New Zealand English phonology

This article covers the phonological system of New Zealand English. While New Zealanders speak differently depending on their level of cultivation (i.e. the closeness to Received Pronunciation), this article covers the accent as it is spoken by educated speakers, unless otherwise noted. The IPA transcription is one designed by specifically to faithfully represent a New Zealand accent, which this article follows in most aspects (see table under ).

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 . Recent acoustic studies featuring both Australian and New Zealand voices show the accents were more similar before World War II and the short front vowels have changed considerably since then as compared to Australian English. 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.
 * Realisation of varies between near-close front, near-close near-front , close-mid front , or close-mid near-front.
 * Cultivated NZE retains the open pronunciations for  and  for  and has a high central.
 * The difference in frontness and closeness of the vowel ( in New Zealand,  in Australia) has led to a long-running joke between Australians and New Zealanders whereby Australians accuse New Zealanders of saying "fush and chups" for fish and chips and in turn New Zealanders accuse Australians of saying "feesh and cheeps" in light of Australia's own  vowel shift.
 * In the morpheme-final position, the distinction between  and   is neutralized towards the open  in the word-final position and towards the mid  elsewhere. For instance, the plural of sofa  is, with the mid . Because of that, the names of the lexical sets  and  are not used in this article.
 * Before the velar nasal, the vowel is much more close and front than in other environments. Some speakers also use this variant before  and, less often, before other consonants. It is transcribed with a plain ⟨ə⟩ in this article and so not differentiated from other allophones of.
 * Initial unstressed is at times as open as, so that inalterable  can fall together with unalterable , resulting in a variable phonetic – merger. This is less common and so it is not transcribed in this article.
 * The vowel  may be realised with a slight on-glide when the word is stressed, with  becoming . This onglide is increasingly becoming the main way to differentiate  from  in younger speakers as the latter vowel is a very closed  and there is a negligible length difference between the  vowel  and short vowels.
 * 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  and 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, typically word-finally, turning more  into.
 * The vowel is open-mid, close to  and.
 * The vowel may sometimes be unrounded.
 * The vowel  is close-mid (close to ), and may become centralised, even when stressed, so words like good  are pronounced closer to, and could and kid may sound the same,.
 * Changes before
 * Before, is retracted to , and  is lowered to  (see salary–celery merger), yielding a merger with . These changes make words like too  sound different from tool  and leads to Ellen and Alan  both being pronounced . Mergers before  may occur between  and  (as in reel  vs real , the only minimal pair) and  and  (pull  vs pool ).
 * Māori English
 * Māori English has a more fronted and lowered vowel.
 * The vowel is less central, and is used in unstressed syllables where schwa would be expected  (due to the merger of  and schwa).
 * The vowel is lowered compared to General New Zealand English.
 * The vowel may be more fronted in Māori English.
 * The vowel may be more rounded and more fronted.
 * Pasifika English
 * Features identified as being part of a unique Pasifika English sociolect include a raised vowel, reduced diphthonisation of  and, a lowered , and for some a retracted and lowered.
 * Before, is retracted to , and  is lowered to  (see salary–celery merger), yielding a merger with . These changes make words like too  sound different from tool  and leads to Ellen and Alan  both being pronounced . Mergers before  may occur between  and  (as in reel  vs real , the only minimal pair) and  and  (pull  vs pool ).
 * Māori English
 * Māori English has a more fronted and lowered vowel.
 * The vowel is less central, and is used in unstressed syllables where schwa would be expected  (due to the merger of  and schwa).
 * The vowel is lowered compared to General New Zealand English.
 * The vowel may be more fronted in Māori English.
 * The vowel may be more rounded and more fronted.
 * Pasifika English
 * Features identified as being part of a unique Pasifika English sociolect include a raised vowel, reduced diphthonisation of  and, a lowered , and for some a retracted and lowered.

Diphthongs



 * Phonetic quality
 * On the Cultivated end of the spectrum, the starting points of the fronting-closing diphthongs and  are front  in the first case and central  or advanced back  (both hereafter written with ⟨aɪ̯⟩) in the second case. These are the usual NZE realizations. On the Broad end of the spectrum, they are both retracted, so that  acquires a central onset, whereas the first element of  is retracted and rounded to , sometimes with raising to  (both hereafter written with ⟨ɒɪ⟩), approaching the  vowel  but without an actual merger. This means that the diphthong  can stand for either vowel, depending on the variety of NZE. However, unlike the front vowel shift, rounded variants of  are stigmatised, and younger female speakers tend to opt for the conservative variants of those diphthongs even when they exhibit the most advanced variety of the front vowel shift, which leads to the white rabbit  phenomenon (note the Cultivated  but Broad ).
 * The ending points of,   and   vary between close-mid front  and close front . In Cultivated NZE,   consistently has a higher offset than  , much like in General Australian English, but in Broad NZE they normally have the same ending point : . In General NZE, they have been reported to differ as  (with a close-mid ending point) vs.  (with a mid ending point) by one source. Elsewhere in the article, the offsets of the fronting diphthongs are written with ⟨ɪ⟩ regardless of their precise height, following the way they are usually transcribed in English.
 * The onset of is normally raised open front,, whereas its ending point varies between the close back  and the close central . Unlike in Australian English, the open-mid back ending point  does not occur. In Broad NZE, the starting point is higher, giving  or , whereas the offset is centralized and unrounded to , effectively turning  into a centring diphthong that encroaches on the Cultivated realization of . This  realization is gaining ground among younger speakers of the General variety. The Cultivated realization is  (hereafter written without the diacritic), a glide from the open central position to the close back position, which differs from the General NZE   only by the backness of the second element. According to one source,  is sometimes also used in General NZE, though more commonly with a somewhat more front onset:.
 * The starting point of is, whereas its ending point is close to cardinal , making it a glide from  to . In certain phonetic environments (especially in tonic syllables and in the word no), some speakers unround it to , sometimes with additional fronting to , making no sound like nigh. In the Cultivated variety, the onset is mid central and rounded, whereas the ending point is more back:.
 * The starting points of and  are identical  in contemporary NZE. However, conservative speakers distinguish the two diphthongs as  and.
 * Sources do not agree on the exact phonetic realizations of certain NZE diphthongs:
 * The onset of has been variously described as close-mid back  and mid near-back, both overlapping with the allophonic range of.
 * The starting point of has been variously described as near-close central  and near-close near-back.
 * The diphthong  (as in "tour") is becoming rarer, and tends to be found only following . Most speakers use either  or  instead.
 * – merger
 * The – merger (of the diphthongs and ) is on the increase, especially since the beginning of the 21st century 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.
 * 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 $⟨wh⟩$
 * Many younger speakers have the wine–whine merger, which means that the traditional distinction between the and  phonemes no longer exists for them. 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.
 * 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.
 * Yod-dropping
 * The dropping of is uncommon but variable, and occurs more regularly in the word new . The yod is sometimes also dropped in debut, hence.
 * Pronunciation of $⟨th⟩$
 * A relatively recent phenomenon is $⟨th⟩$ 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 $⟨th⟩$ sounds are fronted roughly half the time, with the word with being fronted more commonly than other words, and $⟨th⟩$ sounds in other places are fronted around a quarter of the time. This realisation is not consistent even within the same sentence. $⟨th⟩$ fronting is also common in Pasifika English, and may be instead stopped, producing  for.
 * In Pasifika English, may be realised as stops  as well as the aforementioned.

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 . 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.