| Communications and Development |  |
Published by Communications and Development
The Kiwi accent, our lingo and attitudes to our distinct variety of English, are the topics for a new book by one of New Zealand’s leading linguists.
Finding Our Own Voice, published by Canterbury University Press, features the three Macmillan Brown lectures delivered byUniversity of Canterbury Adjunct Associate Professor in Linguistics Elizabeth Gordon in 2005.
In the first chapter, Professor Gordon discusses the development and evolution of the New Zealand accent from the earliest days, when the children of the early settlers spoke with the dialects of their parents, through the remarkably short period of time to when people began to accuse children and others of speaking with an odious "colonial twang”.
This development is described in light of recent theories about dialect development and discusses research conducted at the University of Canterbury into the spoken English of first-generation New Zealanders, some born as early as the 1850s, who were recorded by the National Broadcasting Service in the 1940s.
The second chapter, “Afghans and cheerios, kiwi and iwi”, illustrates how the words we use reflect life in New Zealand, and how the uniqueness of our vocabulary comes from its Māori input. Readers will be entertained and find many a talking point from Professor Gordon’s examples which will take some on a trip down memory lane to the days of the six o’clock swill, the Golden Kiwi, when young women had glory boxes and morning teas might include “fly cemeteries”.
The final chapter explores the prevailing attitudes to New Zealand English, from the time at which the New Zealand accent was first noticed about 1900, through to the present day. These attitudes to language also reflect the changing views about New Zealand’s relationship with Britain and about the development of a distinct New Zealand identity.
Professor Gordon is a sociolinguist with a special interest in New Zealand English, especially the New Zealand accent. She taught at the University of Canterbury for 35 years and was a co-leader of the UC-based project on the Origins of New Zealand English (ONZE). Now retired, she continues to carry out research into New Zealand English and writes a weekly column on language in the Christchurch Press.
Professor Gordon was the first of UC's Macmillan Brown lecturers to be broadcast nationally on Radio New Zealand and the lectures associated with the book can be heard online at:
www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the_macmillan_brown_lectures.
For further information please contact:
Maria De Cort
Communications Officer
University of Canterbury
Tel: +64 3 364 2072
Fax: +64 3 364 2679
maria.decort@canterbury.ac.nz