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| Kiwi accents | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 24 2013, 05:18 AM (309 Views) | |
| Deleted User | Jun 24 2013, 05:18 AM Post #1 |
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Deleted User
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Kahu - Yesterday I worked all day at a garden tour with a woman who told me she was a seventh generation New Zealander. I had thought she was British from her accent, which was not like the accents of other Kiwis I have met either here in the US or in NZ, and when I mentioned her accent sounded so British, she mentioned boarding school very briefly and went on to something else. I would judge her to be in her late 70's, perhaps even early 80's. She is married to a Canadian. Are there different accents in different parts of NZ? She was raised in Aukland. I never got around to asking her if the boarding school she attended was in England. Is it customary for rich New Zealanders to send their children to British boarding schools? |
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| Kahu | Jun 24 2013, 04:08 PM Post #2 |
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Some can 'put on the dog' when they want to, especially people of that age. I'm a 6th generation Kiwi descended from the Rev J G Butler who arrived in KeriKeri in the Bay of Islands in 1815
He had a blazing row with the CMS Leader based in Sydney NSW Rev Samuel Marsden over treatment of the maori, and other missioners who supplied muskets to Hone Heke. Marsden, in NZ history is treated like a saint, as he preached the first Christmas service in NZ in 1814, but in NSW he is remembered as "Flogger Mardsen" for his treatment of convicts. Butler was accused of imbibing too much gin with a visiting whaling captain .... and was too much of a gentleman to argue the point and returned to England before the musket wars started in earnest. He returned to Wellington in 1839 and worked with the NZ Company settlers in this area as a magistrate and wrote a maori-english dictionary for the settlers and locals. He drowned crossing the Te awa kairangi/Hutt River and was buried nearby, but as the river has changed course many times near the mouth, the gravesite has been long washed away. Posted Image Butler's house was the white one on the right. The first european styled house in NZ and NZ's first stone building the store is to the left. As a 7th generation Kiwi? Perhaps descended from a whaler, or sealer, or escaped convict? Don't tell her that though! Church boarding secondary schools were popular usually more for the well off, keeping up the traditions and heritage of the 'old country' .... there were more strict standards for speech, and social etiquette. Diocescan School for Girls - Auckland Samuel Mardsen Collegiate - Wellington My neice, working for her JD in Miami went to Samuel Marsden as did Katherine Mansfield. |
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| Deleted User | Jun 24 2013, 06:11 PM Post #3 |
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That's interesting. I could not remember the name of your ancestor, but I thought you had told us he was the minister who built that stone room where the Treaty of Waitangi? was signed? I knew your ancestors went way back....but could not recall the details. I think we are having lunch with her next week. |
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| Kahu | Jun 24 2013, 07:22 PM Post #4 |
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The house was the first european building in NZ, and built by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), and Butler, as the superintendent of the mission, and his family were the first occupants. It was prefabricated in NSW and shipped over here. He didn't build the stone store which was built later, 1836, I think. Butler had already left NZ at the time of the Treaty, and probably never went near Waitangi, and Kororareka (Russell) was known as the hell-hole of the Pacific Darwin 1836, Voyage of HMS Beagle .... although he would have travelled to the new mission station at Waimate which is further inland. Posted Image The Marsden Cross, first Christmas Service in NZ is at #7; Waitangi, where the treaty was signed is opposite #2; Kerikeri Inlet, where Butler lived is to the left of #7. There was an awful lot of bush between them all pre 1840 so travel was mainly by coastal schooners or waka. |
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| Kahu | Jun 24 2013, 07:43 PM Post #5 |
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Getting back to accents .... when one of my classes was corresponding by email, and mailed tape recordings with a class in Quebec (pre Skype days) .....Canadian teachers and children said we sounded very 'British' .... at least, that was before we launched into te reo. There is one place in the deep south of the South Island where settlers from Scotland made their homes ..... and here there is a very marked Southland accent where they roll their rrr's, and say aye as Margrace sometimes does. Christchurch being a very english city, at least before the earthquakes, has some older residents with quite plumby accents. |
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| Trotsky | Jun 25 2013, 01:15 AM Post #6 |
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Big City Boy
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I got a kick out of one of the HOUSE HUNTER INTERNATIONAL shows on HGTV where a couple was looking for a home in NZ. The agent was pleasant woman with a heavy accent most noticeable with the pronunciation of "bedroom," perhaps the most common word in real estate, as BEED-ROOM. I got a kick out of it and she must have said it 30 times in 30 minutes. laugh123 |
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| wildie | Jun 25 2013, 02:04 AM Post #7 |
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Veteran Member
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I have noticed that Aussies pronounce it ' beed' room also. I have British relatives and they do not? |
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5:41 AM Jul 14