New Zealand English phonology

Monophthongs The vowels of New Zealand English are similar to that of other non-rhotic dialects such as Australian English and RP, but with some distinctive variations, which are indicated by the transcriptions for New Zealand vowels in the tables below: ; chain shift : • The original short front vowels () have undergone a chain shift to . Before the shift, these vowels were pronounced close to the corresponding RP sounds. The stages of the shift are described below. • was raised from near-open to open-mid . • was raised from mid to close-mid . • was first centralised to and then was lowered to , merging with the word-internal allophone of as in abbot . This effectively removes the distinction between full and reduced vowels from the dialect as it makes a stressable vowel. • The now-close-mid was further raised to near-close . This encroaches on the vowel space of . • The unstressed close front vowel in happy and video is tense and so it belongs to the phoneme: , . ; • The vowel is very central, and may be realised with an on-glide, with becoming . ; • The vowel is not only higher and more front than the corresponding RP vowel , but it is also realised with rounded lips, unlike its RP counterpart. John Wells remarks that the surname Turner as pronounced by a New Zealander may sound very similar to a German word Töne (meaning 'tones'). Possible phonetic realizations include near-close front , near-close central , close-mid front , close-mid central , mid front and open-mid front . It appears that realizations lower than close-mid are more prestigious than those of close-mid height and higher, so that pronunciations of the word nurse such as and are less broad than , etc. Close allophones may overlap with monophthongal realizations of . Sources conflict on whether there may be a potential or incipient – merger. ;, • forms a short-long pair with , which means that hut contrasts with heart purely by length, like in Australian English. The quality of those vowels is that of retracted cardinal : , open central , or somewhat higher . ;– split • New Zealand English has the – split: words like dance , chance , plant and grant are pronounced with an sound, as in Southern England and South Australia. However, for many decades prior to World War II there existed an almost even split between the pronunciation of dance as or , plant as or , etc. ''Can't is also pronounced in New Zealand (like Australia but unlike the North American pronunciation with the vowel). Some older Southland speakers use the vowel rather than the vowel in dance, chance and castle'', so that they are pronounced rather than . ; • The vowel may have an off-glide, more often word-finally but also in closed syllables, turning oar into or . • It is can be slightly centralised () and ranges between and in height. so that the phrase ''that's neither here nor there is pronounced in General NZE, with here rhyming with there. In Cultivated NZE, the distinction is maintained: . Similarly, beer and bear as well as really and rarely'' are homophones: , . There is some debate as to the quality of the merged vowel, but the consensus appears to be that it is towards a close variant, . The proportion of teenagers showing the merger increased from 16% in 1983 to 80% in 1999. The merger is nearly complete, with most younger speakers being unable to tell the two diphthongs apart. As the merger is not yet fully complete, it is transcribed only in phonetic transcription, whereas in phonemic transcription the distinction is maintained: , etc. ;Changes before • Before , becomes , making go sound different to goal . This vowel change may lead to a merger with () (doll vs dole ), especially when the is vocalised. This has been labelled the lexical set by . Transcriptions Sources differ in the way they transcribe New Zealand English. The differences are listed below. The traditional phonemic orthography for the Received Pronunciation as well as the reformed phonemic orthographies for Australian and General South African English have been added for the sake of comparison. ==Consonants==

