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NewZealandEnglish

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 3 months ago

New Zealand

 

Geographic Location

 

New Zealand (henceforth NZ) is located in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,200 kilometers southeast of Australia. NZ consists of the North and South Island, which are both green and mountainous. NZ was the last significant land mass to be inhabited by humans, both in terms of indigenous settlement and European domination. The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about 800 AD. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, in 1642, was the first European to discover New Zealand, and his mapped coastline appeared on Dutch maps as "Nieuw Zeeland" from as early as 1645. In 1840, with the assistance of missionaries, the Maori agreed to accept British sovereignty over the islands through the Treaty of Waitangi.This treaty was signed by both Maroi and British officials. It conssited of two different copies, one in English and the other in Maroi. This is where the controvery starts, many believe that the copies differed in certain meanings. However, many Maroi chiefs signed regardless and in 1841 New Zealand became a seperate colony.

Below is a link where you can go and read the Treaty in both translations:

http://www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz/treaty/

A series of land wars between 1843 and 1872, coupled with political maneuvering and the spread of European diseases, broke Maori resistance to land settlement, but left lasting grievances. The British colony of New Zealand became a dominion in 1907. It was offered complete independence under the 1931 Statute of Westminster, although it didn't adopt this until 1947.

NZ consists of some of the rareist plants and animals in the world. The forests in the North are subtropical rainforests. However, the South Island consists of snowy alpine forests. There are not poisinous animals like snakes anywhere on the island, and the only land animals are small bats. Most of the birds lost the ability to fly, because of so few predators. When settlers began bringing cats and other animals with them, many of the flightless birds became extinct. Hunting and Fishing are two recreations that the people of New Zealand enjoy. Mainly because of the large numbers of deer, pigs, possum, and fish.

NZ is 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). NZ uses the daylight savings time. They have it at 2 am on the first Sunday in October and at 2am on the third Sunday in March. The period between October and March NZ is 13 hours ahead of GMT.

The national sport for NZ is rubgy and netball in the winter and cricket in the summer. Rugby is a rougher form of football. They play with a ball that is like a football but only bigger and they do not wear pads.

 

The climate in NZ is quite tmperate. The average temperatures for the two islands are as follows:

North Island

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
232423201715141517182022

 

South Island

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
222319171411111215171921

 

*Temp in C.

 

New Zealand Flag

The royal blue background symbolizes the blue sea and sky of NZ. The stars of the Southern Cross represent the location of NZ. The union flag recognizes the point in history when NZ was once a British colony.

 

 

Features of Pronunciation

Here is a great link to hear pronunciations of certain words in NZE:

http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonResources/kiwisounds/NewZealandPronunciation.html

Some tyoes of pronunciation were: 'a' is pronounced 'ah', 'i' is 'ee', 'r' is rolled, and 'd' is softened. Also, women use pronunciations like glottal final (t,ex:pit), voiced intervocalic (t, ex:better), and the distribution of pragmatic particles.

 

Inflection

 

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 high rising terminal) This has the effect of making their statement sound like another question. This effect is heightened by the common local practice of adding "eh" to the end of sentences.( "It was choice eh", "I got a job eh" ). There is enough awareness of this that it is seen in exaggerated form in comedy parody of working class/uneducated New Zealanders. High rising terminals are also heard in various other regional forms of English.

This information was found on the website

http://www.answers.com/topic/new-zealand-english

It provides several other distinctive NZE pronunciations including information on the additional Schwa seen in NZE words like "grown," "mown," and "thrown." And additoanl site: http://www.answers.com/topic/schwa gives the definition of schwa. Here is some information I found on the vowel shift.

 

Front vowels and the flattened 'i'

 

A vowel shift has occurred in New Zealand English. Front vowels, with one exception, are pronounced higher in the mouth than in England English. RP /i/, the unrounded high front lax vowel, has moved to /ə/ (schwa). Some non-NZ speakers mistakenly assert that, when New Zealanders say "fish and chips" they say "fush and chups". This may be asserted because of the lack of a letter for schwa. Below the latter word is how the former word sounds to the ears of a non-New Zealander:

 

pan → pen

pen → pin

pin → pun

pair → peer

 

Note that many of the differences listed above sound this way as New Zealanders pronounce their vowels differently due to their accent, not that they do not speak properly.

 

Consonants

The issues considered when discussing the consonants are: the contast between /w/ and /hw/, post-vocalic /l/, h-dropping, t-flapping, affrication of /tr/, /str/ and /dr/ and the TH-fronting.

