Theories about origins and development of New Zealand English

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Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow

Theories about origins and development of New Zealand English

Bekeeva Anna Rapkatovna, Ph. D. in Philology

A characteristic feature of English is belonging to several countries. English is used as national and official literary language of many countries such as: The United Kingdom, Canada, The United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. In these countries English is one of the national varieties which are characterized by a certain functional identity, national and cultural specificity of language units, social and territorial differentiation.

New Zealand has trade, cultural, political and educational relations with many countries and it is an active participant in international organizations. New Zealand is one of the most visited countries in the world. The sociolinguistic status of English in New Zealand can be defined as New Zealand national variant of the English language, as it is the official language of the country; it is spoken by the absolute number of residents of the country; it has a national standard; it performs the full scope of public functions; it has national and cultural specificity.

Since 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between representatives of the British government and Maori chiefs, English attached its importance. The functional distribution of language entities typically depends on position in society, which is the language of the ethnic community. Despite the presence of native Maori settlements, the dominant role belonged to the English language. The narrowing of the functions of the Maori language in New Zealand happened due to the high social prestige of the English language, the implementation of public functions, expanding the communicative use throughout the historical development of New Zealand.

The European settlers arrived in three waves. At first the immigrants came through the efforts of the New Zealand Company, under the direction of E. G. Wakefield. The second wave of immigration came with the discovery of gold in Otago in 1861. In the 1860s there were The New Zealand Wars. More than 10 000 troops were brought to New Zealand and 2 000 came from Australia. The third wave of immigration occurred in the 1870s when the New Zealand government developed a deliberate policy of encouraging immigrants to come to New Zealand [6, p. 5].

In colonial times, New Zealand was known as The land given by God (God's own country), the social laboratory of the world, classless egalitarian society, Great Britain of the Southern hemisphere, South Seas, Wonderland of the Pacific, Britain of the South, Eden of the Southern Sea, Digger land. Colonialist policies of the British had a significant impact on the functional distribution of languages in New Zealand, contributing to the advancement of the English language in a dominant position and localizing the use of the Maori language. During that time, the English language in New Zealand acquired its own specific features that distinguished it from English in the metropolis.

British colonialists embarked on a process of political, economic and cultural integration, inter-ethnic consolidation and construction of new cities across the country. New Zealand was connected with the United Kingdom by a strong sense of historical kinship and common British values and institutions.

The linguistic situation as a result of colonization created the main preconditions for the development and formation of the English language in New Zealand. In 1790, the new country became a colony of the British Empire. It should be noted that there was significant social and ethnic diversity in New Zealand because the vast majority of the immigrants were traders, sailors and whalers from Scotland, England, Australia and Ireland.

From colonial times until the mid XX century New Zealanders used the words home, Motherland Britain. The expression to go home was understood by New Zealanders as `to visit or return to the UK'. The phrase home boat meant `a ship navigating between the United Kingdom and New Zealand' [9, p. 300].

The sense of belonging to the British Empire waned with the weakening of its power after World War II. The weakening of the traditional, cultural and economic ties between the UK and New Zealand occurred with the entry of England into the European Economic Community in 1973 and cessation programs to promote the immigration of Britons to New Zealand in 1974 [2, с. 50].

English spoken in New Zealand has been the subject of comments since the early European settlers began to notice new words. Works by the following British and New Zealand authors can be included in the sources of the linguistic analysis of functioning of linguistic units in New Zealand English: A. Basgate “Colonial Memories” (1874); S. McBurney “Colonial Pronunciation” (1887); J. Anderson “Popular Names of New Zealand Plants” (1926); A. Wall “The Native Language in New Zealand” (1936), “The King's English: A Commentary for New Zealand” (1958), “The Jeweler's Window” (1964); E. Partridge “A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English” (1937); S. J. Baker “New Zealand Slang: A Dictionary of Colloquialisms” (1941), “The Origin of the Words Pakeha and Maori” (1945); G. Turner “The English Language in Australia and New Zealand” (1966); R. Eagleson “English in Australia and New Zealand” (1982); E. Gordon and T. Deverson “New Zealand English: An Introduction to New Zealand Speech” (1985) [1, c. 9].

In the XIX-XX centuries the scientific publications about the English language in New Zealand were primarily prescriptive and critical rather than descriptive. Later writers, in the 1930s and 1940s (A. Wall, S. Baker, and J. Bennett), also provided observations about New Zealand English features, but still with a prescriptive purpose, for example, they made recommendations of a practical nature as to teach the correct ways of pronunciation of words to New Zealanders. Despite the prescriptive approach and the lack of a systematic comparison between New Zealand English and other varieties of the English language, the above observations are the main source of study of the nature and process of formation of New Zealand English in the late XIX - early XX century. It was not until the 1960s that New Zealand speech began to be treated more systematically as a variety in its own right.

