Where did the New Zealand accent come from and why does it sound the way it does today?
Auckland Voices is a project exploring over 100 years of speech in Auckland to try answer that question. Surprisingly, Auckland, NZ’s largest urban centre, has been notably underrepresented in research on the origins of our accent. Past work has been largely South Island and rurally focused, however newly rediscovered historical writings suggest the NZ accent may have developed fastest in the North Island, particularly in Auckland.
In this talk, we’ll share how we’re using oral history recordings from the Auckland Council Libraries archives to investigate these historical claims and discuss what these valuable resources can teach us about the emergence of our unique accent.
Dr Brooke Ross is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering and Design at the University of Auckland. With a background in Linguistics and Speech Science, her interdisciplinary research uses speech technology to understand how and why the New Zealand accent is changing over time.
This project team also includes:
- Professor Catherine Watson (Faculty of Engineering and Design, UoA)
- Associate Professor Elaine Ballard (Faculty of Science, UoA)
- Miriam Meyerhoff (All Souls College, University of Oxford).
Tāmaki untold: conversations celebrating the taonga, stories and creativity of Auckland. A curated monthly talk series held in the Whare Wānanga hosted by Research and Heritage Services, Auckland Libraries.