This article covers the phonological system of New Zealand English. While most New Zealanders speak differently depending on their level of cultivation (i.e. the closeness to Received Pronunciation), this article covers the accent as it is spoken by educated speakers, unless otherwise noted. The IPA transcription is one designed by specifically to faithfully represent a New Zealand accent, which this article follows in most aspects (see table under ).

Vowels + Variation in New Zealand vowels Lexical set Phoneme Phonetic realization Cultivated Broad

Monophthongs

The vowels of New Zealand English are similar to those of other non-rhotic dialects such as Australian English and Received Pronunciation (RP), but with some distinctive variations, which are indicated by the transcriptions for New Zealand vowels in the tables below:

+ Monophthongs Front Central Back Close Mid Open

chain shift

The original short front vowels () have undergone a chain shift to . Acoustic studies featuring both Australian and New Zealand voices show the accents were more similar before World War II and the short front vowels have changed considerably since then as compared to Australian English. Before the shift, these vowels were pronounced close to the corresponding RP sounds. The stages of the shift are described below. was raised from near-open to open-mid . was raised from mid to close-mid . was first centralised to and then was lowered to , merging with the word-internal allophone of as in abbot . This effectively removes the distinction between full and reduced vowels from the dialect as it makes a stressable vowel. The now-close-mid was further raised to near-close . This encroaches on the vowel space of . Realisation of varies between near-close front , near-close near-front , close-mid front , or close-mid near-front . Cultivated NZE retains the open pronunciations for and for and has a high central (). It is noted that was likely already pronounced among the original colonial settlers of New Zealand. The difference in frontness and closeness of the vowel ( in New Zealand, in Australia) has led to a long-running joke between Australians and New Zealanders whereby Australians accuse New Zealanders of saying "fush and chups" for fish and chips and in turn New Zealanders accuse Australians of saying "feesh and cheeps" in light of Australia's own vowel shift.

In the morpheme-final position, the distinction between () and () is neutralized towards the open in the word-final position and towards the mid elsewhere. For instance, the plural of sofa is , with the mid . Because of that, the names of the lexical sets and are not used in this article.

Before the velar nasal, the vowel is much more close and front () than in other environments. Some speakers also use this variant before and, less often, before other consonants. It is transcribed with a plain in this article and so not differentiated from other allophones of . Initial unstressed is at times as open as , so that inalterable can fall together with unalterable , resulting in a variable phonetic – merger. This is less common and so it is not transcribed in this article.

The vowel may be realised with a slight on-glide when the word is stressed, with becoming . This onglide is increasingly becoming the main way to differentiate from in younger speakers as the latter vowel is a very closed and there is a negligible length difference between the vowel and short vowels. The unstressed close front vowel in happy and video is tense and so it belongs to the phoneme: , .

The vowel is very central, and may be realised with an on-glide, with becoming .

The vowel is not only higher and more front than the corresponding RP vowel , but it is also realised with rounded lips, unlike its RP counterpart. John Wells remarks that the surname Turner as pronounced by a New Zealander may sound very similar to a German word Töne (meaning 'tones'). Possible phonetic realizations include near-close front , near-close central , close-mid front , close-mid central , mid front and open-mid front . It appears that realizations lower than close-mid are more prestigious than those of close-mid height and higher, so that pronunciations of the word nurse such as and are less broad than , etc. Close allophones may overlap with monophthongal realizations of . Sources conflict on whether there may be a potential or incipient – merger. , forms a short-long pair with , which means that hut contrasts with heart purely by length, like in Australian English. The quality of those vowels is that of retracted cardinal : , open central , or somewhat higher . – split New Zealand English has the – split: words like dance , chance , plant and grant are pronounced with an sound, as in Southern England and South Australia. However, for many decades prior to World War II there existed an almost even split between the pronunciation of dance as or , plant as or , etc. Can't is also pronounced in New Zealand (like Australia but unlike the North American pronunciation with the vowel). Some older Southland speakers use the vowel rather than the vowel in dance, chance and castle, so that they are pronounced rather than .

The vowel may have an off-glide, more often word-finally but also in closed syllables, turning oar into or .Gordon, Elizabeth, et al. (2004). New Zealand English: Its Origins and Evolution. Cambridge University Press. It is can be slightly centralised () and ranges between and in height.

The vowel is open-mid and somewhat centralised, between and , more precisely and . The vowel may sometimes be unrounded. The vowel can be phonetically short before /-m/ and /-n/ (with possible exceptions from and on), long before /-ŋ/ in verbs (belong) and adjectives (wrong), and short in nouns (song).Vowel length in a New Zealand English dialect: Wayne Lawrence, University of Auckland, via by Geoff Lindsey.

