New Zealand English
Dialect of the English language / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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New Zealand English (NZE) is the dialect of the English language spoken and written by most English-speaking New Zealanders.[2] Its language code in ISO and Internet standards is en-NZ.[3] English is the first language of the majority of the population.
| New Zealand English | |
|---|---|
| Region | New Zealand |
| Ethnicity | New Zealanders |
Native speakers | 3.8 million in New Zealand (2013 census)[1] 150,000 L2 speakers of English in New Zealand (Crystal 2003) |
Early forms | Old English
|
| Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | newz1240 |
| IETF | en-NZ |
| This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. | |
| Part of a series on the |
| English language |
|---|
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The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and become distinctive only in the last 150 years".[4] The varieties of English that had the biggest influence on the development of New Zealand English were Australian English and Southern England English, with lesser influences from American English, Hiberno-English, Scottish English and the British prestige accent Received Pronunciation (RP).[5] An important source of vocabulary is the Māori language of the indigenous people of New Zealand, whose contribution distinguishes New Zealand English from other varieties.[5]
Non-rhotic New Zealand English is most similar to Australian English in pronunciation, with some key differences.[6] A prominent difference is the realisation of /ɪ/ (the KIT vowel): in New Zealand English this is pronounced as a schwa.