New Zealand English

New Zealand English is the dialect of English spoken in New Zealand, occasionally referred to within New Zealand as Newzild.

New Zealand English is close to Australian English in pronunciation, but has several subtle differences often overlooked by people from outside these countries. Some of these differences show New Zealand English to have more affinity with the English of southern England than Australian English does. Several of the differences also show the influence of Maori speech. The most striking difference from Australian English (and other forms of English) is the flattened i of New Zealand English. The New Zealand accent also has some Scottish and Irish influences from the large number of settlers from those places during the 19th century.

Spelling

Where there is a distinct difference between British and US spelling (such as words like colour/color and travelled/traveled), the British spelling is universally found in New Zealand. New Zealand English sticks very closely to British English in spelling, more so than does Australian English. Some Americanisms have begun to creep into the country through their exposure in mass media (such as "thru" for "through"), though these spellings are frowned upon and are definitely regarded as non-standard.

Despite mass media exposure (through early childhood programmes such as Sesame Street) to the American English pronunciation "zee" for the last letter of the alphabet, the British English "zed" is standard. This is reflected in the short form of the country name "NZ" ("en-zed") and in a popular NZ band, Zed. The acronym is used in many organisational names including the band Split Enz, WINZ (Work and Income NZ, now a division of the Ministry of Social Development), TRADENZ (now NZ Trade and Enterprise), and ENZA (which was the New Zealand Apple & Pear Marketing Board's trademarked brand for export pipfruit).

-ise

Possibly the most significant difference between New Zealand and British spelling is in the ending -ise or -ize. Although -ise is the more popular ending in both countries, some British dictionaries and style manuals prefer the -ize ending. New Zealand dictionaries and style manuals use the -ise ending exclusively.

fiord

A peculiarity of New Zealand English is that the spelling "fiord" is preferred over the spelling "fjord" used in most of the English-speaking world. This spelling is found in the name of the Fiordland National Park in the southwest of the South Island.

Māori influence

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. See Māori influence on New Zealand English.

The dominant influence of the Māori language (te reo Māori) upon 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.

Another sphere in which Māori is ever present and has a significant conceptual influence is in the legislature, government, and community agencies (i.e, health and education). Political discussion and analysis of issues of sovereignty, environmental management, health, and social well-being rely on te reo Māori at least in part. Māori as a spoken language is particularly important wherever community consultation occurs.

Pronunciation of Māori place names

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

• Paraparaumu — para-pram
• Pauatahanui — part-a-noo-ee
• Oakura — okra
• Hawera — hara
• Te Awamutu — tee-awa-moot or tee-a-mootu
• Waikouaiti — wacker-wite or weka-what
• Katikati — Kati-kat
• Otorohanga — Oh-tra-hung-a
• Papatoetoe - Papp-a-toh-e"

To further confuse matters, many southern Māori words, which have a distinctive pronunciation that differs from standard Māori, are frequently mistaken for anglicisations and "corrected". These include the pronunciation of Oamaru as Om-a-roo and of Kawarau as Ka-warra.

A mixture of southern Māori speech patterns and anglicisation leads to a third trend, the removal of the final vowel of place names, or the reduction of final vowels to a schwa. This is particularly common in the southern South Island. This pattern also results in local shibboleths, and result in such pronunciations as Lake Wakatipu being referred to as Wakatip, and Otago being pronounced o-taag-uh.

New Zealand English vocabulary

There are also many non-Māori words used in New Zealand English that are not in standard English.

