New Zealand English

The anglophone settlement of New Zealand only got under way after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The characteristics of New Zealand English are similar to southern British English and shows the same diphthong shift which is found in Australia. It is usually difficult to tell Australians and New Zealanders apart but the latter tend to have a schwa vowel in the KIT lexical set, i.e. kit is [kət]. They may also have a merger of pear and peer to [piə].

   Sample sound file