You Say Fish, I Say Fush

An Auckland University of Technology (AUT) study has found that the NZ accent has grown broader and less British over the past few decades. The change is most obvious in broadcasting, where newsreaders were traditionally trained to speak in upper-class English accents. Trainee broadcasters still receive voice lessons but they are now allowed to keep their NZ inflections. “Everybody thought it would end up sounding even more Australian or more American or whatever, but in fact the things that make New Zealand English different from other dialects are increasing rather than diminishing,” said study leader Dr Allan Bell. Bell and his AUT colleagues analysed recordings of more than 300 voices over a period of 30 years.