New Zealand accents
 

Sandra's post from New Zealand referring to their strange accent reminded me of my one and only visit to NZ.

Got to the hotel room, turned on the TV, only to hear a reporter actually say: 'Thet was a fentestic, ection-pecked fleck'. (He'd been reviewing the current James Bond movie).

I thought it was so funny that I wrote it down so I could repeat it ad nauseum to all the New Zealanders I know here. It's also now a family catch-phrase used whenever anyone's seen a good movie.

It struck me that most of the world can't tell the difference between the Australian and NZ accents, yet a lot of what NZers say is either hysterically funny or almost unintelligible to Australians - wonder why that is?

Re: New Zealand accents
 

JUst reminded me of a quote we heard on NZ TV - "...so at 9 o'clock it's sport, then at 10 o'clock it's rugby.."
Sorry I can't do the accent.

now of course, being one that talks funny - I just can't hear/see this...

I always get people saying "what" when I say "ten"....

I can't for the life of me figure out I'm supposed to say it!

I say it like it looks, just like I say sex, or fish and chips....

funny things accents...

how are you supposed to say these things!? :D

(that's a semi serious question - someone please try to explain it in kiwispeak)

If you say "ten" then we'll hear "tin".
Anyone called Geoff has to get used to thinking he's named after that cleaning preparation Jif.

Try saying "conservation" and see if anyone understands, or at least keeps a straight face.

okay so should I be saying "tin" to make it sound like "ten"?? or something else again?

i really don't have an ear for this stuff

now see, when I say igloo I don't say eggloo, so then shouldn't tin have the same 'i' as in igloo, and ten have the same 'e' as in 'egg'?? :scared:

Reminds me of being invited to this guy's house in Wellington to see his new dick. Of course he meant 'deck', which was very disappointing.... :)

Anya ;)

Re: New Zealand accents
 

Of course Rugby isn'r sport in NZ it is a religion

please spare a thought for us infortunates who have married one....after living htere 2yrs and having to listen to the accent daily, i now have to suffer the mickey taking when i talk to my daughters in London as they reckon ive got a bit of a twang myself!!! :scared: :scared:

You may have heard the story about the Aussie on his first trip to a NZ farm. He found the farmer getting very close and personal with one of his flock.

Aussie: "Mmm, that's interesting. In Australia, we shear 'em.

Kiwi: "I'm not shearin' thus wuth innybody."

Apologies to any kiwis present. Just a joke.

:D :D :D

G

Damn, I was about to post that joke :) It`s only funny to people who know the differences between the accents though :)

Kiwi`s main thing is that they can never pronounce `i` .... it come`s out as `e`. Weird.

For more Kiwi fund check this thread out

How to speak Kiwi

I got it wrong. I remember now that kiwi`s `I`s come out as `U`s.... ie fush and chups instead of fish and chips.

Took me a while to work out that my neighbour wasn't called Kim but Ken. And there I was thinking his old man had been reading too much Kipling.

Our daughter's Kindy visited the local school for a rousing production called "Hinny Pinny' and the sky falling on his 'hid'. e is pronounced as an i. ie peg becomes 'pig', leg becomes 'lig' etc. Our friends son had his first day at school and the teacher asked him whether he had a 'disk' yet. All affronted he replied in a terribly english accent, 'A disk? I don't even have a computer!' Priceless. kiwis are slow to recognise that they do have a problem with certain vowels and can get quite tetchy if this is pointed out. Our daughter has resigned herself to being called Imely!