Age: 29 years old

Country of Origin: Auckland, New Zealand

Occupation: Consultant

Reason for Selection: Chosen for his native New Zealand accent

1. Rhoticity

• Rhoticity in English refers to pronouncing the consonant /r/ in all word positions, whether at the beginning, middle, or end of the word. (Costa & Serra, 2022).

• The characteristic distinguishes American English, where the /r/ sound is pronounced in every word where it occurs, from most British English varieties, where the /r/ is mostly silent.

• Example can be seen from the Western American speaker where she pronounces:

• Tried - /tɹaɪd/

• Car - /kɑɹ/

• Before - /bɪˈfɔɹ/

• Yard - /jɑɹd/

• Garden- ɡɑɹdən

  
  

In these examples, the /r/ is clearly articulated, even at the end of words such as "car" or "yard," which is typical of rhotic accents.

This constant pronunciation of /r/ plays a role in distinguishing Western American English from non-rhotic accents, where the /r/ sound would typically be dropped, especially in words like "car" or "garden."

2. Dipthongs

A diphthong occurs when there are two separate vowel sounds within the same syllable (Watson, 2024). The use of diphthongs in pronouncing words is noticeable in Western American English. For example:

Diphthongs /oʊ/

• before – /oʊ/

• over – /oʊ/

• before – /oʊ/

• drove – /oʊ/

In these examples, the /oʊ/ diphthong begins with a sound similar to the vowel /o/ and glides toward the /ʊ/ sound, creating a shift that is characteristic of Western American English. This diphthong is prevalent in many words in this accent, contributing to its distinctive sound.

1. Intonation

• Intonation of a language can be described as patterns of pitch change or tones that people use in their utterance (Dash, 2022).

• When we speak to each other, our voices tend to ‘rise’ or ‘fall’ in pitch over a part of an utterance. This rise or fall in pitch is known as intonation.

• Intonation plays a primary role in showing the expression of attitudes and emotions or highlighting aspects of grammatical structure.

• The audio sent by the Western American Speakers has a rising and falling intonation in a certain part of sentences. For example:

Sentence 1:

"I tried a new restaurant last night, and I can tell you, it was not a good one."

In that sentence, American English speakers use a rising intonation on the phrase “and I can tell you” to emphasize their personal experience or opinion. This rising intonation creates a sense of anticipation, as if they are about to reveal something important or surprising.

"....it was not a good one."

After that, the intonation falls on “it was not a good one,” indicating the conclusion or final point of their statement.

2. Stress Patters

• In Western American English, stress patterns play a crucial role in the rhythm and emphasis of speech. Stress refers to the emphasis placed on certain syllables or words within a sentence (Dash, 2022). These stressed elements tend to stand out in terms of volume, pitch, and duration.

• They tend to rely on word stress to communicate quickly and clearly, where the listener is still able to understand the word even if they do not hear properly because of the position of the stress. For example:

Sentence 3

"Sarah drove her car to the pharmacy to buy plasters before heading home to work on her project about tomatoes."

From how our speaker of Western American English read this sentence, we can identify that the stresses fall on key content words like:

drove, pharmacy and project

These were used to highlight actions and purpose. This pattern helps organize speech clearly and naturally, allowing listeners to easily follow meaning, especially in longer sentences with multiple actions or objectives.

Sentence 4

"The cat jumped over the fence and ran across the yard, chasing a small bird that flew near the garden and landed on the soft grass."

From this sentence, our Western American English speaker placed stress on key action and descriptive words like:

jumped, fence, yard, bird, garden, and grass

These were used to create a clear, vivid image. This stress pattern supports storytelling by emphasizing motion and setting, which helps listeners visualize the scene more easily.

Age: 26 years old

Country of Origin: Washington, USA

Occupation: Studying

Reason for Selection: Chosen for her Western USA accent

1. Spelling

Spelling variation refers to the differences in how certain words are written in various English varieties, most notably between British and American English. One clear example observed is the word "favourite", which appears in the sentence:

"We are going to the car boot sales at the park after having breakfast together at our favourite cafe tomorrow."

This spelling, using "-our," is standard in British English. However, in Western American English, the same word is typically spelled "favorite" dropping the "u" to reflect the American preference for simplified spelling.

2. Word choice

"We are going to the car boot sales at the park after having breakfast together at our favourite cafe tomorrow."

In this sentence, "Car boot sale" is a British term referring to an informal market where people sell items from the back of their cars. In Western American English, the equivalent would be "garage sale" or "yard sale."

⁠"Sarah drove her car to the pharmacy to buy plasters before heading home to work on her project about tomatoes."

In this sentence, the word "plasters" refers to small medical dressings for cuts in British English, while the equivalent term in American English is "band-aids."

1. /ɒɪ ˈtraɪd ə ˈnjuː ˈrɛstɹɒnt ˈlɑːst naɪt ənd aɪ kɪn ˈtɪl juː ət wəz nɒt ə ɡuːd wən/

   = I tried a new restaurant last night and I can tell you it was not a good one.

2. /wiː ɒ ˈɡɒʊɪŋ tə ðə ˈkɑː ˈbuːt sɛɪlz ət ðə ˈpɑːk ˈɑːftə ˈhævən ˈbɹɛkfəst tɘˈɡɛðə ət ɒ ˈfeɪvrət ˈkæfeɪ təˈmɒɹə/

   = ⁠We are going to the car boot sales at the park after having breakfast together at our favourite cafe tomorrow.

