Yeah I get the maths guys. Just wondering why that headed over to physics.

What’s physics got to do with it?

A large part of physics involves the study of how things move – planets around a sun, water down a pipe or electrons in a solid, for example.…

...Edinburgh University physicist Richard Blythe said the hundreds of migrants to New Zealand arrived with different dialects, but people were speaking in just one within 50 years.

Umm. Physicists? Did they get on the wrong bus or something?

Koiwi eccent studied

A question that has long baffled linguists is how New Zealanders came to speak in such a distinctive dialect of English so soon after the arrival of British migrants in the 1840s and 50s....

...Edinburgh University…

As it happens, my late Mum went to Epsom Girls Grammar a year or two ahead of Angela D'Audney and also pronounced the days like that; thus I associate it with ex-EGGS girls of a certain age.

The 'wee' thing doesn't seem geographically based, but I'm fairly sure its a Scottish import.

Not the Glaswegian, street brawling, Billy Connolly-profane type of Scots: more the genteel, Presbyterian cold churches and gingerbread, highland dancing sort of Scot.

Billy Connolly: A Wee Afghani

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEIkk2glyLM

I don't know if this is a very profound insight, Rob, but the Queen also pronounces the days of the week that way..

Ahh,

So its a Kraut thing, then.

Now, here's one I'm sure someone here will have insight on:

Mondee, Tuesdee, Wedsdee....etc.

I don't know if this is a very profound insight, Rob, but the Queen also pronounces the days of the week that way...

Mondee, Tuesdee, Wedsdee....etc.

I pronounce it this way myself, never thought about it until recently when someone queried it.

A brief google shows its identified in the US mostly (but not totally) with the South – I'm damn sure…

Not the Glaswegian, street brawling, Billy Connolly-profane type of Scots: more the genteel, Presbyterian cold churches and gingerbread, highland dancing sort of Scot.

However, I agree with John's observation that the rolled 'r' is unevenly distributed, or expressed: some Southlanders have…

It is not likely that this element in the vocabulary will ever increase much.

I guess this was written just before the start of the Maori renaissance, when many assumed Maori was a dying race who would soon be assimilated into European culture.

Not even, ehoa!

How about this little beauty in the vocabulary section.

Examples of the native words now in general use are the names of birds, fish, plants, and trees: kea, tui, hapuku, tarakihi, koromiko, raupo, and kauri. It is not…

"Diphthong au of cow has a first element like the e of very, and a fronted second element – eu.

Some speakers turn it into a tripthong eiu by inserting a glide between the first and second elements – (abeut, abeiut) rather than (about) for…

The southern burrrr seems to be a recent thing

According to the Southland Dialect entry from the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand:

A “burred” r is pronounced at the end of words and before consonants (beer, there, shore, after, march, port, certain), and was noticed by McBurney in 1886 in…

Another verbal tic which I've heard suggested is a Scottish thing is the way NZers use the word 'wee' a lot in conversation.

""You have got to. Sure there was a lot of disappointment, and a lot of work went into it. But it has gone. You can't change it,"…

Had a discussion about this with a mate the other day. He always finds it ironic when folks winge about having to correct overseas' visitors pro-now-n-ce-ation.

"NZ Sucks"... "Australia nil".

It's traditional that when New Zealanders say 'six', Australians hear 'sex'. I like to explain that by suggesting that, for an Australian, 'one, two, three, four, five' is foreplay.

Here's The Chaser try to get Helen Clark to say 'six'.

Had an English teacher – himself of Scottish ancestry – who reckoned the pronunciation of the country's name as "New Zillun" was an echo of Scottish pronunciation, although he put a lot of the blame on PM Peter Fraser, who used to pronounce…

'Mouse' and 'house' tended towards 'moose' and 'hoose'.

As for Bob – well, it flags me as a deep southerner and probably…

There's a discussion on http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/MIDMARCH/2007-12/1199105278 .

We used the infamous "... pull the trigger" rhyme. In our defence, none of us (in a reasonably multiculti cohort) knew what it meant. Just a made up word that rhymes with "trigger", one presumed.

My friends and I would choose who was "it" with a round of "eeny meeny…

In Hawke's Bay in the 70's, we played tag. In playing handstands, we also used to say "Handstands cement" – was years until I realised it should have been "Handstands commence!"

We used the infamous "... pull the trigger" rhyme. In our defence, none of us (in a reasonably multiculti…

The border between tig and tag runs through the North Island, somewhere south of Hamilton.

There's some other North/South and maybe generational borders too.

Try this one.

"We took a pottle, a peter and some belgian to the crib."