New Zealand English consonants are consistent with those from those found in other varieties of English, such as Received Pronunciation. ;Rhoticity • New Zealand English is mostly non-rhotic (with linking and intrusive R), except for speakers with the so-called Southland burr, a semi-rhotic, Scottish-influenced dialect heard principally in Southland and parts of Otago. Older Southland speakers sound the variably after vowels, but today younger speakers use only with the vowel and occasionally with the vowel. Younger Southland speakers pronounce in third term (General NZE pronunciation: ) but not in farm cart (same as in General NZE).--> Among r-less speakers, however, non-prevocalic is sometimes pronounced in a few words, including Ireland , merely , err , and the name of the letter R (General NZE pronunciations: ). Some Māori speakers are semi-rhotic, although it is not clearly identified to any particular region or attributed to any defined language shift. The Māori language itself tends in most cases to use an r with an alveolar tap , like Scottish dialect. ;Pronunciation of • is velarised ("dark") in almost all positions, and is often vocalised to some sort of near close back vowel in syllable codas, so that ball is pronounced as . Even when not vocalised, it is darker in codas than in onsets, possibly with pharyngealisation. Vocalisation varies in different regions and between different socioeconomic groups; the younger, lower social class speakers vocalise most of the time. ;Pronunciation of • The traditional distinction between the and phonemes no longer exists for most speakers. It is mostly only older speakers who retain a distinction between wine and whine. All speakers are more likely to retain it in lexical words than in grammatical words, therefore even older speakers have a variable merger here. ;Flapped • As with Australian English and American English, the intervocalic and may be a flapped , so that the sentence "use a little bit of butter" may be pronounced . Evidence for this usage exists as far back as the early 19th century, such as Kerikeri being transliterated as "Kiddee Kiddee" by missionaries. In addition, in more careful speech may be realised as a fricative rather than a plosive, such as in words like city. ;Glottal reinforcement • There is an increasing tendency for syllable-final plosives ( and to a lesser extent ) to be either reinforced or replaced with a glottal stop. ;Pronunciation of • Like other accents, pronunciation of syllable-onset may be realised as . ;Retraction of • The at the beginning of consonant clusters, typically and , may instead be pronounced as , making words like student and stupid pronounced and respectively. ;Pronunciation of • A relatively recent phenomenon is fronting, where interdental are realised as labiodental . This feature was not present in New Zealand English until the end of the 20th century. A 2003 analysis found that word-final sounds are fronted roughly half the time, with the word with being fronted more commonly than other words, and sounds in other places are fronted around a quarter of the time. This realisation is not consistent even within the same sentence. fronting is also common in Pasifika English, and may be instead stopped, producing for . ==Other features==

• Some New Zealanders pronounce past participles such as grown , thrown and mown with two syllables, the latter containing a schwa not found in other accents. By contrast, groan , throne and moan are all unaffected, meaning these word pairs can be distinguished by ear. • The trans- prefix is usually pronounced ; this produces mixed pronunciation of the letter A in words like transplant . However, is also heard, typically in older New Zealanders. • The name of the letter H is almost always , as in North American, and is almost never aspirated (). • The name of the letter Z is usually the British, Canadian and Australian zed . Likewise, the initials of the country (N.Z.) are always "en zed". However the alphabet song for children is sometimes sung ending with in accordance with the rhyme. Where Z is universally pronounced zee in places, names, terms, or titles, such as ZZ Top, LZ (landing zone), Jay Z (celebrity), or Z Nation (TV show) New Zealanders follow universal pronunciation. • The word foyer is usually pronounced , as in Australian and American English, rather than as in British English. • The word and combining form graph is pronounced both and . • The word data is commonly pronounced , with being the second most common, and being very rare. ==Pronunciation of Māori place names==

The pronunciations of many Māori place names were anglicised for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but since the 1980s increased consciousness of the Māori language has led to a shift towards using a Māori pronunciation. The anglicisations have persisted most among residents of the towns in question, so it has become something of a shibboleth, with correct Māori pronunciation marking someone as non-local. } Some anglicised names are colloquially shortened, for example, Coke for Kohukohu, the Rapa for the Wairarapa, Kura for Papakura, Papatoe for Papatoetoe, Otahu for Otahuhu, Paraparam or Pram for Paraparaumu, the Naki for Taranaki, Cow-cop for Kaukapakapa and Pie-cock for Paekakariki. There is some confusion between these shortenings, especially in the southern South Island, and the natural variations of the southern dialect of Māori. Not only does this dialect sometimes feature apocope, but consonants also vary slightly from standard Māori. To compound matters, names were often initially transcribed by Scottish settlers, rather than the predominantly English settlers of other parts of the country; as such further alterations are not uncommon. Thus, while Lake Wakatipu is sometimes referred to as Wakatip , Oamaru as Om-a-roo and Waiwera South as Wy-vra , these differences may be as much caused by dialect differences – either in Māori or in the English used during transcription – as by the process of anglicisation. An extreme example is The Kilmog , the name of which is cognate with the standard Māori Kirimoko. ==See also==