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New Zealand English: New Zealanders
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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. This rising inflection can ... be heard at the end of statements, which are not in response to a question but to which the speaker wishes to add emphasis. High rising terminals are also heard in various other regional forms of English.
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Variations between NZE and BrE are the product of not only the influence of Australia and the physical separation of New Zealanders from English speakers in Great Britain but from contact with speakers of Te Reo Maori. The new environment of NZ necessitated the processes of word-formation and word-borrowing. Consequently, most of the differences between BrE and NZE are lexical.
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New Zealanders have a reputation for enjoying their beer. Although there are now only three major breweries, there are many regional brands, each with their own distinctive taste and staunch supporters. Watch out for brewery owned pubs, the competition's beer is not sold there.
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New Zealanders have their own accent which is similar to but possibly less pronounced than the Australian accent. As in any country there is a wide diversity in the way individuals speak but in general terms New Zealanders are quick talkers who are able to achieve this increased pace by not fully pronouncing the vowels or, indeed, some of the consonants as well. Hence New Zealand becomes "Noozilan". If you can't understand what someone is saying just ask them to repeat what they have said more slowly.
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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". This is similar to Australian English.
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Around the time of World War One, in which NZ soldiers were nicknamed ‘Kiwis,’ it became clear that NZE was moving further away from British English. This trend was a matter of concern to many New Zealanders, perhaps because they were still devouring British cultural productions and maintained economic and political ties to ‘the Homeland’. According to a study done as late as in 1947, “New Zealand literature was hardly being read at all among these New Zealand children” (Turner 68).
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