Help: A linguistic project

[ManDownUnder]

If, next time I see you, I appear to be listening very intently to what you are saying, please do not be mistaken. I will actually be studying your vowels rather than the meaning of your words.

You can't understand him either huh?

[grendel]

Oooh that sounds fascinating! I majored in linguistics for my BA at Auckland University, and I find the idea of a modern Kiwi vowel-shift very intruiging indeed.

Radio New Zealand National has a regular segment called "Sounds Historical" where they play news items sourced from the NZ Sound Archives. It's wonderful to hear the accents of ordinary New Zealanders and hear how we have changed even in the last few decades.

Good work Mr Poland - and good luck with your project.

Thanks heaps - I'm gonna need plenty of luck with this
As regards the NZ vowel-shift - it's becoming more and more trendy in linguistic circles, as one can observe sth similar to the English Great Vowel Shift in real time... Very intriguing, as you said...
Thx for that Radio New Zealand National tip; it's actually available online, so I'll have a look at it as well... Language change is absolutely fascinating, and the more we know about it from a linguistic point of view, the more we'll hopefully know about the world in general...

[grendel]

Some of us have not, even in the last few centuries. Although I am a sixth generation Kiwi on one side and a seventh on the other (ignoring the Maori line), and have never lived outside NZ, I am constantly told that I have an English accent. Even to the point of those who claim to have linguistic training telling me that they can identify the county I was born in (Shropshire apparently!).

The interesting thing is, listening to recordings of family members ,and questioning older members ( "Do I sound like great great granddad ?"), my "accent" is pretty much exactly that of my parents/grandparents/great grandparents etc, going back as far as about the middle of the 19th century.

I suspect that my "English accent" is simply the original, undefiled, New Zealand accent, and the claimed "New Zealand vowel shift" (I do know what it is) , is a result of immigration in recent years.

This is very interesting... You can send me your recording if you like... It's possible that you don't sound English, but simply a bit conservative... Not everybody is equally prone to linguistic changes - as long as your message gets across to those around you, there's no need to change...

[klingon]

...
Thx for that Radio New Zealand National tip; it's actually available online, so I'll have a look at it as well...

Unfortunately it's only available for one week after the programme went to air so it's a bit random whether you'll get a particular interesting snippet that week.

As for Ixion, I don't think he's in danger of changing any time soon.

[eelracing]

Thanks heaps - I'm gonna need plenty of luck with this
As regards the NZ vowel-shift - it's becoming more and more trendy in linguistic circles, as one can observe sth similar to the English Great Vowel Shift in real time... Very intriguing, as you said...
Thx for that Radio New Zealand National tip; it's actually available online, so I'll have a look at it as well... Language change is absolutely fascinating, and the more we know about it from a linguistic point of view, the more we'll hopefully know about the world in general...

What i find fascinating concerning the english language are the different saying and there meanings. eg,If a kiwi says "Well f*%k me with a spoon sideways" he actually means "Golly thats interesting".But when an aussie says it,he means it literally.

When a Seth Efrican says it...run like hell

[Blossom]

Whats cracking me up about this thread is this.
Grendel, Why on earth did you pick a motorcycle forum to get your subjects from? I mean I get that we are all really cool and all that but wtf?


no offence.. just entertaining myself. Its raining and I have the toddler at home so cant go for a ride just yet.

[PirateJafa]

Whats cracking me up about this thread is this.
Grendel, Why on earth did you pick a motorcycle forum to get your subjects from? I mean I get that we are all really cool and all that but wtf?


no offence.. just entertaining myself. Its raining and I have the toddler at home so cant go for a ride just yet.

Because this is probably the largest site in New Zealand where the forum-dwelling population's voices have cracked.

[Blossom]

Because this is probably the largest site in New Zealand where the forum-dwelling population's voices have cracked.

of course.. I had not considered that.

[Number One]

You girls stop playing with the poor noob.

He doesn't realise the trouble he's in.

Tee hee hee - that's when it's even MORE fun

You can just call me Greg :P

Good work Mr Poland - and good luck with your project.

see - Mr Poland sounds far more exotic - it's what US girls prefer...MR POLEand oh gawsh I am naughty titter titter titter

It's not that dirty :/ It's actually based on my own dream that I had some time ago...

CRIKEY MAN STOP IT! I'm getting all flustered over here

What i find fascinating concerning the english language are the different saying and there meanings. eg,If a kiwi says "Well f*%k me with a spoon sideways" he actually means "Golly thats interesting".But when an aussie says it,he means it literally.

When a Seth Efrican says it...run like hell

Bwahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa sooooooo true

[Number One]

BTW - calling all Welly based BITCHES...

I think this could be a good night all us girls cackling and recording our gorgeous dulcet tones

....hell Mr Poland - we could even do some singstar recordings and send those to ya

[grendel]

What i find fascinating concerning the english language are the different saying and there meanings. eg,If a kiwi says "Well f*%k me with a spoon sideways" he actually means "Golly thats interesting".But when an aussie says it,he means it literally.

