags an instruction to hurry up. Sheep running through gates and yards often make a curious rattling noise caused by their 'dags' (dried faeces) clattering together. Similarly "He's a bit of a Dag" describes someone as a comedian. The word "dagg" possibly derives from the regional English word, "daglock" meaning the same thing. See also Fred Dagg.
Get in behind, ya bloody mongrel! a rural phrase, used with humour or anger. Used by Wallace Footrot, to exhort his much-maligned Dog.
The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise was an affectionate term for NZ, back in the 1970's