Māori English

The number of fluent, native Māori language speakers has steadily decreased in New Zealand,
and English has become the dominant language of almost all Māori people, although many are
also familiar with the Māori language. In such circumstances, it is not surprising that a distinctive
variety of Māori English has emerged to express ethnic identity and positive attitudes toward Māori
culture (Holmes 2005).

King (1993) points out that what most sociolinguists would call New Zealand English (NZE) is
probably better labelled as Pākehā English, that is, the English spoken mainly by European New
Zealanders. In fact, NZE covers many varieties,
including both Pākehā English and Māori English. King also suggests that Māori English is not
restricted to ethnically Māori speakers, but is also used by some Pākehā who either grew up or
identify with Māori peer groups. It is also the case that not all ethnically Māori speak Māori English.

Previous research has suggested that the differences between Māori English and Pākehā English
tend to be relative rather than absolute. There are many features that are shared by both dialects
but where the frequency of forms in each variety differs. Since the 1990s, linguists working on
Māori English have made numerous attempts to identify the core features that differentiate the two
dialects, at least quantitatively if not qualitatively. Some of these studies concentrated on
phonological features, such as the pronunciation of vowels and consonants (e.g., King 1993,
Robertson 1994, Holmes 1996, Bell 2000), while others set out to identify possible prosodic
differences (e.g., Bauer 1994, Holmes and Ainsworth 1996, Holmes and Ainsworth 1997, Warren
1998, Bell 2000). Some of the linguistic features of Māori English that have been
identified so far are described below.

Final /z/ devoicing

Devoicing of word final /z/ by young Māori children was noted as early as 1966 by Benton (Benton
1966). More recent research confirmed that it has developed into an identifiable feature of Māori
English, with Māori speakers using a higher percentage of the devoiced variant than non-Māori.
Bell (2000) claims that devoicing of /z/ is part of stereotypical representations of Māori English,
producing for example a lengthened [s:] in `boys'.

Initial /t/ non-aspiration

In Holmes and Ainsworthʹs (1996) study there was a significant difference in the frequency with
which Pākehā and Māori speakers used unaspirated word initial /t/. The Māori participants used
the non‐aspirated variant more than seven times as often as did the Pākehā participants. The
results in Bell (2000) confirm this tendency. It is worth noting that the Māori language itself
traditionally has a relatively unaspirated /t/, although this seems to be changing under the
influence of English (Bauer 1997).

Stopping, affrication and fronting of /T/ and /D/

Bell (2000) suggests that in the case of Māori English variants of /T/ and /D/, there is a confluence
of Māori language influence and general vernacular usage, as shown in other varieties such as
African American English. The Māori speaker in Bellʹs study uses higher frequencies of the
stopped, affricated and fronted variants than the Pākehā speaker. The fronted variants [f] and [v]
in particular seem to be currently becoming more salient features of Māori English.

Fronting of /u/

In NZE /u/ seems to have a generally centralised realisation. However, Bell (2000) shows that his
Māori speaker uses an extreme fronted version more than twice as often (38% of the time) than
does the Pākehā speaker, and only produces 6% of the back token.
Syllable‐timing

Although English in general is considered to be stress‐timed, it has been suggested that NZE
shows a tendency towards syllable‐timing. Previous work on rhythm in New Zealand has also
claimed that there may be a difference in timing patterns within the variety, with Māori speakers
producing more syllable‐timed speech than Pākehā speakers (Ainsworth 1993, Holmes and
Ainsworth 1996, Holmes and Ainsworth 1997, Warren 1998). In fact, various patterns that signal a
greater degree of syllable‐timing were already noted in the speech of Māori children by Benton
(1966). These include shortening of long vowels or diphthongs, devoicing and lengthening of
consonants and use of full vowels for schwa in unstressed syllables.

To investigate the degree of syllable‐timing in NZE, an auditory analysis of recordings from radio
broadcasts was carried out by Ainsworth (1993) where she measured full‐vowel vs. reduced‐
vowel ratio. The recordings were obtained from the BBC World News, two commercial New
Zealand stations, the more conservative National Radio and the Māori news service, Mana News.
Her results revealed that full vowels were retained nearly 60% of the time in the Māori sample,
and only around 20% in the case of the recordings from the BBC and the two commercial New
Zealand stations. In a detailed acoustic analysis of these recordings, Warren (1998) confirmed that
Māori English is more syllable‐timed than Pākehā English, which in turn is more syllable‐timed
than British English. In an acoustic analysis of the speech of 36 New Zealanders, Szakay (2008)
also found that these two ethnic varieties displayed differing rhythmic patterns, with Māori
English being significantly more syllable‐timed than Pākehā English.

High Rising Terminals

The High Rising Terminal (HRT) is a salient rise in pitch at the end of non‐interrogative intonation
phrases and is a feature of many varieties of English. It has been extensively studied in NZE, and
is reported to be used mainly by young, female speakers. A major study carried out by Britain
(1992) showed evidence that this pattern is used in different proportions by Māori and Pākehā. His
analysis indicated that Māori speakers use a significantly higher percentage of HRTs than Pākehā.
The results also revealed that young Māori men use levels similar to women, while young Pākehā
men are extremely low users of HRTs. Szakay (2008) also found that Māori speakers used a higher
percentage of High Rising Terminals than Pākehā speakers.

Pitch

The results of Szakay’s (2008) acoustic analysis suggested that Māori English pitch is becoming
higher over time, with young Māori speakers producing a significantly higher mean pitch than
young Pākehā speakers.

References

Ainsworth, H. 1993. `Rhythm in New Zealand Englishʹ. Unpublished manuscript. Wellington:

Victoria University of Wellington.

Bauer, L. 1994. English in New Zealand, in R. Burchfield (ed.) The Cambridge

History of the English Language Vol. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 382‐429.

Bauer, W. 1997. The Reed Reference Grammar of Māori. Auckland: Reed.

Bell, A. 2000. Māori and Pakeha English: A case study. In A. Bell and K. Kuiper
(eds.) New Zealand English. Wellington: Victoria University Press: 221‐
248.

Benton, R. 1966. Research into the English Language Difficulties of Māori

Schoolchildren 1963‐1964. Wellington: Māori Education Foundation.

Britain, D. 1992. Linguistic change in intonation: the use of High Rising Terminals in New
Zealand English. Language Variation and Change 4: 77‐104.

Holmes, J. (1996), Losing voice: is final /z/ devoicing a feature of Māori English?
World Englishes 15(2): 193‐205.

Holmes, J. 2005. Using M_aori English in New Zealand. International Journal

of the Sociology of Language 172: 91‐115.

Holmes, J. and Ainsworth, H. 1996. Syllable‐timing and Māori English. Te Reo 39: 75‐84.

Holmes, J. and Ainsworth, H. 1997. Unpacking the research process: investigating

syllable‐timing in New Zealand English. Language Awareness 6(1): 32‐47.

King, J. 1993. Māori English: a phonological study. New Zealand English

Newsletter 7: 33‐47.

Robertson, S. 1994. Identifying Māori English: A study of ethnic identification,

attitudes, and phonetic features. Unpublished MA thesis. Wellington: Victoria University
of Wellington.

Szakay, A. 2008. Ethnic Dialect Identification in New Zealand: The Role of Prosodic Cues. Saarbrucken:
VDM Verlag.

Warren, P. 1998. Timing Patterns in New Zealand English Rhythm. Te Reo 41: 80‐93.

Anita Szakay
PhD student (Māori English)
Department of Linguistics
University of British Columbia
Canada
[email protected]

(from Anita Szakay’s 2007 MA at the University of Canterbury, with her permission.)