Contact with Maori

The major contact language which might be expected to have had some influence on New Zealand English is of course Maori. The phonology of Maori is considerably simpler than that of English, with five vowels /i, ε, a, ɔ, u/ and ten consonants /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, f, h, r, w/ in a (C)V(V) syllable structure. The vowels in a VV sequence can be identical (i.e. a long vowel) or different (when the result may be either a sequence of vowels or a diphthong depending on the vowels concerned). Voiceless stops were originally unaspirated, but have increasingly become aspirated under the influence of English. /t, n/ can be alveolar or dental, /r/ is a voiced alveolar tap. The nature of /f/ varies between dialects of Maori – it was written wh by the early missionaries suggesting that it was heard as [M], though [ɸ] is also heard. A further significant feature of Maori concerns its rhythm, which is mora-timed. Where Maori is concerned, a mora is a unit of length such that a short vowel constitutes a single mora and a long vowel or diphthong constitutes two. In mora-timing, a sequence of two syllables each containing one short vowel is rhythmically equivalent to a single syllable containing a long vowel.