The following are shared with Australia or other countries:

• arvo — afternoon
• bong - (pronounced boong), it is a derogatory term for a Maori or Aborigine, though in New Zealand, the suffix 'uh' is added.
• dropkick — a mildly derogatory term for a person who is unpredictable and unreliable. Refers to a style of kicking the ball in rugby.
• chips - "hot chips" US "French fries" and UK "chips".
• chunder - vomit.
• Claytons — low-quality imitation, not the real thing. For example, a hasty, temporary repair may be only a Claytons solution to a problem. Originally from the brand-name of a non-alcoholic whisky-flavoured beverage.
• footpath — pavement or sidewalk, shared by many countries outside US.
• fag - a cigarette. Also used in the UK.
• fanny — a crude word for female genitals, as in the UK. Not buttocks as in US, hence words such as "Fannypack" should be avoided in New Zealand (the New Zealand term is "bumbag").
• footy — football (usually Rugby Union, rarely League or soccer).
• G'day/ Gidday — standard New Zealand greeting ("good day").
• lolly — any sweet (candy). Iced lollies are "ice blocks".
• onya — expression of approval. Short for "good on yer" (you).
• pom — British person, usually English (derogatory).
• to pack a sad — to be depressed - often with overtones of anger (see also "throw a wobbly") - shared with Australia.
• smoko — rest break during work (especially as smoking is totally banned in workplaces. Said smoke-o).
• super — old age pension scheme (from superannuation).
• sweet as or just sweet — fine with me. The use of 'as' as an intensifier for adjectives has spread, for example 'It's cold as outside', or 'This summer has been hot as'.
• to throw a wobbly — to be angry or have a tantrum (see also "pack a sad") - shared with Australia and the UK.
• ute "utility vehicle" (i.e., Pickup truck).
• wagon US station wagon, UK estate car

These are unique to New Zealand:

• bach — a small holiday home, usually near the beach, often with only one or two rooms and of simple construction. Pronounced "batch".
• cher bro pronounced chair — usually a strong voicing of thanks but also a parting salutation. Shortened from "cheers brother" although can be said to either male or female. Common in South and West Auckland.
• chip, punnet or pottle — depending on the region, the unit by which strawberries and certain other fruit are sold. Pottle is also a standard term for containers of yoghurt.
• chippies — or potato chips, as in US "chips" and UK "crisps"
• chippie — a carpenter (same as the nickname in England), or a fish and chip shop.
• choice! — excellent! Great idea!
• coconut - derogatory term for a Pacific Islander.
• crib — another word for bach, more commonly used in the south of the South Island.
• cuzzie bro — close friend, commonly used by Maori. Short for cousin brother.
• The Ditch — the Tasman Sea, the "ditch" separating New Zealand and Australia. Occasionally also refers to Cook Strait, which separates the two main islands of the country.
• domain — as well as its common overseas uses can mean a public park, especially a small flat grassed area within urban surroundings (from demesne: any estate in land).
• eh! — used for emphasis at the end of a sentence, eh! (see note above on Māori influence. A similar but not identical usage is found in Canadian English).
• flat — a rented dwelling. Often a large multilevel home will be converted into an upstairs and downstairs flats, but there are fully-detached flats and blocks of flats as well. The term apartment is usually used for blocks of flats with shared internal access. (This is distinctly different from the British usage of the term, which is restricted to units within a block of flats).
• flatting — sharing a flat
• freezing works — a meat-packing plant, an abattoir.
• flash — stylish, expensive
• fulla — guy. Taken from fella (US) or fellow (UK)
• Godzone - New Zealand: corruption from 'God's Own Country'. NZers prefer this term to 'down under'.
• hard case — a person who has a very good sense of humour, a comedian.
• Jafa — a derogatory description (as "Just Another Fucking Aucklander") of Aucklanders used by non-Aucklanders. A play on the popular lolly, Jaffas.
• Jandals — as in US and UK "flip-flops", Australia "thongs". Portmanteau of Japanese Sandal.
• longdrop — as in US "outhouse" or "portapotty"
• lux — to use the vacuum cleaner, similar to British use of "hoover" (which is also widely used in NZ)
• Mainland — usually, but not always, refers (sometimes mildly humorously) to the South Island, which, despite its much smaller population, is the larger of the two main islands of New Zealand.
• OE or Big OE — Overseas Experience, time spent travelling and working overseas, usually beginning in London.
• Pig Island — as per mainland.
• Queen Street farmer — a usually pejorative term for an investor in rural land with no knowledge of land use.
• Remuera tractor — a usually pejorative term for an SUV (compare Queen Street farmer, above).
• scarfie — a university student, particularly one at the University of Otago.
• sup - usually used by itself as a greeting (ie "sup?", as in "whatsup?"). Sometimes used together with "ow" (ie "Sup ow"). An appropriate response has yet to be discovered but is usually responded to with "sup".
• takeaway - take-out food. Pronouncing it as 'taakawhy' makes it sound Maori - the joke being that the word is Maori for 'food' (which is actually 'kai').
• tin - a fluke (as in playing pool, to 'tin' a shot is to make a lucky shot).
• tutū — to have a play or fiddle with something, as in "stop tutūing!". From the Māori word for trouble-maker.
• varsity — in New Zealand refers to the university itself, not to a sports team.
• wack—something broken, not right. could refer to a person or an object.
• wag—to play truant, e.g. Tom's wagging school today.
• West Island - Australia.
• WOF/Warrant — (Warrant Of Fitness), vehicle roadworthiness test, similar to British MoT and the Australian Roadworthy Certificate, except that it is required 6-monthly for older vehicles.

Unique and distinctive phrases

It is in metaphorical phrases that NZ English has made most progress or divergence. Often they reflect significant differences in culture, for example:

• Bring 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 Boohai 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". Similar phrases can be found throughout the English speaking world.

• A variant of the latter is up the boohai shooting pukeko with a long-handled shovel, meaning a fictitious place.

• Waikikamukau ("Why-kick-a-moo-cow") is also often used to represent a fictitious place, particularly as a sparsely populated rural area in the "back of beyond", and is a pun on the sound of many Māori placenames. Similar, but very rarely used now, is Erewhon, the title of a book by 19th century novelist Samuel Butler, and also the name he gave a high country station in Canterbury. It is of course (nearly) the word "nowhere" backwards, and has an almost Māori appearance except that it does not end with a vowel. Although rarely heard in common parlance, a number of places have been named Erewhon: Erewhon Tce and Erewhon Park in Christchurch, and also Mountain bike tracks.

• Wide enough for an ox team to do a u-ie — Said of very wide roads.

• Box of birds, box of bees or even more colloquially "box of fluffies" or "box of fluffy ducks" meaning to feel very good, chirping even.

"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 on wool about their hind-quarters) clattering together. Similarly "He's a bit of a dag" describes someone as a comedian. The word "dag" possibly derives from the regional English word "daglock" (Middle English dagge) meaning the same thing. See also Fred Dagg, Footrot Flats.

• The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise was an affectionate term for NZ back in the 1970s. It was originally the title of a book written by expatriate Austin Mitchell.

• No wucking furries is a deliberate spoonerism to moderate the phrase, "no fucking worries".

• Having you on is to pull someone's leg. For example, "I was just having you on."

• To give someone hassles is to hassle someone into doing something or annoying them.

• Nah bo or Yeah bo are commonly used responses used by teens to mean "no way" or "yes, of course". The word "bo" (or "boh") is a variation of the word "bro" (or "brother"). The words "nah" and "yeah" are usually stretched out (ie "naaaaaaaaah bo" or "yeeeeeeeeeeeeah bo").

• Not even ow is a phrase that has become increasingly popular since its appearance on the New Zealand cartoon Bro' Town. Mostly used by younger people to mean "No way!" and is identified as a "maori-ism".

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.

Differences from British English

Main article: phonemic differentiation.

Front vowels and the flattened 'i'

A noticeable vowel shift has occurred in New Zealand English. Front vowels, with one exception, are pronounced higher in the mouth than in British English, but the most noticeable difference in pronunciation is probably the flat "i", which is lower and further back, so that "six" is pronounced in a way sounding to other English speakers like "sucks", and "fish and chips" sounds like "fush and chups".

