1. Pasifika English in New Zealand: The Case of bro’Town
Andy Gibson & Allan Bell
Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication, AUT University, Auckland, NZ
NWAV, Columbus Ohio, USA
November 2006

2. bro’Town
Adventures of 5 fourteen year-old boys in inner-city Auckland (4 Pasifika, 1 Maori)
Conceived of and voiced by a Samoan comedy group, the Naked Samoans
This presentation covers an analysis of three of the characters. These three characters are all Samoan and each is played by a different actor
Pepelo father
Valea son, 14
Vale son, 14 14
An analysis of the speech of

3. Why bro’Town? Interest in performed varieties of language
Interest in the aspects of pronunciation used to mark NZ Pasifika identities
Little prior research on Pasifika varieties of NZE

4. NZ-born vs. Samoa-born
Wave of immigration to NZ from Pacific Islands in 1970s
As at 2001:
NZ-born Samoans in NZ:
40% over 15 years old
Samoa-born Samoans in NZ:
89% over 15 years old
(Statistics New Zealand)

5. Aims of Study
Investigate consonantal variables in the NZ-born characters (Valea, Vale) which may be associated with NZ Pasifika Youth Culture English and in the Samoan-born character (Pepelo) which may be affected by having Samoan as his first language.
Investigate instances of ‘double voicing’
(Performance from within already performed voice)
Or a nz-born…
Substratal effects

6. The Characters Pepelo
Sound1

7. Valea
Sound2

8. Vale
Sound3

9. The Variables /p/ aspiration - pub, precious
(DH) - these, their, them, their
(TH) - something, thanks, three
Linking /r/

10. /p/ aspiration Stops unaspirated in Samoan
Non-aspiration of /t/ has been noted as a feature of Maori English, though less so in younger speakers (Holmes, 1997; Bell, 2000)
Starks et al (fc.) found unaspiration of /p t k/ in Niuean NZE
In press

11. /p/ aspiration
All /p/s in syllable-initial position in stressed syllables were analysed
Length of aspiration was measured, from release burst to onset of second formant

12. /p/ aspiration
Re-check sd
Do chi-2
Sound4

13. /p/ aspiration Pepelo has much less aspiration of /p/ than the boys
This may be a substratal effect from Samoan, Pepelo’s portrayed 1st language
Non-aspiration of /p/ does not seem to have been taken up as part of the youth ethnolect
Substratal effect not adopted by youngs

14. /p/ aspiration – Double Voicing
Sound5

15. (DH) & (TH) No dental fricatives in Samoan
(DH) and (TH) affrication in Maori English (Bell, 2000)
TH-fronting in young Pakeha NZE (Campbell & Gordon, 1996)
NZ Pasifika English:
DH-stopping (DH  /d/)
TH-fronting (TH  /f/)
TH-fronting more common in word-final position (Starks and Reffell, 2006)

16. (DH) All word-initial instances of (DH) analysed Auditory analysis
Coded as dh (for dental fricative) or d (for alveolar stop)
d category also includes a few dental affricates

17. (DH)
Sound6

18. (TH) All instances of TH (in all word positions) were analysed
Most tokens realised as either [th], [f] or [v]
5 tokens (out of 79) realised as stops (removed from analysis below)

19. (TH)
Sound7

20. (TH) – Double voicing
Valea as geniu
Sound8

21. (TH) Realisations of TH by character /th/ /f/ /v/ Total Pepelo 1 7 917
Vale 14
Valea 18 24 43 26 38 10 74
6 of 10 [v] occurrences are in the word (with)

22. (TH) Realisations of TH by word position Total /th/ 19 1 6 26
Word Initial
Word Medial
Word Final
Total
/th/ 19 1 6 26
/f/ and /v/ 15 14 48 34 25 74

23. (DH) & (TH)
Pepelo has very high rates of both DH-stopping and TH-fronting - again, probably a substratal effect.
Valea uses high rates of both DH-stopping and TH-fronting, though not as much as Pepelo
Vale uses low rates of DH-stopping and moderate rates of TH-fronting
Substratal influence

24. Linking /r/ - Background
Hay and Sudbury (2005):
Study tracks decline of rhoticity in NZE. Linking /r/ continues to appear at high rates.
Starks and Reffell (2005):
Low rates of linking /r/ in reading passages by Pasifika youth.

25. Linking /r/ - Methodology
All potential linking /r/s across word boundaries analyzed
Tokens at intonation phrase boundaries excluded, also excluded if hesitation between words
Coded as r or 0

26. Linking /r/ - Results
Sound9

27. Linking /r/ by phonetic environment
Linking /r/ - Results
Linking /r/ by phonetic environment
Linking /r/
Glottal Stop
No Consonant
Total
Pepelo 6 4 10
Valea 11 7 24
Vale 9 19 21 53

28. Where do these variants come from?
Substratal influence?
But some of these are also common in other vernacular varieties of English…
Influence of hip-hop?

29. A question of ethnicity?
How to define this style of speech in terms of social factors?
This is not just NZ Samoan English
This variety of NZ English is associated with being young, Polynesian, interested in hip-hop culture, living in South-Auckland… ???

30. Conclusions
Very high levels of /p/ non-aspiration, DH-stopping and TH-fronting in Samoa-born NZ Samoan English. Some of these features may be caused by a substratal influence
DH-stopping, TH-fronting and low rates of linking /r/ in NZ-born NZ Samoan English
These features are not just ethnic identity markers, they are related to an emerging sub-culture which needs to be defined through more detailed ethnographic study.
The use of these features is manipulated to project different personas from within already performed voices

31. References
Bell, Allan Audience and referee design in New Zealand media language. In Bell and Holmes (eds):
Bell, Allan Hit and miss: referee design in the dialects of New Zealand television advertisements. Language and Communication : 1-14.
Bell, Allan Maori and Pakeha English: a case study. In Bell and Kuiper (eds) New Zealand English: Wellington: Victoria University Press. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Campbell, Elizabeth and Elizabeth Gordon ‘What do you fink?’ Is New Zealand English losing its ‘th’? New Zealand English Journal 10:
Coupland, Nikolas 'Hark, hark, the Lark': Social Motivations for Phonological Style-Shifting. Language & Communication 5(3):
Foulkes, Paul Rule inversion in a British English dialect - a sociolinguistic investigation of [r]-sandhi in Newcastle upon Tyne. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4(1) - A Selection of Papers from NWAVE
Hay, Jennifer and Andrea Sudbury (2005).    How rhoticity became /r/-sandhi.  In Language 81.4, pp
Holmes, Janet Maori and Pakeha English: some New Zealand social dialect data. Language in Society 26(1):
Lippi-Green, R Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. London:Routledge.
Starks, Donna and Hayley Reffell Reading ‘TH’: Vernacular variants in Pasifika Englishes in South Auckland. Journal of Sociolinguistics 10(3):
Starks, Donna and Hayley Reffell “Pronouncing your Rs in New Zealand English: A study of Pasifika and Maori students”. New Zealand English Journal 19:
Starks, Donna, Jane Christie and Laura Thompson (in press). Niuean English: initial insights into an emerging variety. To appear in English Worldwide.
Retrieved on 1/11/06