ABSTRACT
New Zealand English (NZE), like the other varieties of English discussed in the first section of this Handbook, falls into Kachru’s category of ‘inner circle’ Englishes (Kachru 1992). NZE is the youngest of the inner circle Englishes, and is unique in that recorded evidence is available for its entire history. We are thus able to track the paths by which the English dialects brought by the early immigrants coalesced so that speakers born in the 1870s spoke a variety that is recognizable as NZE.
