Miriam Meyerhoff
University of Oxford & Victoria University of Wellington

This talk presents results from a three year enquiry into linguistic variation and change in Auckland, our largest city, and the prime site of immigration. The study was designed to explore the extent to which recent migration might be having an impact on how Auckland English sounds and is structured. Recordings of speakers in two age groups across three communities are compared: Titirangi; Papatoetoe/Manurewa; and Mount Roskill. I present some results on the pronunciation of NZ English, determiners, and relative clauses to illustrate the commonalities and differences between the communities. Sociolinguists take as given that the “narcissism of small differences” means small linguistic differences may be interpreted as expression of distinct identities. However, our research team also wonders whether a fixation on small differences becomes a narcissistic justification for researchers who engage in variationist studies.

Join via Zoom: https://vuw.zoom.us/j/6332241233