Losing voice: is final /z/ devoicing a feature of Maori English?

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the distribution of word‐final /z/ in New Zealand English. This feature has attracted little attention in previous research, but it appears to be a feature which distinguishes between the English of Pakeha and Maori New Zealanders. The research reported in this paper describes the distribution of word‐final /z/ in a sample of 6,057 tokens produced by 97 New Zealanders from the Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English. The contributors contrast primarily on the dimensions of ethnicity, gender, and age, and the samples include both interview and conversational styles. The analysis identifies three main variants of word‐final /z/, a voiced variant, a partially devoiced variant and a totally devoiced or voiceless variant. The sociolinguistic distribution of the voiceless variant indicates that it is used significantly more often by Maori than by Pakeha, suggesting it may be a feature of ‘Maori English.’ The results also suggest that young Pakeha women may play an interesting role in relation to language change in New Zealand English. Tentative explanations are proposed for the patterns identified.

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