I'd heard "pax" used similarly, which makes sense from the Latin, but fans is a mystery.

My son uses 'pax', so that's definitely running down here in Dunedin. I'm sure that I used to play 'tag', not 'tig' when I grew up in Auckland, but it was a while ago.…

The great thing about kids' language is that it's…

I don't think there's an Auckland accent as such, but there are a few markers. Auckland kids play a game called tiggy or tig (I forget which), whereas Wellingtonian kids play tag.

In Hawke's Bay in the 70's, we played tag. In playing handstands, we also used…

... my father can be quite pedantic in correcting me. I say 'paradise' rhymes with 'mice', he would say it rhymes with 'lies'.

I've just checked the RP pronunciation of 'paradise' in the both the 2002 and 1932 OEDs. In both cases the OED says that 'paradise'…

Although I'm a fair mimic I've never bothered aping the…

And the day that Voom and Jan Hellreigel played at…

I know most people don't care, and when you're a parent, one thing is much like the other, I would imagine.

Speaking as a parent I certainly do know the difference. there is probably vast difference between some kindies, and some childcare centres are probably awesome. however if kindies cost…

A young mother and son had climbed aboard at a childcare centre called Caring and Sharing...........that shearing is being taught at kindergartens

Since we're all being a weeny bit pedantic here, and since you have a wee person, David, who will maybe end up in some sort of preschool educational…

Then I remembered someone who congratulated me while I undergoing professional legal studies for pronouncing women correctly

I wonder why it is that woman and women have come to be pronounced the same by so many New Zealanders.

Years ago I remember hearing some guy saying that the "wimmin" pronunciation…

We called it tiggy or tigz in Hamilton in the 70s.

According to my partner, tag was the form used in 90s Christchurch and Blenheim, "apart from one kid, but I don't remember what he called it because I knew he was wrong and I told him so."

I don't think there's an Auckland accent as such, but there are a few markers. Auckland kids play a game called tiggy or tig (I forget which), whereas Wellingtonian kids play tag.

TIG, I believe is the name of an old Gaelic children’s game – a game of chases where…

a friend who went to a decile 10 school (not Auckland) had never heard of "three" being pronounced "free"...

Odd... seeing that "th" is one of the very last sounds that children get under control. Have they never listened to a class of 5 year olds counting: "One, two, free,…

Then I remembered someone who congratulated me while I undergoing professional legal studies for pronouncing women correctly (they'd…

How does everyone pronounce Subaru?

When I was young I only heard "Sue-bar-ru'. Now everyone seems to call it 'Sooba-roo'. Is one more correct from the Japanese?

Not having seen the Japanese version I would say that the name written in hiragana or katakana consists of the Japanese characters "su",…

It's fun when you've learned a bit of Maori to spot where the announcers on Te Kaea come…

__That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For…

I grew up in Wellington btw

Huh, me too – Wellington thing, maybe? I've never had someone comment on my accent, but I do recall that several of my friends who also make those speech distinctions (also Wellington kids) are frequently asked where they come from, because they don't sound…

Love the clips from Youtube. The clipped RAF accent saying 'that is so disrespecting of your trousers...'

2.
Aussie bloke I met some years ago reckoned at one point there was graffiti on a bridge in Bondi which said "NZ Sucks".

Someone – presumably a Kiwi – had written…

I flogged the "Near Whizzy Air" example (Now is the Hour) from an ancient book called New Zild & how she is spoke.

I have that. And the companion volume, Let Stalk Strine.

Nope, those are the same. I can, however, distinguish between a beer and a bear.

Very handy skill.

Most of the young people we've recorded who make some distinction between hear and hair, or fear and fare, don't tend to distinguish between beer and bear. I.e. they've learned the distinction…

I see no virtue in their displaying their unvarnished natural rudeness or antipathy or aggression, however genuine. Better a faked polite than an…

It's often remarked that foreigners' first impression of NZ is being asked to go to the chicken counter.

I flogged the "Near Whizzy Air" example (Now is the Hour) from an ancient book called New Zild & how she is spoke.

The other memorable example denotes the first thing many visitors…

I don't mind talking differently for different situations, that's sensible. But I do wonder what the Maori half of the conversation must have thought when the 'honky' went back to his friends and suddenly remembered how to talk 'properly'. I suspect insulted might be one reaction.

I think the main…

I'm surprised! Do you also pronounce 'bear' and 'bare' differently?

Nope, those are the same. I can, however, distinguish between a beer and a bear.

OTOH, it imposes a cost…

When I was young I only heard "Sue-bar-ru'. Now everyone seems to call it 'Sooba-roo'. Is one more correct from the Japanese?

