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New Zealand English
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New Zealand English (NZE), one of the younger varieties of English, is the product of this region’s particular colonial experience and history as an independent commonwealth nation. Immigration to NZ from Australia and different parts of Britain has had a significant bearing on the way NZE developed; this variety evidences the linguistic influences of both British English (BrE) and Australian English (AusE). Linguists reference the ‘melting pot’ theory when explaining how NZE emerged. Essentially, “a new dialect arises when speakers of various dialects of English are thrown together, as in these colonial situations” (Gordon et al 76). NZE or ‘New Zild’ is generally thought to have emerged in its present form as late as the 1940s. However, the process of linguistic change began earlier, spoken English in NZ having undergone great change in the nineteenth century.
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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 ... show the influence of Māori speech. The most striking difference from Australian and other forms of English (although shared partly with South African English) is the
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“Southland speech” or “the Southland dialect” is a regional variant of New Zealand English popularly associated with the provincial district of Southland in the south and south-west of the South Island. It has developed from the original lowland Scottish dialect-complex of the early immigrants. Though more noticeable in rural Southland, many of the features of the dialect extend over most of rural Otago, and one at least (the pronunciation of r before consonants or at the end of words) well into South Canterbury. In the cities of Dunedin and (perhaps) Invercargill “the Southland dialect” is giving way to the general New Zealand dialect.
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One million words of spoken New Zealand English collected in the years 1988 to 1994. The corpus consists of 2,000 word extracts (where possible) and comprises different proportions of formal, semi-formal and informal speech. Both monologue and dialogue categories are included and there is broadcast as well as private material collected in a range of settings. Seventy-five percent of the corpus is informal dialogue. The New Zealand component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-NZ) One million words of spoken and written New Zealand English collected in the years 1989 to 1994. ICE-NZ consists of 600,000 words of speech and 400,000 words of written text.
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New Zealanders are amongst the highest users of electronic banking services in the world. Automatic teller machines (ATMs), locally known as 'the hole in the wall', are available in just about every town, even those without a bank. Most shops have Eftpos (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale) terminals for debit and credit cards, so most purchases can be made electronically. Credit cards are not accepted by some merchants with Eftpos, especially smaller food retailers such as dairies, takeaways and cafes that do not serve alcohol. Also smaller retailers may often set a minimum purchase of around $10 when obtaining cash, if they agree to provide cash. Banks offer a wide range of telephone and Internet banking services.
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New Zealand English