The Story of New Zealand English: What the ONZE Project Tells Us

Abstract

Because New Zealand English (NZE) developed sufficiently recently, sound recordings are available from the first generation of New Zealand born speakers. Some of these recordings are held in the Mobile Unit (MU) archive in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Canterbury and have been analysed by the Origins of New Zealand English Project (ONZE). This paper shows how the speakers from the MU archive have enabled the story of New Zealand English to be told considerably more accurately than would have been possible had only written sources of information been available. The sorts of infor mation about NZE that can be gleaned from written sources is discussed as well as the historical context in which NZE developed. Key results from the analyses of the MU archive are presented together with an indication of the way in which this archive has enabled factors that affected the development of NZE to be identified.

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