Okay, years ago I was staying in a hostel in Dublin, where my fellow travellers included a guy from Australia and a girl from New Zealand. I admitted to them that I couldn’t tell their accents apart, which did not go over well. The Australian guy advised me to listen for the word “fish”, which New Zealanders pronounce as “fush”, according to him.
The other day I was watching an Australian crime drama on TV and one of the points on which the plot turns was that a guy was really from New Zealand and not Australia, as he’d claimed. The cops made the connection because he told them he’d been out for “fush and chips”. Ah ha! He’s really a New Zealander!
My question is, if you leave out the word “fish”, can Australiand and New Zealanders immediately tell one accent from the other?
Yeah the NZ vowel sounds are quite different from the Australian ones. I and U have a similar sound and A and E also have a similar sound. Many Australians focus on the “uh” sound and ignore the other vowel sounds.
“I weent out to the deery to geet sum fush un chups. Theen I thought, :smack:, sully mee, you don’t geet fush un chups from a deery!”
There’s a variety of accents though. I’m from NZ but have lived in Aus for over seven years. I can easily pick a strong New Zilllund accent but can’t always pick the more “neutral” ones e.g., Sam Neil. I also know Kiwis who’ve lived for 20 years in Aus and have stronger accents now than I ever did.
I guess it’s a bit like asking a Canadian to say “out and about”. The accent shows through everything they say but to someone completely clueless, it is most clearly heard with those, or similar, words.
Close DeathRay, but the short I and E are also interchanged in Kiwi, while long E is exchanged with A. Funny joke apparently is to ask a Kiwi for a pin. So it’s:
“I wint out to the deery to git sum fush un chups. Thin I thought, :smack:, sully mee, you don’t geet fush end chups from a deery!”
as opoosed to Strine with the glottal stops and elided consonants
“I wen’out ti’ the dairy t’ get sum fish’n chips. Then a thought, :smack:, silly me, ya don’get fish’n chips fr’m a dairy!”
[QUOTE=1920s Style “Death Ray”]
Yeah the NZ vowel sounds are quite different from the Australian ones. I and U have a similar sound and A and E also have a similar sound. Many Australians focus on the “uh” sound and ignore the other vowel sounds.
“I weent out to the deery to geet sum fush un chups. Theen I thought, :smack:, sully mee, you don’t geet fush un chups from a deery!”
I’ve never had a very strong NZ accent; when I first moved to Australia, though it was commented on about a third of the time, many Australians didn’t pick up on it at all, even after they were told. (I tend not to tell people, because then I get bombarded with sheep jokes).
I’ve been here in AU for 8 years now, and what little accent I had is now almost entirely lost, except for just a few words and turns of phrases here and there. Now, whenever I visit home or talk to my family, the NZ accent is very grating to me, and bothers me a lot. I think that’s just familiarity, but it does disappoint me that the New Zealand accent sounds “wrong” to my ears, causing me to wince.
I wouldn’t entirely agree. I just watched some news broadcasts on the TVNZ.co.nz site, and while most of the reporters sounded strongly, instantly Kiwi to me, the news anchors themselves only rarely seemed to have an accent. I’m sure this is because, like in Australia, the anchors have an accent that is far less common in the general public (probably similar to the American “non-regional diction” that is mentioned every so often).
Anyway, my point is that there are some Kiwi accents that aren’t strongly dissimilar to some Australian accents, but “everyday” Australian and “everyday” New Zealander accents are quite distinguishable from each other.
On this article there’s a link to a video (labelled “Experts Prepare for Dam Burst”) that demonstrates what I’m talking about. The anchor introducing the piece has the hard-to-pick accent that I mentioned - most noticeable when he says “if and when”, otherwise it could be an Australian broadcaster - but the reporter Alexi O’Brien has a strong accent that is recognisable from her opening “Good evening Simon” onwards.
Could well be the same ‘received pronunciation’ that British actors are fond of.
I agree with your point about the “everyday” accent not being “all” the accents. Sometimes I can tell which suburb someone is from. Most of us make fun of the Southland ‘burr’.
The Aussie/NZ accents would be the equivalent of the Canada/US accents, similar only to those outside the area. Like jjim,and for exactly the same reason, if I’m not sure I’ll always ask if they’re Canadian.
And Kiwi’s say “Fuck” much, much more often and with much less emphasis, it doesn’t have the same emotional impact because of all the Maori place names that have “whaka” in them.
I think I’m very similar except that when I hear an NZ accent I just feel homesick now. It used to grate, but I’m well passed that, and listen to it with affection.
Here in the UK, people seem to have difficulty identifying NZ, Aussie and SA accents. How you cannot identify a South African accent is beyond me, as it is so different from NZ/Aussie accents.
But after 6 years here, I find it hard to distinguish between Aussie and NZ accents, unless they are really broad.
And NZ newsreaders used to aim for received pronunciation, they stopped a few years ago now.
I’m a Brit and have a hard time identifying the differences between Aussie and Kiwi accents but the ‘Sith Ifrican’ accent is very different and quite easy to distinguish.
I’m a Brit and I can usually differentiate between NZ and Aus accents, and telling them apart from South African is a piece of piss. I can also tell the difference between Canadian and USian too.
That’s like the old joke here about North American accents:
“Which province are you from?”
Canucks will be proud you picked 'em, and Americans won’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
Back to the OP, and it should be pointed out that the young, urban Australian accents (especially in Sydney) are drifting eastwards. There’s a strong NZ influence starting to appear. Hey, bro?
Or to answer the OP more directly - usually, yes we can tell (but not always). Sometimes it might take a minute or two. Frequently, it’s instant recognition, and there are times when we’d be clueless. I’m guessing it might be similar to the US and Canada?
I can often pick a Canadian accent - but don’t ask me how. Maybe it sounds “crisper” or something. Commonwealth folk trying to impersonate Americans often come across as Canadian to me too.
American here, with a similar take on this. South Africans are easy to distinguish (Ernie Els sounds very different from Greg Norman). And I’m like the cop in the OP-- I can tell a Kiwi from an Aussie, but only if they pronounce a work like “fish”.
The fish/fush thing needs some clarification here, I think.
It’s possibly not the best test to use, because I think it’s inaccurate.
Most Kiwis will tell you Aussies say “fiiiiish”, and we’ll tell you Kiwis say “fush”. And that’s true - sometimes. But it’s really only true for the broadest of either accents. Steve Irwin would have said “fiiiish”. Most Aussies say… um… “fish”. Kiwis also often just say “fish”, but they have a tendency to either elide the vowel into a schwa or to drop it altogether, giving you “fsh”. I’d say the average Kiwi in the street would be more likely to say “fsh” than “fush”. The latter is for the broader accents.
Kiwis also tend to speak more quickly, and their speech is a bit more “breathy” (which I suspect is the Maori influence).