Below, the latter word is how the former word sounds to the ears of a non-New Zealander:

• pan → pen
• pen → pin
• pin → pun
• peek → peck

Note that many of the differences listed above 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.

Additional Schwa

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 heard (rarely) in the pronunciation of the word three, where the schwa appears between the 'th' and the 'r', creating a two-syllable word.

Distinction between /eə/ and /ɪə/

In thicker New Zealand accents, words like "chair" and "cheer", (/tʃeə/, /tʃɪə/) are 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. This pronunciation is not universal, and many New Zealanders do distinguish these words (IPA used for phonetic transcriptions).
Younger speakers tend to merge toward /ɪə/, while middle-aged speakers tend to merge toward /eə/. This merging has been seen in some other varieties of English, but notably not in Australian English.

Lack of distinction between /ɔ/ and /ɐ/

There is a tendency for some words in New Zealand English to be pronounced with /ɔ/ rather than the /ɐ/ found in Southern British English, especially in those cases where the vowel with this particular sound is a stressed "a". Thus 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.

Rising Inflection

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. High rising terminals are also heard in various other regional forms of English.

Use of 'She' as third person neuter

New Zealanders, in informal speech, will often 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. Thus phrases such as "She's a beaut day" (that is, it's a beautiful day) are not uncommon. The most common use of this is in the phrase "She'll be right" meaning either "It will be OK" or "It is close enough to what is required".

Differences from Australian English

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.

Short 'i'

The short 'i' in New Zealand English is pronounced as a schwa /ə/. In Australian English, the short 'u' is often thought to be the vowel closest to the New Zealand pronunciation. So Australians frequently joke about New Zealanders having "fush and chups" instead of "fish and chips". However, it is really closer to an almost dropped vowel, so it's more like "f'sh and ch'ps".

Conversely, the closest sound in New Zealand English to the Australian short 'i' /ɪ/ is 'ee' /i/, so New Zealanders may hear Australians talking about the "Seedney Harbour Breedge".

Recent linguistic research has suggested that this trait comes 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 not known. It is, however, also encountered in Scottish English, and given the relatively higher level of Scottish emigration to New Zealand than Australia, this may also be an influence.

Short 'e'

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".

Chance, dance, etc

The New Zealand pronunciation of words like "dance" uses the same vowel sound as the "a" in "car", in other words /daːns/, resembling the broad A of British English. The common Australian pronunciation rhymes with "ants": /dæns/. However, either form may be used in Australia, with the former usually used in South Australia (and almost universal in Adelaide), and common in New South Wales.

More/sure

Under American influences, many youth pronounce "more" and "sure" as mua and shua, whereas their Australian counterparts continue to pronounce them as maw and shaw as do all older New Zealanders.

Schwa in unstressed syllables

New Zealanders tend to be more likely to turn a vowel in an unstressed syllable into a schwa, although this is far from a universal trait. A clear example of this trait, however, is shown in the pronunciation of Australia's state of Queensland, which in IPA terms would be /'kwinzlənd/ to a New Zealander (rhyming with "seasoned"), but /'kwinzˌlænd/ to an Australian (rhyming with "freehand"). This difference seems analogous in some ways to attempts by speakers not familiar with British place names to fully pronounce the -shire endings of county names.

Letter 'h'

Pronunciation of the name of the letter 'h' is /eɪtʃ/, as in Great Britain and North America, as opposed to the aspirated /heɪtʃ/, found in (Australian English—although this is still widely debated within educational institutions around Australia), in turn of Hiberno-English origin. (This refers only to the pronunciation of the letter's name, not to the pronunciation of words beginning with that letter.)

Letter 'l'

Pronunciation of the letter 'l' at the end of a word such as kill, is sometimes voiced as a 'w'. This is further found in provincial cities and towns. 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(k)' to a speaker outside of New Zealand). Although this varies greatly in different areas and between different socio-economic groups within New Zealand itself. This seems to be most commonly found in South Auckland.

