Kiwi talk

When my husband and I stopped in at a bakery in New Zealand last week to see what time it opened for breakfast, the woman said, "Oh, nine-ish. And then we'll have pink lips and such."

    My husband smiled and nodded and told her we would see her in the morning. "What the heck are pink lips?" I said as soon as we got outside. He rolled his eyes, realizing that, once more, I had not understood a Kiwi speaker.

    "Pancakes," he said. "She said pancakes."

    I honestly thought she'd said "pink lips." She pronounced it more like "pinkicks," but I somehow heard an "l" in there as well.

    I have a lot of trouble understanding people in New Zealand. I blame it on the vowels, mostly. The sounds are all turned around there, from a U.S. perspective. For example, the long "a" sound is generally pronounced as a long "i." The short "e" is pronounced as a short "i" in the U.S. Thus, a "game of chess" becomes "a gime of chiss." A "pebble" is a "pibble." "Time of day" becomes "time of die."

   Or maybe "Tom of die." The long "i" sometimes sounds like the "o" in "mop."

    The long "e" often sounds like a long "a," so "Would you like a cup of tea?" sounds like, "Would you lock a cuppa tay?"

   While we were in New Zealand, I loved listening to the differences, but I have to admit that half the time I didn't have any idea what people were saying. (Not a figure of speech. I really mean half the time.) My husband, luckily, had little trouble. He became my translator.

  It's a good thing. Without him, I would have wandered about puzzled most of the time, or spent needless time worrying about eating things like pink lips.

(One of the many enormous trees in the botanic gardens in Christchurch)

Comments

[tatay]

i grew up in NZ and we never ate pancakes for breakfast, only for lunch. Maybe she said "pikelets" which is a kind of cold pancake, usually served with butter and jam.

[tatay]

did you visit Australia too? "Time of die" sounds more like Australian accent than NZ.