Comments on: Awkwardly Respectful Pronunciation (of non-English Words)

By: nz person

nz person — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:05:36 +0000

–, for the record, I’m not here to defend nz language.. I think its funny to hear external perspectives of Our language. And its true, so true! Just doin a bit of brain-storming, wondering if anyone else has wondered this. Ooh, kinda off topic, but calling a four wheel motorcycle a ‘quad bike’ seems wrong, surely its too soon to neglect that ‘bike’ is referencing ‘bi-cycle’ as in -two of rotating? Quad – OK, Quadbike = not OK, Quadcycle- err.. ? Sorry bout my spelling I’m a bit dyslexic but some of my brain works. Peace

By: nz person

nz person — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:36:06 +0000

how far in language history should we roll back – to be officially correct? New Zealanders should speak like the English still? Hangon, so we must speak every word like it was originally pronounced. Ie when maori is inserted into english? Is it derogitry to call a person french? Or should I have to call them ‘le frence’ (bad spelling) as they themselves would call -themselves?

By: Rose

Rose — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:20:51 +0000

Katja you absolute racist asshole. That’s all from me!

By: Selwyn Nogood

Selwyn Nogood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:39:35 +0000

> We are an English speaking country, the maoris are in the minority here. This needs to go..

This should start a lively debate.

By: Katja

Katja — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:57:13 +0000

The way kiwis say foura instead of four, thray instead of three, toe instead of two really irritates me. Oh yes…and ‘yo’ for you.

They also pronounce their L’s as a W. Listen next time you hear a kiwi say the word ‘bottle’ or ‘killed’ …there is a slight w there and why this is, i cant even guess at.

They also say Asshume instead of Assume – there is no h, same with consume.

Yes…all kiwis seem to say woman for many women..it even sounds wrong.

I also hate their ‘babytalk’ …like ‘brekkie’ for breakfast and ‘biccy’ for biscuit. (you aren’t going to believe it but i just heard a kiwi on TV saying ‘brekkie’ *sigh* This babytalking is extremely annoying.

Phrases like “have a feed” ….what are they, animals?

And lastly…I wish they’d stop ending the news with ‘kia’ora’ following ‘goodnight’

We are an English speaking country, the maoris are in the minority here. This needs to go..

By: Selwyn Nogood

Selwyn Nogood — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 19:53:51 +0000

True. But where’s the fun in that?

By: Maz

Maz — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 11:47:41 +0000

… If I go by all these comments… I apparently don’t speak like a normal kiwi. I differentiate between woman and women (at least in a sentence I do), I do not say “fush and chups” (unless humourously… besides, that’s more a North Island accent than a general kiwi one), I don’t add a syllable to “known”…

Do I have to hand in my Kiwi card?

By: MW

MW — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:56:06 +0000

F* y* was a good response.
Just deleting that spam would have probably been even better

By: Marty Pilott

Marty Pilott — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:44:49 +0000

The British pronunciation of ‘women’ is ‘wimmin’. However, short ‘i’ in NZ speech is famously an ‘a’ sound as in ‘about’, hence the jokes about fush and chups. Since there isn’t a British short ‘i’ in the NZ dialect it’s not surprising that it doesn’t appear in ‘women’. Which does of course mean that you have to make it clear whether last night’s party was a tet-a-tete or an orgy.

By: Herman

Herman — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:07:39 +0000

Better than Helen Clark speaking… that (and her face) were embarrassing!