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Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

Distinctive Pronunciations

Changes in certain large groups of words foreshadow the possible emergence of a distinct form of English. Among these the most important and striking are: the peculiar sound given to long a as in star, already mentioned, the final y or i as ee, citee, historee, also mentioned before; a large number of words in which an English long o, open or closed, becomes a short o, as in jolt, toll, oral, auction (oction), hydrollic, swollen, revolt, controller, trolling (for trout), bolster, knoll, Rolleston.

A large group of words which are pronounced in standard English with the stress on the second syllable or a later syllable are here stressed on the first; examples are LUcerne, ARmagh, MAGazine, ARM-chair, NARRator, MANkind, MIgraine, REsearch, FInance.

In a few words this tendency is reversed and the stress is placed later than in the standard; examples are cuckOO, jubilEE, vaccINE, GeraldINE.

Co-creator
Arnold Wall, C.B.E., B.A.(CAMB.), M.A.(LOND.), D.LITT(N.Z.), F.R.S.TAS. (1869–1966), Professor Emeritus, University of Canterbury, and Author.Harold William Orsman, M.A.(N.Z.), Lecturer in English, Victoria University of Wellington.