Vocabulary differences

Other differences in the dialects relate to words used to refer to common items, often based on major brands:

NZ	Australia	Explanation
chilly bin	Esky	insulated container for keeping drinks and food cool
dairy	milk bar delicatessen	A kind of convenience store
duvet	doona	A padded blanket
jandals	thongs	backless sandals (or flip-flops in other English dialects: 'J (apanese S) andals')
judder bar	speed hump	Traffic speed limiting device
oilskin	Driza-Bone	The quintessential back-country farmer's coat of each country, both made from oilskin
togs cossies	bathers cossies	Swimwear (see Australian words for swimwear)
trolley	shopping trolley	A device for transporting shopping, within supermarket precincts
trundler	?	A two-wheeled device for transporting shopping from local shops. Now rarely seen.

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.

A traditional difference, between the New Zealand "varsity" and the Australian "uni", is rapidly disappearing with the adoption of "uni" into New Zealand vocabulary.

Dialects within New Zealand English

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, holds 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 trilled 'r' appears prominently. This dialect is also rhotic; that is, speakers 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. This southern area formed a traditional repository of immigration from Scotland. Several words and phrases common in Scots or Scottish English still persist in this area as well. Some examples of this include the use of wee to mean "small", and phrases such as to do the messages meaning "to go shopping". Many of the region's place names also reflect their Scottish origin, such as those of the region's two main cities (Invercargill and Dunedin) which both have Scots Gaelic origins.

The trilled 'r' is also used by some Māori speakers, who may also pronounce 't' and 'k' sounds almost as 'd' and 'g', especially in the south of the country (see Maori language for more details). This is also encountered in South African English, especially among Afrikaans speakers. The Maori 'r', though, is more like a short 'd'.

Some speakers from the West Coast of the South Island retain a half Australian accent from the region's 19th century goldrush settlers.

Dictionaries of New Zealand English

The first comprehensive dictionary dedicated to the species of English spoken in New Zealand was probably the Heinemann New Zealand dictionary, published in 1979. This work, edited by Harry Orsman, was a comprehensive 1300-page book covering English as spoken in New Zealand, with information relating to the usage and pronunciation of terms that were both widely accepted throughout the English-speaking world and those peculiar to New Zealand. The book included a one-page list of the approximate date of entry into common parlance of many terms found in New Zealand English but not found elsewhere, such as "haka" (1827), "Boohai" (1920), and "bach" (1905).

In 1997, Oxford University Press produced the Dictionary of New Zealand English, 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. Since then it has published several more dictionaries of New Zealand English, culminating in the publication of The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary in 2004.

A more light-hearted look at English as spoken in New Zealand, A personal Kiwi-Yankee dictionary, was written by American-born Otago University psychology lecturer Louis Leland in 1980. This slim but entertaining volume lists many of the potentially confusing and/or misleading terms for Americans visiting or migrating to New Zealand. A second edition was published during the 1990s.

See also

• Australian English
• Culture of New Zealand
• Māori influence on New Zealand English
• New Zealand humour

Further reading

• Cryer, Max. (2002). Curious Kiwi Words. Auckland, NZ: HarperCollinsPublishers (NZ) Ltd.
• Dictionary of New Zealand English (1998). Oxford University Press.
• Grant, L.E., and Devlin, G.A. (eds.) (1999). In other words: A dictionary of expressions used in New Zealand. Palmerston North, NZ: Dunmore Press.
• Leland, Louis S., jr. (1980). A personal Kiwi-Yankee dictionary. Dunedin, NZ: John McIndoe Ltd.
• Orsman, H.W., (ed.) (1979). Heinemann New Zealand dictionary. Auckland, NZ: Heinemann Educational Books (NZ) Ltd.

External links

• Origins of New Zealand English
• New Zealand Dictionary Centre
  • New Zealand English in the 21st century
• Kiwi Words & Phrases