A notable event in the direction of analysis of the characteristics of New Zealand English was the publication of the book “The English Language in Australia and New Zealand” (1966) by G. Turner. In that work, the author considered Australian English and noted that New Zealand English diverged from it. G. Turner also described the lexical items and common colloquial vocabulary of the English language in New Zealand and Australia. It should be noted that the above scientist explained the reason for the emergence and development of national and cultural specificity of those changes in the English language influenced by linguistic and extralinguistic factors [11, p. 5].

A well-known New Zealand linguist T. Deverson believes that “the detailed study of New Zealand English is in its infancy (lexicography partly excepted), much careful data gathering and analysis will be required before its description can be put on other than an impressionistic footing” [5, p. 2]. Now New Zealand English is taught and researched in New Zealand universities and is a topic in the English syllabus for senior school students.

An interesting feature of foreign research works about the English language in New Zealand is the lack of a clear system of scientific definitions and the established terminology of the origin and evolution of New Zealand English. There are some theories about the origins of New Zealand English. The theories are: New Zealand English is a version of the XIX century Cockney speech; New Zealand English originated from south-eastern dialects of England; New Zealand English is a version of Australian English; New Zealand English developed independently from all other varieties from the mixture of accents and dialects that the Anglophone settlers in New Zealand brought with them.

For many years Cockney dialect was considered as the basis for the formation of the English language in New Zealand. A. Wall, Professor of the University of Canterbury (1899-1931) in his book “New Zealand English: A Guide to Correct Pronunciation of English with Special Reference to New Zealand Conditions and Problems” (1939) wrote that “...about 80% of the total New Zealand population speaks English with a more or less marked London, or Cockney accent” [12, p. 8]. A. Wall considered speech features of the first New Zealand settlers similar to that of a special pronunciation of native speakers of the London dialect.

There is one kind of vocabulary item which is associated very strongly with Cockney dialect and which is also found in New Zealand: that is rhyming slang. A few pieces of rhyming slang have become extremely widespread in general British English. The expression let's have a butcher's for `let me have a look' is one such, and the expression to blow a raspberry meaning `to make a rude noise with the lips showing disapproval'. Let's have a butchers is an abbreviated form of let's have a butcher's hook, and butcher's hook rhymes with look, so that let's have a butcher's means `let's have a look'. Rhyming slang is also found in New Zealand, though rarely as exuberant as the London variety. Relevant words include babbling brook - `cook', butcher's hook - `crook, angry', chunder loo - `spew', pen and ink - `drink' and septic tank - `Yank, American' [3, p. 383].

A. Wall noted many features of New Zealand English pronunciation, although he labelled them faults in New Zealand speech and errors in pronunciation. A. Wall was the founder of theory of origin of New Zealand English from the London dialect. His ideas were supported and developed by followers for many years. New Zealand speech is now accepted more widely within New Zealand as a variety in its own right.

The first European settlers were not only the speakers of the London dialect, but also, perhaps, condemned that type of pronunciation. The theory of the origin from Cockney dialect, probably explains the early dismissive comments towards variety of English in New Zealand at the initial stage of its formation [Ibidem, p. 421].

A British scientist P. Trudgill and New Zealand linguists L. Bauer and E. Gordon considered the origin of New Zealand English from south-eastern dialects of England. The authors give several reasons: the direct transplantation of south-eastern dialects through intensive immigration of early settlers; transplantation of the above dialects through Australia to New Zealand; the process of new dialect formation where the most common features of southeastern dialects of England were chosen due to the large number of dialect speakers; independent process of linguistic development [6, p. 75].

The idea that the basis for the formation of “early” New Zealand English became the dialectal base of southeastern counties of England was emphasized in the following works such as K. Pickens “The Origin of the Population of Canterbury in the Nineteenth Century” (1977), R. Arnold “The Land of Promise: The British Settlers - New Zealand Immigrants of the 1870” (1984), P. Trudgill “Chaos before the Calm: New Zealand English and the Second Stage of New Dialect Formation” (1998) [1, с. 10]. A New Zealand historian K. Pickens indicated that in the midnineteenth century, 54% of New Zealand's population was immigrants from England, 16% from Ireland and 15% from Scotland [8, p. 70]. This assumption is made with reference to New Zealand English pronunciation, which is similar to the pronunciations found in the South-East of England (there is no “r” sound in car, it has different vowels in dance and manse, put and putt). Such a view of New Zealand English is justified by the fact that large numbers of the early settlers came from the South-East of England.