Can you put your finger on why? It's not like people don't do that in other ways with their dress, facial expressions or basically any other mode of communication on offer.

1. I don't like the fake element. If we have to pretend to be something different from who we…

Hawt
(Adj.) Irresistably secksy. It's like, hot multiplied by infinity.
Omgsohawt~

"Ghey boiz r hawt! Teehee."
"HAWT! Omg do me."

shearing

In the grand tradition of screwy names for hairdressers, there is one such establishment located in the Valley Rd. (Mt. Eden) shopping precinct, which goes by the unlikely moniker, The Sharing Shed (sic).

So how do you pronounce "hawt"?

Or, for that matter, "kewl"?

my dad would vehemently insist that tyranosaurus was pronounced tyro-nossorus.

I knew a guy who preferred to pronounce oxymoron "ok-simmaron", presumably because he thought a serious word couldn't possibly end in "moron". Etymologists will, of course, know that the "moron" in "oxymoron" comes from the same Greek word (meaning "dull")…

In many US dialects they have a LOT-THOUGHT merger, i.e. they pronounce the words 'cot' and 'caught' as if they were homophones.

So how do you pronounce "hawt"?

on the day my parents migrated here, they had a conversation in which they thought they heard the other person say "oh, so you've come here to die."

It's often remarked that foreigners' first impression of NZ is being asked to go to the chicken counter.

I find just as annoying…

As for that pig-ugly final r you mention, it's endemic amongst certain TV presenters, Mark Sainsbury being one. "Now available" becomes "Nau Ravailable". They cannot pronounce a final W for money. Puckering practice needed.

Oh no – that's a different /r/ – my favourite!! Intrusive /r/. Like most NZers have…

Perhaps the "local ear" by which I mean, other speakers of the same dialect... can continue to detect minute differences long after non-locals have lost the ability to differentiate…

But I find just as annoying people who pretend to be something they're not through the way they talk.

Can you put your finger on why? It's not like people don't do that in other ways with their dress, facial expressions or basically any other mode of communication on offer.

It's a common misconception that shearing isn't a very well-paid gig; quite the opposite, it's big money.

It's good money until you're in your mid-thirties, at which point your shoulder, back and legs are probably buggered. It's a young man's game and unless you go into contracting, one without much…

I…

I'm surprised! Do you also pronounce 'bear' and 'bare' differently?

Uh-oh, now I'm confused... I thought bear/bare are long-time old people (like me) homophones, and bear/beer is the new one that gets fuddy-duddies upset?

Any word on the phenomenon of pronouncing a distinct final "r"? I've noticed that a lot in the last 5 years or so, mostly among young Polynesians but also more generally.

Yes, that's been documented. Mainly in the North, and mainly in young speakers of Maori and Pasifika…

I learnt to speak kiwi real quick after my arrival from Australia...

Starting Form 2 at a new school only days after the "under-arm incident".... while I never actually got beaten up... the harassment was more severe than just the…

I had a schoolteacher once who went to the opposite extreme. I can't remember the word, but she used to deliberately mangle it so it sounded different enought.

my dad would vehemently insist that tyranosaurus was pronounced tyro-nossorus.

I never figured out if he was kidding or not.

A deeply unworthy thought — and at an intellectual level I know that it's indefensible — but that was, I'm afraid, my very first reaction.

I knew someone whose parents came from 'British stock', and didn't like Kiwi English. They'd talk normally until they got into some semi-formal situation -…

totally offended, they responded "no, we've come here to live".

then there's the whole cross-cultural thing, like when they were invited to…

Because we pronounce 'surely' and 'shirley' differently... at least, I thought we did

You're right – I think surely and shore-ly (if it were a word) would be the common NZ homophones..

*Shirley?

'Don't call me Shirley.'

(That joke – from Airplane – is another one which only works for Americans, doesn't it? Because we pronounce 'surely' and 'shirley' differently... at least, I thought we did. But apparently in a lot of cases we're all about the homophones, and my rarefied Shore…

Turn Sad Men Gay With Zeal

Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Somewhere between Men and Gay?

And to think these days we can't tell the difference.

I think I can at least hear the differences mentioned even if I'm not sure I practise them (31). I did do speech lessons. I was taught…

That said, I…

are those the same people who rhyme house with mice?

Doesn't it?
I never understood why the plural of house isn't "hice", while it is lice and mice.
Nuzildish may be cringing but Shore girls speaklng valley talk with a kiwi accent is reason enough to cancel a second harbour…

But pleased to meet you!

