kiwis and aussies' accents

mee   Friday, May 09, 2003, 18:51 GMT
it's difficult to tell the difference. apart from the fact that kiwis are likely to use /i/ insted of /E/ (for instance bed /bid/), you can't really tell.
mee   Friday, May 09, 2003, 18:58 GMT
anyway, i love the sound of kiwis.
mee   Friday, May 09, 2003, 19:20 GMT
it's kinda ridiculous posting replies to myself, but i just found this website http://www.emigratenz.org/AccentNewZealand.html. it's not phonetically precise, but it helps interested ppl on getting started.
MunchkinLad   Friday, May 09, 2003, 19:57 GMT
According to an authorative source (Paul Jennings), Kiwis pronounce 'fish and chips' differently. Don't know in exactly what way though ;)
mee   Friday, May 09, 2003, 20:40 GMT
apparently they say "fush and chups". i'm just not sure whether that is supposed to be /f^S n tS^ps/ or /faS n tSaps/ (can't use proper symbols), but i suppose it's probably the first one.

http://193.174.46.93/privat/zaade/ < this other website's got a got source on non-standard english, including kiwi slang and others.
Nora   Friday, May 09, 2003, 20:47 GMT
it's interesting.. are you from Australia
Nora   Friday, May 09, 2003, 20:52 GMT
hey me and mee have we met each other?
mee   Saturday, May 10, 2003, 11:14 GMT
first, a ridiculous correction: "website's got a good source...".

i'm not australian, but you just meet them everywhere in london. right now, i can hear i few of them around me, at the internet cafe.

sorry nora, but i don't think i met you before.
mee   Saturday, May 10, 2003, 11:18 GMT
not ridiculous, just lack of attention.

anyway, can anybody help on describing the kiwi "o"?

is it more similar to the british, american or the aussie "o"?
mee   Saturday, May 10, 2003, 11:22 GMT
another mistake: " i can hear a few of them...".

it's just that i type without thinking.
MunchkinLad   Sunday, May 11, 2003, 13:38 GMT
Don't worry, I also sometimes do that. I just try to read my stuff over before posting ;)
Jim   Monday, May 12, 2003, 00:16 GMT
It's probably supposed to be /f^S n tS^ps/ but this would be an exaggeration. The "u" in the Kiwi "fush and chups" is more like the "u" in "support". That is it's close to the central vowel represented by shwa in the IPA.

There's a good site* which compares different accents by the department of linguistics at Macquarie University. If you go half way down the page and click on "New Zealand English Monophthongs" you can see that the Kiwi "i" is somewhere between the central vowel and the "i" of RP.

Kiwi "o" is closest to the Aussie "o" and would be more similar to the British "o" than the American "o".

To me there is a vast difference between the Kiwi and the Aussie accent but they are similar in contrast to other dialects.

* http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/units/ling210-901/phonetics/ausenglish/auseng_vowels.html
mee   Monday, May 12, 2003, 15:06 GMT
thank you very much indeed, jim!

it's a very good site. but it's just a bit of trouble trying to read the phonetic symbols there. i installed the font, but ie won't show them properly (internet explorer sucks). works fine on mozilla, though.
mee   Tuesday, May 13, 2003, 21:42 GMT
cool.

i've read a lot of interesting stuff about the austrailian accent from that link jim's posted, and i extremely recommend that site for ppl wanting to learn about that accent (if so, they should follow the proper intructions about the fonts, and also take a look through the other contents of the website, apart from the main link given here).

however, i would still be very grateful if someone could help on a more detailed description of the new zealander accent.
mee   Tuesday, May 13, 2003, 21:44 GMT
typo: "australian" not "austrailian". maybe others as well, so never mind...