In the early 1980s of the XX century New Zealand linguists L. Bauer, E. Gordon and T. Deverson and historians K. Sinclair, R. Arnold, G. Carmichael, and J. Belich accepted a hypothesis that Australian English was the basis of the formation of New Zealand English. L. Bauer suggested English in New Zealand was an “imported” variety of Australian English [3, p. 425].

In virtue of the linguistic and extralinguistic factors there was not only a possibility of turning New Zealand into the seventh state of Australia in 1880, but deletion of significant differences between the two national varieties. Long-lasting socio-economic ties with Australia are reflected in the emergence of a number of Australisms in national and marked lexicon of New Zealand English: tall poppy - a successful man; pommie - an immigrant from Britain; drongo - sucker; old chum - an immigrant from the UK; scrub - land area, covered with bushes [7, p. 45].

Other such terms are big bikkies - large sums of money; old identity - local character; marching girl - member of a team of formation marchers; stoush - fight. There are words which came into Australian and New Zealand English from British dialects: dinkum - real; fossick - hunt around; hogget - sheep aged between one and two years; slater - woodlouse; spell - break from work [3, p. 390].

In determining the trends and prospects of migration between Australia and New Zealand, a historian G. Carmichael noted that two thousand settlers arrived in New Zealand from Australia. In 1854 there were 32 500 Europeans, including 12 000 arrived in Auckland from Australia [4, p. 516].

The main prerequisites that determined this theory was an influx of early settlers from Australia to New Zealand (Australia was settled by Anglophones earlier than New Zealand) and development of own national norm.

The idea behind the theory about the origin of New Zealand English as an independent variety, sometimes termed the “mixing-bowl” theory (P. Trudgill, D. Britain) is that when people speaking different varieties of British English are put together in a single place, a new local variety distils out of the variation. P. Trudgill claimed that the new-dialect formation which resulted from the mixture of dialects brought from the British Isles to New Zealand was not a haphazard process but, on the contrary, largely deterministic in nature. What happened was that, for any given feature, the minority accommodated to the majority. That is, the newly formed focused dialect, New Zealand English, which is the third-generation outcome of dialect contact and dialect mixture, is characterised at the phonological level by the presence of those features which were in a majority in the first-generation input, except in cases where linguistically unmarked or more simple features are in a large minority and win out over majority features on the grounds of their unmarkedness and/or complexity (unmarking) [10, p. 46]. Early settlers in any place have a greater influence on the eventual form of the variety which emerges from their coming together than later comers to the same place. The fundamentals of New Zealand English were set by about the 1890s, when the majority of Anglophones in New Zealand were native-born.

Because of the complex interactions of the dialects in the period of nation building, British standard continued to maintain a high social prestige. Active processes of the formation of New Zealand English emerged at the end of the XIX - the beginning of the XX century. The actual linguistic processes were reflected in the “deviation” from the British language rules. In the beginning of 1900 New Zealand English was perceived as the colonial dialect, it arose largely from the mixture of Englishes brought in by the early settlers with various social and regional dialects of Great Britain. After receiving dominion status in 1907, an effective state language policy aimed at the development and strengthening of their national and cultural specificity, a high number of English-speaking population born in New Zealand, the development of mass media contributed to the formation and consolidation of national literary norms and the growth of its prestige.

It has been shown that the persistence of certain areas as a source of migrants to New Zealand suggests the importance of the process of chain migration in the peopling of New Zealand. Changing socio-economic conditions and the growth of national consciousness were reflected in the formation of a new socio-cultural community and, accordingly, New Zealand national literary norm. Many immigrants came to New Zealand as assisted migrants paid by Government. They brought with them their own varieties, dialects, foods, drinks and cultural traditions. The dialects and accents of the language brought by speakers of English from the most part of England, Scotland, Ireland and Australia led to the development of a new and distinctive form of English in New Zealand. In this sense New Zealand was a multi-cultural community from the outset. It was not until 1970s that New Zealand English began to attract the attention of linguists as a variety in its own right. Britain is no longer regarded by New Zealanders as Home, and there is growing confidence in and acceptance of national and cultural features of New Zealand English in the world.

References

english dialect accent

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11. Turner G.W. The English Language in Australia and New Zealand. London: Longmans, 1966. 236 p.

12. Wall A. New Zealand English: A Guide to Correct Pronunciation of English with Special Reference to New Zealand Conditions and Problems. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1938. 111 p.

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