English as It Is Spoken in New Zealand

Abstract

a million and a half people, mostly of English or Scotch descent, if not themselves born in Britain. Systematic settlement began only a century ago; and the ties with 'Home,' as 'The Old Country' is still called (it is worth noting that this use of the word is now less common in Australia) are stronger than in any other British Dominion: London is the mecca of most New Zealanders. They believe that they speak the King's English, whilst they disapprovingly describe their nearest neighbors as speaking 'Australian,' or 'with an Australian accent'-a view that Australians themselves sometimes confirm by asserting that New Zealanders, compared with them, speak 'hundred per cent English.' Now it is true that there has been a quicker growth of national consciousness in Australia, and that Australian speech and idiom have a quality and character of their own; certain features of 'Austral' English have been recognized for some time, and glossaries of Australian usage have been published.1 But it has not usually been recognized that the language of the New Zealanders has its own distinctive characteristics, its own blend of idioms and usages. And there has been little attempt to give a picture of English as it is spoken (and written) in New Zealand:2 partly because any such survey involves a form of self-criticism which it is especially difficult for a native of a small and comparatively isolated community to undertake, lacking as he does adequate standards of comparison;