/w/ and /hw/:

The only people that make a distinction from words like "witch" and "which" are the older middle-calss speakers, most young New Zealanders pronounce the words identically.

 

Post-Vocalic /l/:

Traditionally their were two variants of /l/: clear /l/ appears in beginning of words "look" and "long," and between vowels in words like "silly" and "failing." The dark /l/ appeared in final positions of words like "ball" and "doll," and before consonants in words like "milk" and "child." Now the dark vowel is being vocalized or replaced by the vowel in FOOT.

 

h-dropping:

New Zealnad English drops /h/ in unstressed grammatical words in utterances like : "John said to 'give it to him" (the ' marks the stressed syllables).

 

t-flapping:

The flapping or voicing of intervocalic /t/ in words like "city" and "letter" has probably occured in working-class.

 

affrication of /tr/, /str/ and /dr/:

Recently more frivtion on the /r/ so that words like "tree" sound like "chree." This is called "affrication" because ones like the /tr/ cluster sound more like the affricate.

 

TH-fronting:

Refers to the substitution of /f/ or /v/ for the 'th' sound in words like nothing, mother, and father.

 

 

Some Funny, New Zealand Definitions A-Z

*anklebiter- toddler, kids

*bust a gut- make an intense effort

*cheeky- sassy;insolent

*dunny- toilet

*evils- to give someone the evil eye

*fizzy- soda pop

*get off the grass- Exclamation of disbelief; "stop pulling my leg"

*hottie- hot water bottle

*ice block- popsicle

*jandal- flip-flops

*kornies- Kelloggs cornflakes

*lemonade- clear soda (7Up)

*money for jam- easy money

*nappy- diaper

*off yer face- completely drunk

*PMT(Pre-Menstual Tension)- PMS

*rockmelon- cantaloupe

*snarky- mixture of sarcastic and nasty

*ta- thanks

*Toodle pip- Good-bye

*unwaged- unemployed

*wuckas (no wuckas)- no worries

*yonks- forever; a long time ago

*zed- z

http://www.nz.com/new-zealand/guide-book/language/dictionary.aspx

 

 

Lexical and/or Grammatical Features

One researcher by the name of Donn Bayard (1987) collected information on the pronunciation of four sounds called the "four terrible diphthongs." He also studied the merging of diphthongs in words like "ear" and "air." Then he discovered that NZE had short front vowels in words like "pit," "pet," and "pat." Bayard also noticed that NZE had a lexical preference for words of British origins. Other researchers noticed the pragmatic particle 'eh' was used in phrases like "good movie eh!" The major differences that we do notice tend to be more lexical that grammatical. You can find many words that only exist in New Zeland English, however some general words have additional or different meanings than the way we know them. This website by Kiwi offers a great look a some of New Zealand's words and phrases: [http://www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwi.htm]

 

Spelling

 

New Zealand English sticks closely to British English in spelling, even more so than does Australian English.For example, the word “color” in New Zealand would be spelled “colour” and “travelled” would be spelled “traveled.”

 

 

Social Function

The main group that kept popping up in all of my research was the Maroi. The Maroi came from either the Cook Islands or Tahiti about 1,000 years ago. They came in double-hulled canoes and were believed to be skill navigators. When they came to NZ, they named the land "Aotearoa" meaning "land of long white cloud." The Maroi individuals lived with "whanau" (family). The families then combined to form what is called an "hapu" (subtribe). The largest groups got the name "iwi" (tribes). Each "Iwi" is headed by an "rangatira" (chiefs). The chief is very important, because he was believed to have great "mana" (spiritual authority) and is seen as "tapu" (sacred).

 

It is important to note that New Zealand was the last habitable landmass in the world to be colonized. The ancestors of the Maori were Polynesians who arrived around 1150-1200 A.D. This was several centuries after the Scandinavians and Inuit arrived in Iceland and Greenland. Aetoearoa, New Zealand’s Maori name, was settled in 1792 by English-speaking Australians. During the early 19th centurcy, the trickle of settlers from Australia and Britain increased. The 1849 Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of New Zealand, was signed by the Britisha dn Maori Chieftans. As a result, more and more settlers filled New Zealand. And by mid-century the indigenous Maori were outnumber by the Pakeha. “Pakeha” was the name for people of European Decent.

