Do the New Zealander speak the "British English" or do they have a different accent?

Show all answers

mareeclara

We speak with a kiwi accent....while many americans in particular think it sounds "british"...it is more similar to Australian accent...but you can pick the difference between the 2 within a sentence.
I lived in the UK for a couple of years and was constantly being asked if I was from Australia....VERY few seemed to pick that I was from New Zealand, when I consider myself to have a reasonably broad accent.

Having said this there are different "levels"of accent, with some people I think who sound very british ( but are born and bred kiwis...eg old news readers and "posh"people) down to general accent of many to the very broad.
apparently auzzies and kiwis tend to shorten their vowels compared to the brits, which I found, so words like Ben, glen, pen sounded like bin, glin and pin.....kiwis ( and I noticied it for the first time when I was in the UK) tend to say eg ( phonetically written)...
The wund was blowin un th trees.....i's sound more like u's. There isgreat hassle with aussies and kiwis with sayings like
"fish and chips"...kiwis say it more like "fush un chups"while aussies are more feesh and cheeps.....

In written stuff its british rather than american ( like aussies) eg colour, honour etc in spelling
BUT we have quite a few sayings that are unique to either aussie and Nz or just NZ eg G'day, How ya going?, back of the wop wops, wuss...there are dictionaries for the slang etc.

Alex

New Zealanders have their own accent. Neither British, nor Australian. A "Kiwi" accent. They use alot of British expressions, and of course, use British spelling, but then again, Australians use British spelling too... I had a very close family friend who was a Kiwi. ;)

lorikins1

New Zealand accent. It's not Australian or British. If you spend any amount of time with someone from NZ you will tell the difference

Burakc96

Well they have an accent called a kiwi accent which more like australian english but not the same.

Abbi

In New Zilund we have a New Zilund accent - lol. Thats how many of us kiwis pronounce New Zealand.

Our accent is not British or American sounding, close to an Aussie accent, and alot of Brits and Americans think aussies and kiwis sound alike.

Aussies laugh at us when we say "Fish & Chips"...
They think we are saying "Fush & Chups".
That's ok... we think aussies say " Feesh & Cheeps"

Officially we are supposed to use UK English when spelling.

Hope this answers your question.

esoeterik_librarian

When it comes to the accent New Zealanders sound more like Australians than the British accent.

While most New Zealanders would be unimpressed to be told that the two nations have a similar accent, the fact is that a more Australasian accent is developing as more Kiwis live in Aussie and vice versa. There are some people who speak very "posh" and still sound very British, but that is more in cities like Christchurch.

New Zealand written language is a blend of American and British spelling, and as the dreaded Microsoft spell checker is used more and more the language is continuing to shift in favour of American spellings. We have "jails" and not "gaols", andmore kids are saying "donuts" instead of "doughnuts".

The language is also shifting as more American youth culture comes through movies and tv series.

Mike R

The accent is closer to Australian (although slightly different too), although they do use more British expressions and spelling and stuff like that.

unco

New Zealanders tend to have a mixture between Austrailian and British accents. :) Some speak more fluently in the British accent maybe because they're FROM Europe originally. Most of New Zealand's population is of European descent, but New Zealand also has many visitors and people from Australia who visit and/ or move to New Zealand. So I guess it varies. But overall, New Zealand has a blend of both accent put together. :) Hope that answers your question.

Lemy

Yes, they speak British English

bella

They got the kiwi accent and they tense to cut the sentences I find them to have a different accent from the british english espescialy if you meet the nz maori they speak like that eh as it going bro?

fijibabie

We speak British English but have our own distinct accent. I can understand why people from countries such as England or US think Australians and New Zealanders sound similar - we probably do to you! But Kiwis and Aussies can instantly tell the difference. An Australian person just has to open their mouth and I can immediately tell they are not kiwi, so it is different.

me_08

We speak 'british english' mostly but have a 'kiwi accent'. It is distinctly our own, quite apart from a british or australian accent. That said, most Americans, Canadians etc I live with cannot yet tell the difference between a kiwi or aussie...which of course I shake my head at.

I'm a kiwi living in Australia in an ex-pat community (so I interact daily with Aussies, Canadians, Americans, Indonesians, Kiwis).

Once you have tuned your ears in to our accent you will be able to distinguish it from an Australian one. Of all commonwealth nations the Kiwi accent is most like the Australian.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: