1. By Tom Wotherspoon

2. Colonisation of New Zealand began in the 1840’s
after a treaty was signed with the Maori leaders
giving the British government control of the
islands. The colonisation was conducted from
Australia, this meaning many of the first settlers
were indeed Australian. It wasn’t until 1907 that
New Zealand became a dominion of the British
Empire.

3. Even now, Australia shares a strong bond with New
Zealand. Tourism plays a major part in modern
language development and Australia and New
Zealand are no exception. More tourists go to NZ
from Australia than any other country and visa
versa every year by more double. This helps make
Australian English and NZ English very similar.
(Statistics New Zealand: www.stats.govt.nz/infoshare, accessed 23/10/11 )

4. The most noticeable difference between AE
(Australian English) and NZE (New Zealand English)
is the accents. AE speakers tend to position their
tongue higher and more forward than their close
neighbours when producing the sound /ɪ/. Also
NZE speakers have a higher tongue position when
producing /e/ or /æ/ sounds.
 (An acoustic comparison of Australian and New Zealand English vowel change, Zoë
Evans.† & Catherine I. Watson.‡.)

5. In New Zealand they:
• Lengthen the ‘e’ or /i/ sound in words. Eg,
AU=check /t͡ʃɛk/, NZE=cheeck /t͡ʃik/
• Substitute ‘I’ or /ɪ/ for an ‘a’ or /ə/ within words.
Eg. AU=fish /fɪʃ/, NZE=fush /fəʃ/

6. We say:
Peck the pack of pickles
They say:
Pick the peck of puckles.
(www.dialectblog.com/2011/04/19/new-zealand-accents, accessed on 23/10/11)
Word Australian New Zealandie
Lamb /læm/ /lɛm/
Milk /mɪlk/ /məʊk/
Liver /lɪvɜ/ /ləvə/
Wind /wɪnd/ /wənd/
Six /sɪks/ /səks/
(http://www.soundcomparisons.com/, accessed on 23/10/11)

7. Australian and New Zealand syntax are
identical. No record of syntactical differences
have been made.

8. There are also only a few lexical differences
between NZE and AE. Many of the AE slang
word have been transported over to New
Zealand and are now very common.
Eg. woop woop, bugger, bloody hell, taters, ta,
dinkum, g’day, mate ...

9. Word Meaning
Boy racer A young hoon
Cuz cousin
Flag Cant be bothered
Boat person From the South Island
JAFA Derogatory for Aucklander; Just Another F**king Aucklander
Hangum Slang greeting
Hari Maori for George, Used in a derogatory manner towards Maori
people
Hamu Scavenge, scrounge sometimes in sport a ball hog
manus Idiot, imbecile
halfpai A half done job, from ‘pai’ meaning ‘good’ in Maori
Maori Shower To only use deodorant; not washing
Kai food
Chch Christchurch
Aotearoa New Zealand
Pakeha Of non-Maori background

10.  New Zealand Ad (better)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ9JH4C
eSlo&feature=related
 Maori Pickup lines
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQlDfZ1m
UKo&feature=related

11.  http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-GriBook-_div2-N1097E.html (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 An acoustic comparison of Australian and New Zealand English vowel change. Zoë Evans.† &
Catherine I. Watson.‡ Published: December 2004, Australian Speech Science & Technology
Association Inc.
 http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Differences-Between-American,-British,-and-Australian-
English&id=1729247 (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.lexscripta.com/desktop/dictionaries/slang.html (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://history-nz.org/discovery2.html (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.maoriword.com/ (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.newzealandslang.com/ (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.nz-immigration.co.nz/lifestyle/slang-words.html (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/ (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://web.ku.edu/~idea/australiaoceania/newzealand/newzealand.htm (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://web.ku.edu/~idea/australiaoceania/australia/australia.htm (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/australians/2 (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.soundcomparisons.com/ (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.sit.ac.nz/pages/about/slang (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwi.htm (Accessed: 23/10/11)
 http://www.timeforkids.com/destination/new-zealand/history-timeline (Accessed: 23/10/11)