Kiwisms

This post seems a little overdue, what with me having been here since July, but the New Zealand accent has become so normal to me that I forget how rare it is elsewhere. Although distinct from the Australian accent, the relationship between the two is quite similar to the Canadian and American accents. That is, the close relationship between the two countries has reduced the differences between them to the point of making them generally indistinguishable, in my opinion. Another similarity to the American-Canadian situation, however, is the frequency with which Australians mock the Kiwi accent (much as Americans mock Canadians for "aboot" and "eh"). The following cartoon was written by Australian comedians and mocks the Kiwi habit of mixing up short vowel sounds; "this" sounds more like "thus," "bro" sounds more like "bru," etc.

N.B. Both Kiwis and Australians add "as" after adjectives to add emphasis, like an unfinished simile. So rather than say "I'm really hungry," they might say "I'm hungry as," leaving the question of "Hungry as what?" unanswered. In Kiwi English, of course, "as" sounds more like "is."

The beached whale video is obviously an exaggeration of the way most Kiwis talk. The next video was made by Kiwis and is not meant to address the accent; it's meant to address the issue of drunk driving in New Zealand. This country has a fairly extreme binge drinking problem, a large rural population, and fairly dangerous roads, which all mean drunk driving is a major issue, particularly among young men. The following ad gained some attention for its uniquely humorous approach to the issue. One could argue that drunk driving should be dealt with more seriously, but it's hard to deny the staying power of this ad. The people I talk with frequently quote Family Guy, for instance; now this drunk driving ad has joined that category of conversation. And it sounds very stereotypically Kiwi to boot.