GRIN | Your Knowledge Has Value | Publication of your thesis, essay, dissertation or term paper
Publish Your Paper Now
Homepage > Catalog > English Language and Literature Studies > Linguistics
Browse the ebook

New Zealand English

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics


Author

Ismail Durgut
11 Texts

Excerpt

Category
Scholary Paper (Seminar)
Institution / College
Grade
2,0

Table of Content
1. Introduction ...2
2. The First Settlers ...2
3. The Development of New Zealand English: ...3
3.1 Influences of English Dialects ...3
3.2 Influences of Other Languages...4
3.3 Maori Influence ...4
4. Features of New Zealand English: ...5
4.1 Vocabulary...5
4.2 Pronunciation...5
4.3 Grammatical features...6
5. Similarities with other Varieties...7
6. Conclusion...8
2
1. Introduction
New Zealand English is one of the most closely studied national varieties of English outside the
USA and UK, and a source of significance for the dialect differentiation and historical evolution
of English. Most of the work has been done in the relatively short period of about 15 years
compared with the longer time frame of studies in British and American English. One reason for
this is that New Zealand English has, from its beginning, benefited from significant co-operative
and collaborative activity among New Zealand linguists (see Kuiper, 2003). This paper gives an
overview of how this certain variety of the language emerged and changed until today. It also
deals with its specific characteristics in comparison with other varieties, especially varieties of
the Southern Hemisphere.
2. The First Settlers
New Zealand was first discovered by Polynesian explorers and settled by AD 1150. It was
rediscovered by Abel Tasman, a Dutch, in 1642, and was given its name by Dutch geographers
by the end of that century. Its language contact situation with English took place when Captain
James Cook, who claimed it for the British Crown, visited New Zealand with H.M.S Endeavor in
1769 (see Macalister, 2006; Bauer, 1994). From about 1792 onwards European traders, whalers
and sealers operated from the coasts of New Zealand. English was probably the lingua franca of
this region.
Since 1840, when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between representatives of the British
government and a number of Maori chiefs, English attached its importance. More and more
Pakeha
, as the Maori called settlers of European origin, came in three periods of mass migration
between 1840 and 1880. Most settlers were upper working class and lower middle class and
largely British (see Bauer, 1994). There were several motives why they left their home-countries
to start a new life so far away. An overriding belief was that travelling to this distant country
would enable people to better themselves and provide better prospects for their children, without
abandoning their British roots. Their aim was the creation of a new Britain in the South Pacific in
the context of British law, religion, education, social values and practices (see Gordon and
Sudbury, 2002). Another reason was the hope of becoming wealthy. Miners came, mainly from
Australia, enforced by the hope to find gold since it had been discovered in 1861 in Otago, South
Island. The first period of immigration in the 1840s and 1850s were planned settlements
3
organized by the New Zealand Company set up for the purposes of land speculation under the
direction of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. These settlements are also known as the Wakefield
Settlements
, i.e. Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson and New Plymouth. The second
period was in the 1860s with the discovery of gold in Otago. Besides Australian miners large
numbers of Irish Catholics, a group excluded by the earlier planners, settled down just as soldiers
from Britain, Australia and Ireland, who were in the regiments of the British Army to fight in the
New Zealand Wars
. The last stage of immigration was from 1870 to 1885, a period when the
government embarked on a program of public works and development. By the 1890 there were
more New Zealand-born than immigrants and considered themselves quite distinct from the
arriving groups (see Gordon and Sudbury, 2002; Bauer, 1994). This date can be taken as a point
after which the development of the English spoken in New Zealand reflected New Zealand rather
than British or Australian trends (see Bauer, 1994).
3. The Development of New Zealand English:
3.1 Influences of English Dialects
The most important ingredients in the mixture that was to lead to the development of a new and
distinctive form of English in New Zealand were the dialects and accents of the language brought
to New Zealand by speakers of English who came for the most part from England, Scotland,
Ireland and Australia. Census figures indicate that the proportions of settlers coming from
different Anglophone areas to New Zealand in the period up to 1881 were as follows:
England
49%
Scotland 22%
Ireland 20%
Australia 7%
Wales 1%
N. America 1% (see Trudgill, Gordon, Lewis and Maclagan, 2000)
Most of the early English settlers came from the West Country, which had a tradition of
emigration, e.g. New Plymouth settlers were brought by the Plymouth Company in 1841-1843
from Devon and Cornwall. Others came from Surrey, Essex and Kent ­ near but not from
London. Many Scottish and Irish settlers were from around major urban areas, i.e. Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin. A good deal of the British settlers had agricultural or laboring
Excerpt: 4 of 10 pages -  scroll top


Description

Title:
New Zealand English
Event:
None
Author:
Ismail Durgut
Year:
2007
Pages:
10
Archive No.:
V90949
ISBN (eBook):
978-3-638-05514-7
ISBN (Book):
978-3-640-10898-5
DOI:
10.3239/9783638055147
File size:
108 KB
Language:
English

Tags:
English New Zealand Variety Language Linguistik Linguistics Neu Zeeland Englisch

Quote paper:

Ismail Durgut, 2007, New Zealand English, Munich, GRIN Publishing GmbH

This text can be quoted and accessed from this url:

Embed

Copy the following code to embed the flash view of this text in a blog or website.

DOI

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a kind of ISBN for internet documents which guarantees that you find the text also if its internet address changes. You can find DOI-papers on http://www.doi.org/.

Similar texts

          

Comments

0 comments

Add comment

Your comment is reviewed before being published

Recent News

Ismail Durgut's text New Zealand English is now available as a printed book

on Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 0 comments -

Ismail Durgut has published the text New Zealand English

on Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 0 comments -

Ismail Durgut has uploaded a new text

on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 0 comments -
Show all...

How it works

Similar texts

     

Facebook

Newsfeed

Loading...

Show all...

Books on this topic

   

About us

Blog

Jobs

Contact

Press

Partners

Privacy


© 2008-2012 GRIN Verlag GmbH. E-Mail: info@grin.com - All content copyright restricted.
Copying and distribution prohibited. Terms and Conditions.

Free Publication:
Your term paper, essay, interpretation, bachelor thesis, master's thesis, dissertation or textbook: upload now!

AWEST2