Skip to main content

Kōrero: Speech and accent

St Joseph's School, Paeroa, 1900

Image
St Joseph's School, Paeroa, 1900

Children and adolescents are the main agents of change in pronunciation. These children attended St Joseph's School in Paeroa, a goldfields town, on its opening day in April 1900. Though it was a Catholic school and probably attended by a number of children with Irish heritage, students from a range of backgrounds would have gone there, all adding their voices to the mix.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Auckland Council Libraries − Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero o Tāmaki Makaurau, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Reference: AWNS-19000518-6-4

Permission of Auckland City Libraries Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Elizabeth Gordon, Speech and accent – Explanations of New Zealand speech, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/40128/st-josephs-school-paeroa-1900 (accessed 5 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Elizabeth Gordon, i tāngia i te 30 November 2012.