3. /ˈsɪrə ˈdrəʊv hə ˈkɑː tə ðə ˈfɑːməsi tə ˈbaɪ ˈplɑːstəz bəˈfɔː ˈhɪdɪŋ həʊm tə ˈwɜːk ɒn hə ˈprɒdʒɪkt əˈbaʊt təˈmɑːtɘʉz/

   = Sarah drove her car to the pharmacy to buy plasters before heading home to work on her project about tomatoes.

4. /ðə kæt dʒʌmpt ˈəʊvɘ ðə fɪns ænd ræn əˈkrɒs ðə jɑːd ˈtʃɛɪsɪŋ ə smɔːl bɜːd ðæt fluː nɪə ðə ˈɡɑːdən ænd ˈlændɘd ɒn ðə sɒft ɡɹɑːs/

   = ⁠The cat jumped over the fence and ran across the yard, chasing a small bird that flew near the garden and landed on the soft grass.

   
   

New Zealand English is similar to British English. Therefore, there are many same spellings that are used for both written words and different from American English. For example, the word "favourite", which can be taken from the audio saying;

"We are going to the car boot sales at the park after having breakfast together at our favourite cafe tomorrow."

-The word "favourite" is spelled with a u. Same goes for the British English.

Another example is the word "colour".

2. Word Choice

Other than that, we can also hear our speaker use the phrase "car boot sale", which is common for New Zealanders and British speakers, which is different from American speakers, most of them are more familiar with the phrase "garage sale".

In the different sentence, our speaker has used the word "pharmacy" in;

"Sarah drove her car to the pharmacy to buy plasters before heading home to work on her project about tomatoes."

New Zealand english speakers also understand the word "chemist" as pharmacy. The term is widely understood and still used till these days, just like how the British speaker would do.

According to the definition:

Non-rhotic means referring to, possessing, or being an English accent or dialect in which a /r/ sound is not maintained before consonants and at the end of a word (“Non-rhotic,” n.d.). 

Let us hear again how our New Zealand speaker speak again.

The cat jumped over the fence and ran across the yard, chasing a small bird that flew near the garden and landed on the soft grass.

• The word "yard" is the example how the /r/ sound is silent and rather pronounced as /jɑːd/ as the /r/ sound is right before a consonant.

• Other than than, the word "over" is the example of how the /r/ sound is silent at the end of a word and it is pronounced like "ˈəʊvɘ".

These examples show how the /r/ is dropped in non-rhotic environments.

2. Diphthongs

New Zealand english has this unique way of pronouncing the diphthongs.

• Diphthongs centralizaion

According to the definition:

Centering diphthongs start with a vowel sound and travel to a centralized position, often towards [ə] (the schwa sound), as in the Received Pronunciation (RP) British English pronunciation of "near" ([ɪə]) and "poor" ([ʊə]) (Verbalplanet, 2024).

When pronouncing /aɪ/, it sounds more like [ɐɪ], same goes for /oʊ/, and it becomes [ɐʉ]. It is such a subtle difference than New Zealand speakers do that is rather different from American english speaker.

For example;

-/ˈtraɪd/ = /tɹɐɪd/

-/əˈbaʊt/ = /ɐˈbæʉt/

• This characteristic brings the tongue back to the center of the mouth, providing a unique sound that is necessary in languages with a rich vowel inventory (Verbalplanet, 2024).

• It is also more common in New Zealand as the speakers less exaggerate and use more centered articulatory movement

Western American English, commonly referred to as neutral or ‘mainstream’, particularly in media and popular culture, has an informal and fluid form of tone. Due to its application for broadcasting, this variety is frequently seen as a universal standard, which provides it with a broad, easy to understand availability. The identity of New Zealand English is, however, characterized by a unique combination of British English roots and Māori language attributes, which left the identity of New Zealand English strong in the sense of cultural and national identity.

Their unique traits show how English, having been spoken around the world, is drawn upon by the local histories and cultural context in different places in shaping their language differently. By conducting this project, we have seen the complexity of accent diversity more clearly and have also become more aware of how the nature of linguistic practices shapes individual cultures.

According Coaching and Coaching (2023), pausing is an important part of structuring spoken material into comprehensible pieces when speaking.

• ^{Why do we pause?}

  ^{It is to help us distinguish between distinct linguistic units, such as syllables, sentences, and intonation units.}

Just like how our speaker conveyed a story;

"The cat jumped over the fence // and ran across the yard, // chasing a small bird // that flew near the garden // and landed on the soft grass."

The speaker has paused in several clauses to emphasis each actions in the story, marked as "//". This is because there are sequential events that need to grab the listener's focus.

2. Intonation

Kiwi accent tends to use a rising intonation as we can hear in the audio provided. The speaker uses different pitch at the end of the non-final clauses.

Take the example;

- “The cat jumped over the fence ↗”

- “...and ran across the yard ↗”

During these stops, we can hear how the speaker uses a subtle rising intonation. It is a part of the story telling technique that speakers usually do. While there is also a final falling tone right before ending a story as we can hear;

“...and landed on the soft grass ↘” (final fall)

• Therefore, New Zealand speakers usually use pausing and intonation just like how we explained above.