Yer 'avin' a larf, innit?!

I can't help myself... some dialect related humour from Armstrong & Miller (takes second for the video to start working, for some reason):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwNQf08Kxsw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ9yj_BXRp0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5P_zvE5qY

Now... must do work...

A deeply unworthy thought — and at an intellectual level I know that it's indefensible — but that was, I'm afraid, my very first reaction.

I'm not sure it's actually indefensible. I'd be willing to make a case for there being accents that you wouldn't want to try to sound…

Am I to assume Fletcher is your first name? Wow... pleased to "meet" you.... that would make you only the second other Fletcher I've met in my life...

Sorry to all others for the thread-jacking...

i cringed when i arrived in london and heard the east lundun accent. sounded like baby talk

Yer 'avin' a larf, innit?!

Honestly, as a non-native English (or Nuzild-ish) speaker I cringe how English is mangled on these shaky isles.

i cringed when i arrived in london and heard the east lundun accent. sounded like baby talk

No, she was told, they don't sell any. Perhaps she should try the stationers down the road.

You must have some, she responded. Why wouldn't a sewing shop have pins.

I'm sorry,…

There is a significant class aspect to this...

The whole language and class thing does my head in — all that processing going on subconsciously inside people's heads.

But I believe Assoc-Prof Hay has done some work that suggests you can predict someone's NZ accent from the…

(ii) Less frequently commented on, though, is the fact that this merger of the two front centring diphthongs is part of a larger pattern. Younger NZers also merge two vowels that may be regarded as back centring diphthongs: thus "sure" and "shore" are also homophones.

Interesting suggestion – I've never…

http://bizgirl.blogspot.com/2004/11/ear-conditioning.html

The first friend I made was a girl at the motel we were staying at, who I thought was exotically-named "Seerah" or something similar... Similar confusion resulted.

Ha! When I was 7 I saw Sooty and friends live at the Founders Theatre in Hamilton. Matthew Corbett got a volunteer up…

But English is…

I got mocked no end in England for explaining how the teacher told us they were pronounced exactly the same way but spelt differently.. homophones is it.

Mind you the people mocking me drove…

That clip is brilliant. Even though it's just Glennis from Foxton reciting a list of words, by the time she gets to the final word, there's a certain tone to her voice, as if to say, "These crazy academics. Why are they getting me to say all…

I cringe how English is mangled on these shaky isles

I don't think RP is coming back any time soon. Thank god.

My question is, does another (older?) generation separate them more than that? Are they supposed to be three different sounds?

Probably, I remember we were taught in Old & Middle English classes to pronounce every syllable & vowel, so that Fare & Fair would sound quite different.

Of course, I wondered at the…

I'm 32, and I've never pronounced those two sounds differently, nor do I recall being taught to. If I try, I end up affecting an exaggerated English accent for "share" and "air" (in the manner of the famous Bill T James "air hair lair" sketch...)

pretty much ditto, dammit, i…

I recall being taught at primary school that words groups like hear, hair, and hare were homophones. Spelt differently – like to, two and two – but pronounced the same.

Hmm... I remember being taught homophones.... but not those three

I have no problem with hair and hare sounding identical....…

Complete merger of the…

BTW, you'll all be familiar with the unofficial kiwi anthem, Near Whizzy Air?

Tom: are those the same people who rhyme house with mice?

Quite possibly. Certainly, those who have a hice worth more than faive hundred thiesand piends.

I was beaten at school for being able to distinguish my vowel sounds, so I do it,

I hear you! I wasn't exactly made…

When I was pregnant with my second child, it was suggested that if the…

I recently met a woman in her late thirties, who introduced herself as "Clear".

I was five when my family first moved to New Zealand from the UK, and I didn't really have much concept of there being a different accent here. The first friend I made was a girl…

Tom: are those the same people who rhyme house with mice?

I'm in my twenties and find it's a mixed bag, some make the distinction and others don't – I've had quite a few arguments about the BEER-BEAR pairing, which many people insist…

But if you don't believe that it can be done, then listen to this speaker pronouncing the words 'fear', 'fair', and 'fare'.

That clip is brilliant. Even though it's just Glennis from Foxton reciting a list of words, by the time she gets to the final word, there's a certain…

Say just the vowel sounds in these words.

Do Put Whole Thought On Art Thus Turn Sad Men Gay With Zeal.

I think the "ea" in…

she can't even hear the difference

You mean she can't hare it. Or here or hair it. Or even, god forbid, heir it.

I'm 38, and I think I'm among the last people who grew up distinguishing those sounds. My daughter doesn't, and she can't even hear the difference.