Our colonial ancestors were appalled to hear the dialect that developed following their arrival and set about trying to stamp it out in favor of British English, to no avail. So how do you go about nailing the Kiwi accent without accidentally slipping into Australian English? Read on for some tips for understanding New Zealand English, famous among linguists for being the first dialect to have its entire development recorded on tape. The easiest way to distinguish a Kiwi accent from that of our Aussie neighbors is the particular way we mangle our vowels.
But the sounds we make to tell you this will vary wildly. Fans of the TV show Flight of the Conchords will also have noticed that band member Bret struggles to introduce himself to New Yorkers , who hear his name as Brit. Similarly, in New Zealand, eggs are iggs. Coming from such a small and far-flung nation, New Zealanders feel like we have to work a bit harder to prove ourselves in the global arena.
Also known as rising inflection or upspeak , this is where speakers raise their voices at the end of sentences, causing ordinary statements to sound more like questions? A simple statement spoken with confidence in any other English dialect comes out sounding peculiar in New Zealand English.
Otherwise, you might find yourself in New Zealand attempting to answer a lot of strange questions about topics you know nothing about like whether the mother of someone you just met is really a teacher or not. In , an informal New Zealand English dictionary was published called, New Zild and how to speak it. When it comes to swallowing letters, the letter L seems to have a particularly difficult time permeating New Zealand speech.
According to linguists, we New Zealand English speakers are continuing our trend of inelegance. Our latest crime: merging our diphthongs, otherwise known as a sound that is comprised of two vowels that merge together. Words that would be pronounced with at least some level of distinction in other English dialects are closer to homophones in New Zenglish. If we were to visualize a spectrum of aural difference within English accents, where Australians are on the leftmost side and Americans on the rightmost, you could place New Zealanders closer to the Aussie side and Brits somewhere in the middle.
Non-rhotic English, or non-rhotic accents, are characterized by dropping the [r] sound with words ending in R, like in most British accents. So why are these two accents so close and yet so far apart? Proponents of the Mixing Bowl theory believe that the new accent evolved from the mixture of accents and dialects of original immigrants to both New Zealand and Australia. Meanwhile, those who believe in the Single Origin theory believe that Kiwis and Aussies are both descended from a particular variety of British English.
Since they had similar immigrant groups, their accents must be similar. Try Babbel. Toggle Menu. Ready to learn? Pick a language to get started! Vowel Pronunciation Although Australians and Kiwis might sound comparatively close to the untrained ear, research has shown there is a distinct contrast in the pronunciation of vowels.
Slang And Vocabulary Australians and New Zealanders are two countries that are particularly fond of using colloquialisms and slang in everyday speech. Abbreviations Australians also love to shorten and abbreviate their words, which is a key aspect of Australian English.
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