New Zealand English, 5 cr

The course investigates the origins, development, and defining linguistic characteristics of New Zealand English. We begin with a brief outline of the history of New Zealand and its relatively recent settlement by two different cultures – first Polynesian, then European, with rapid European settlement in the nineteenth century following the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. We learn about the general cultural background of modern New Zealand, to give a more complete picture of the place, the people, and various factors influencing aspects of the dialect today. We will get familiar with the defining characteristics of modern NZE at the levels of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, and students will be introduced to the literature on each of these topics. Following this, the course turns to a theory of new dialect formation and an influential model of the development of postcolonial Englishes, to help explain the history of the formation of the dialect. While our main focus is on NZE, we do include some comparison of NZE with Australian English, British English and American English, and the methods used on this course also give students a general insight into dialect studies methodology, which can be applied to a wide range of projects. Students are assessed on the basis of a final essay or exam (student’s choice), and general class participation.