 

As these settlers brought their own accents and English varieties along with them, a variatable “mixing bowl” was created. The main ingredient in this bowl was Australian, which is itself derived from southeastern England Dialects. Scottish and Irish varieties also had an impact on the language. I found one researcher who claimed that the New Zealand Dialect (NZE) can be traced back to areas all over Britain and Ireland, “pre-mixed” in Australia before coming to New Zealand. Even American terms entered during this time, including “creek” in its American senses of “stream,” rather than the British “estuary.”

 

Te reo Maori,the Maori languge, is what makes NZE uniquely different from any other English dialect. Just as Americans borrowed words from the Native Americans, so did the Pakeha borrow a large number of words to describe phenomena unknown to them from the Maori. New Zealand, unlike the large Australian continent which was inhabited by groups of gatherer-hunters speaking over 200 distinct languages, was occupied by agricultural people speaking a single language. Though the Maori were persecuted by the Pakeha, or European settlers, they were not victimized or exterminated like the Australian Aborigines. All these factors resulted in the Pakeha borrowing words from the Maori. Most of the words were for plants and animals. Cultural words were also borrowed. Here are some examples:

“whare nui” meaning “meeting house”

“marae” meaning “ceremonial ground”

“mana” meaning “authority”

“tapu” meaning “sacred” or “taboo”

Maori is closely related to other Polynesian languages like Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Samoan.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~johnnewm/NZEnglish/origins.html

 

Maroi Samples

Since NZE is influenced by the Maroi culture, here is a look at some samples of the Maroi language:

http://folksong.org.nz/e_to_matou_Matua/Maori_lords_prayer.jpg

SilentNight

HineEHine

 

NZE Literature

Below is a website of several New Zealand authors from A to Z:

http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/index.html

Here are some more websites that give brief descriptions of different New Zeland books:

http://www.authors.org.nz/

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/countries/New%20Zealand.htm

 

More New Zealand Literature

 

While there is a host of writers and tons of famous literature coming from New Zealand, I've only included some of the more interesting ones:

 

James K. Baxter (1926-1972)

 

James K. Baxter was well known as a poet, playwright, and critic, as well as a controversial figure to society. He strongly opposed Western materialism and supported the Catholic faith and Maori culture. From his beginning, at age 7, to his death in 1972, Baxter lived to write. One of his most famous poetry collections was titled, Beyond the Palisade. Another famous work was his play, Jack Winter's Dream.

 

Kate Camp

 

Born in 1972, Kate Camp lives in Wellington, New Zealand. She is known as a prose writer, poet, and reviewer. Her first collection of poetry,

Unfamaliar Legends of the Stars, won NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry.

 

Joy Cowley

 

Joy Cowley has been writing for nearly fifty years. She is known primarily for her Children's literature because she got her start by writing stories for her son, who was having difficulty learning to read. She continued writing stories for struggling children and, by the late 1970's, she and her editor were creating a reading program. Some of her children's literature includes: The Silent One, Bow Down Shadrach, The Duck in the Gun, and The Cheese Trap.

 

Dr. Michael King (1945-2004)

 

Dr. Michael King was famous for his knowledge of history and the Maori culture. He was an author though most of his writings were biographies. Among his most famous are: Moko: Maori Tattooing in the 20th Century, Te Puea: A Biography, and Death of a Rainbow Warrior.

 

Albert Wendt

 

Born in 939, Albert Wendt is known as a Samoan poet and writer. His most famous epic, Leaves of the Banyan Tree (1979), won the New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award. In 1988, he accepted a proffessorship of Pacific studies at the University of Auckland. Some of his other works include, Comes the Revolution, The Contract, and, Sons for the Return Home, which was made into a film.

 

Recipes

There are some great websites for some New Zealand food. Here are some of my favorite sites:

The site below offers different recipes for beef and lamb. I saw some really nice recipes for all occasions. They even had recipes for babies and toddlers, the oddest one being "Lambs liver and Vegetables"

http://www.recipes.co.nz/default.aspx

This next site is just some additional New Zealand Recipes.

http://www.azmetro.com/nzrecipe.html

 

 

Bibliography

Newman, Kathleen. "New Zealand English." 26 Feb 2006. University of Alberta. <http://www.ualberta.ca/~johnnewm/NZEnglish/home.html> 10 nov 2006.

 

"New Zealand English." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 6 Nov 2006, 15:40 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 17 Nov 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Zealand_English&oldid=86062158>.

 

"About New Zealand." New Zealand Embassy. Berlin, Germany. 17 Nov 2006. <http://www.nzembassy.com/contact.cfm?CFID=524204&CFTOKEN=21702&l=1&c=1>

 

 

Created By: Rebecca, Jana, Brittney, and Shelly

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