New Zealand English (Dialects of English) - Hardcover

Hay, Jennifer; Maclagan, Margaret A.; Gordon, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0748625291 ISBN 13: 9780748625291

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2008

Synopsis

This book is a comprehensive but accessible description of English as it is spoken in New Zealand. New Zealand English is one of the youngest native speaker varieties of English, and is the only variety of English where there is recorded evidence of its entire history. It shares some features with other Southern Hemisphere varieties of English such as Australian English and South African English, but is also clearly distinct from these. For the past two decades extensive research has focused on the evolution and ongoing development of the variety. New Zealand English presents the results of this research in an accessible way.

About this title

Book Description:

New Zealand English--at just 150 years old--is one of the newest varieties of English, and is unique in that its full history and development are documented in extensive audio-recordings. On the basis of these recordings, this book examines and analyses the extensive linguistic changes New Zealand English has undergone since it was first spoken in the 1850s. The authors, all experts in phonetics and sociolinguistics, use the data to test previous explanations for new dialect formation, and to challenge current claims about the nature of language change.

About the Author:

Jennifer Hay is Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand Margaret A. Maclagan is Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury Elizabeth Gordon is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury

About this edition

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0748625291
• ISBN 13: 9780748625291
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 184