When a Seth Efrican says it...run like hell

Wow! That's nice! The branch of linguistics that deals with such kinda stuff, i.e. the meaning of particular phrases, is called semantics.
I'm more interested in phonetics and phonology... phonetics – the way you physically produce and receive speech sounds; phonology – the way those sounds are stored in your head... So when you think you're producing a given sound, you're saying sth different due to various contexts in which the sound can occur, e.g. the last sound in the word “on” is usually stored in your mind as /n/, but in a phrase such as “on fire”, if spoken with a natural tempo, it becomes something like [m] produced with the upper teeth and lower lips.

[grendel]

Whats cracking me up about this thread is this.
Grendel, Why on earth did you pick a motorcycle forum to get your subjects from? I mean I get that we are all really cool and all that but wtf?


no offence.. just entertaining myself. Its raining and I have the toddler at home so cant go for a ride just yet.

Yeah, as PirateJafa noticed, this forum's big, it's Kiwi... and yeah, I was hoping to find some cool people here as well

see - Mr Poland sounds far more exotic - it's what US girls prefer...MR POLEand oh gawsh I am naughty titter titter titter

You really ARE naughty! :P I almost forgot the word Pole has other meanings besides the North/South Pole and Polish... nice one :P

btw - does anyone know why I can't answer PMs? It says "Your post count isn't high enough to use the Private Message system", and when I look at my post count, it actually says "Posts: 0". What the...?!

[PirateJafa]

You really ARE naughty! :P I almost forgot the word Pole has other meanings besides the North/South Pole and Polish... nice one :P

btw - does anyone know why I can't answer PMs? It says "Your post count isn't high enough to use the Private Message system", and when I look at my post count, it actually says "Posts: 0". What the...?!

Posts do not "count" if you make them in this Rant or Rave section. Being a bike site, it was decided post counts should reflect posts made about bikes, not general shit-talk. Of course they didn't take into account the fact that most posts about bikes is just shit-talk anyway.

Unfortunate for you, of course, as being bikeless you will not have made any posts in the "bike" areas.

[xwhatsit]

Wow! That's nice! The branch of linguistics that deals with such kinda stuff, i.e. the meaning of particular phrases, is called semantics.
I'm more interested in phonetics and phonology... phonetics – the way you physically produce and receive speech sounds; phonology – the way those sounds are stored in your head... So when you think you're producing a given sound, you're saying sth different due to various contexts in which the sound can occur, e.g. the last sound in the word “on” is usually stored in your mind as /n/, but in a phrase such as “on fire”, if spoken with a natural tempo, it becomes something like [m] produced with the upper teeth and lower lips.

Lol yup, I just got my results back for a stage 1 linguistics paper (yay!) -- I passed, thank goodness. Phonetics was fascinating; of particular interest was stuff like complementary distribution and things like that; half the time you just don't realise the sounds you're actually making. So many rules governing what phoneme comes out -- I didn't know my mouth was so smart!

I'd be happy to do your recording, but I think my accent is decidedly non-standard, as those who have met me know.

@Ixion: you sound dead normal to me. A lot like my mother's mother, whose family were pretty much `first fleet' New Zealanders.

[grendel]

Posts do not "count" if you make them in this Rant or Rave section. Being a bike site, it was decided post counts should reflect posts made about bikes, not general shit-talk. Of course they didn't take into account the fact that most posts about bikes is just shit-talk anyway.

Unfortunate for you, of course, as being bikeless you will not have made any posts in the "bike" areas.

I see... It's a shame, but I'll have to deal with it somehow... Thanks for the explanation.

Lol yup, I just got my results back for a stage 1 linguistics paper (yay!) -- I passed, thank goodness. Phonetics was fascinating; of particular interest was stuff like complementary distribution and things like that; half the time you just don't realise the sounds you're actually making. So many rules governing what phoneme comes out -- I didn't know my mouth was so smart!

I'd be happy to do your recording, but I think my accent is decidedly non-standard, as those who have met me know.

That's OK, you don't have to speak a standard variety, I'm looking for certain tendencies that seem to be taking place in the southern-hemisphere Englishes, so your contribution will be valuable too.

As I cannot respond directly to PMs, we can do it this way:
1) PM me with anything you need, with links to your recordings, etc., and I'll respond here in this thread... or:
2) PM me with your e-mail address and we can correspond simply via e-mail (I think it's a better option)

To Naki Rat and anybody interested: I've posted the details on the previous page... Lemme quote it here:

I'm not sure whether I can post direct links here, but this is where you can download all the necessary stuff: http://rapidshare.com/files/17145181...t-package2.zip - the package contains a questionnaire, the main text to read, and a couple of sentences to read as well.

For recording, you can use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) or any similar software of your choice. The output format can be .mp3, .wma, or .wav.

Now, if you feel a bit tired and bored with the sentences in the 3rd file, you can skip some of them, although that data is of some significance to me. If you don't feel like answering all the questions in the questionnaire, that's fine as well. The part that is of most importance is the passage called "The Dream", as it shows most of the features which I want to study in detail.

Also, if you feel like adding anything to the recordings, e.g. talking about your near-death experience or contemporary Kiwi slang, feel free to do it!
Similar studies have been conducted here: http://web.ku.edu/idea/australiaocea...newzealand.htm , so you can check it out to see how it usually works.

So, the texts to record are under the first link...
Thank you!

EDIT: I've changed my profile options a little so that you can download my e-mail address and stuff... So if you decide to e-mail ME first rather than the other way round - go ahead