Proceedings of the 56th International Academic Conference, Lisbon

RE-INVESTIGATING ENGLISH ORIGINS OF NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH VIA PHYLOGENETIC RECONSTRUCTION

WEIHANG HUANG

Abstract:

New Zealand English is one of the newest English variants among native English speakers in New Zealand. However, details of its origins remains under debate, despite the consensus on Maori influence and the global picture of its history, and two questions are long-unsolved: what English variant(s) contribute(s) to the origin(s) of New Zealand English, and where New Zealand English is on the family tree of English variant. On these questions, previous studies give two different hypotheses, namely “single-origin” and “mixing-bowl”, neither of which however, is decisive. In this study, this two questions are re-investigated via phylogenetic reconstruction of English variants. By using data collected from Accents of English from Around the World database and Sound Comparisons, the phylogenetic tree of English dialects is constructed via Lingpy. The results shows that New Zealand English is exceptionally likely to be a “mixing-bowl,” where Scottish English and American English and even South African English are among major contributors.

Keywords: New Zealand English, language variant, phylogenetic reconstruction

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2020.056.005

PDF: Download