ABSTRACT
This chapter considers research since 2010 in language variation and change in New Zealand English (NZE), te reo Maāori (the Maāori language) and New Zealand sign language (NZSL). It considers the vowels and diphthongs of NZE, including recent research on the front and back vowel chain shifts and the NEAR/SQUARE merger. In terms of consonants, it focuses on /r/-sandhi, intrusive /r/ (as in ‘banana/r/ and apple’) and its relationship to the rhoticity of the speaker, and on increased voicing and frication in medial /t/. The pronunciation of specific words such as woman/women is discussed together with the change from /ði/ to /ðə/ when the word ‘the’ precedes a vowel-initial word. Intonation and rhythm are considered, including the use of the high-rising terminal (‘up talk’), together with a brief section on syntax and pragmatics which notes dative and genitive alternatives and factors that influence auxiliary contraction.