The vowel is close-mid (close to ), and may become centralised, even when stressed, so words like good are pronounced closer to , and could and kid may sound the same, . Changes before Before , is retracted to , and is lowered to (see salary–celery merger), yielding a merger with . These changes make words like too sound different from tool and leads to Ellen and Alan both being pronounced . Mergers before may occur between and (as in reel vs real , the only minimal pair) and and (pull vs pool ). Māori English Māori English has a more fronted and lowered vowel. The vowel is less central, and is used in unstressed syllables where schwa would be expected (due to the merger of and schwa). The vowel is lowered compared to General New Zealand English. The vowel may be more fronted in Māori English. The vowel may be more rounded and more fronted. Pasifika English Features identified as being part of a unique Pasifika English sociolect include a raised vowel, reduced diphthonisation of and , a lowered , and for some a retracted and lowered .

Diphthongs

+ Diphthongs Closing Centring

Phonetic quality On the Cultivated end of the spectrum, the starting points of the fronting-closing diphthongs and are front in the first case and central or advanced back (both hereafter written with ) in the second case. These are the usual NZE realizations. On the Broad end of the spectrum, they are both retracted, so that acquires a central onset , whereas the first element of is retracted and rounded to , sometimes with raising to (both hereafter written with ), approaching the vowel but without an actual merger. This means that the diphthong can stand for either vowel, depending on the variety of NZE. However, unlike the front vowel shift, rounded variants of are stigmatised, and younger female speakers tend to opt for the conservative variants of those diphthongs even when they exhibit the most advanced variety of the front vowel shift, which leads to the white rabbit phenomenon (note the Cultivated but Broad ). The ending points of , and vary between close-mid front and close front . In Cultivated NZE, consistently has a higher offset than , much like in General Australian English, but in Broad NZE they normally have the same ending point : . In General NZE, they have been reported to differ as (with a close-mid ending point) vs. (with a mid ending point) by one source. Elsewhere in the article, the offsets of the fronting diphthongs are written with regardless of their precise height, following the way they are usually transcribed in English. The onset of is normally raised open front, , whereas its ending point varies between the close back and the close central . Unlike in Australian English, the open-mid back ending point does not occur. In Broad NZE, the starting point is higher, giving or , whereas the offset is centralized and unrounded to , effectively turning into a centring diphthong that encroaches on the Cultivated realization of . This realization is gaining ground among younger speakers of the General variety. The Cultivated realization is (hereafter written without the diacritic), a glide from the open central position to the close back position, which differs from the General NZE only by the backness of the second element. According to one source, is sometimes also used in General NZE, though more commonly with a somewhat more front onset: . The raised onset has been present since at least 1900. The starting point of is , whereas its ending point is close to cardinal , making it a glide from to . In certain phonetic environments (especially in tonic syllables and in the word no), some speakers unround it to , sometimes with additional fronting to , making no sound like nigh. In the Cultivated variety, the onset is mid central and rounded, whereas the ending point is more back: . The starting points of and are identical () in contemporary NZE. However, conservative speakers distinguish the two diphthongs as and . Sources do not agree on the exact phonetic realizations of certain NZE diphthongs: The onset of has been variously described as close-mid back and mid near-back , both overlapping with the allophonic range of . The starting point of has been variously described as near-close central and near-close near-back .

The diphthong (as in "tour") is becoming rarer, and tends to be found only following . Most speakers use either or instead. – merger The – merger (of the diphthongs and ) is on the increase, especially since the beginning of the 21st century so that the phrase that's neither here nor there is pronounced in General NZE, with here rhyming with there. In Cultivated NZE, the distinction is maintained: . Similarly, beer and bear as well as really and rarely are homophones: , . There is some debate as to the quality of the merged vowel, but the consensus appears to be that it is towards a close variant, . The proportion of teenagers showing the merger increased from 16% in 1983 to 80% in 1999. The merger is nearly complete, with most younger speakers being unable to tell the two diphthongs apart. As the merger is not yet fully complete, it is transcribed only in phonetic transcription, whereas in phonemic transcription the distinction is maintained: , etc. Changes before Before , becomes , making go sound different to goal . This vowel change may lead to a merger with () (doll vs dole ), especially when the is vocalised. This has been labelled the lexical set by .

Transcriptions Sources differ in the way they transcribe New Zealand English. The differences are listed below. The traditional phonemic orthography for the Received Pronunciation as well as the reformed phonemic orthographies for Australian and General South African English have been added for the sake of comparison.

+ New Zealand English Example words fleece happy, video ring, writing kit rabbit accept, abbot sofa, better strut, unknown palm, start near foot / goose cure fury / sure thought, north dress / nurse trap lot face / square goat choice price mouth