Are North Islanders generally more urbane than rustic South Islanders? (home, living in)
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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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I'm talking about New Zealand.
Are they more fast-paced, less friendly? I've been to both, but only the North when i was really young so I don't remember, but I found the people in the South Island, particularly Dunedin and the small towns, very friendly. They were polite.etc but also seemed interested to have a yarn etc.
I've heard the people in Auckland, because it's a big city, are less inclined to be like that but I don't know how true that is. I've also met some Kiwis who were from the North Island who weren't that nice at all.
The island you are from really has nothing to do with your urbanity or whether you are nice or not.
I would definitely not say that North Islanders are more urbane because they live in the North Island - more likely the North Island has a larger proportion of the population living in larger cities and therefore more people are city dwellers. I recently had the misfortune of spending a significant amount of time in a large public hospital an hour from Auckland, that served a smaller city plus a larger rural area of the North Island and I can tell you, there was NOTHING urbane about many of the people who we encountered there. I was actually having culture shock (just arrived from Hong Kong via Paris so hardly surprising)...some rural NZers can be a little on the rough side, to put it nicely! Especially for us precious city dwellers!
That said, SI is very laid back, no big cities and a lovely relaxed vibe. So you could take from that that SIers are friendlier than say, Aucklanders. But that's understandable - people from big cities can tend to keep their distance from strangers and thus be standoffish...it's a natural human reaction when you are surrounded by lots of people.
As I said in other thread, the farther south you go the friendlier the people are. I notice the difference just getting off the ferry in Picton on the south island coming over from the north.
I always call the North Island the business end of the country. 3/4 of the population, more urban, more of the industry, more of the guvment bureaucracy. The south island is more about tourism and agriculture with less population density, so it does have more of a small town feel and there is less of a maori or pacific islander influence. The south is more traditional and rural.
Even the accent is different. Aucklanders are very fast and clipped with their speech, Wellingtonians have more of a british, formal speak, South Islanders have more of a drawl by comparision with slower speech and people from Oamaru south through Dunedin to Invercargill have a scottish influenced accent. It's a scottish lilted kiwi accent down there.
Even the accent is different. Aucklanders are very fast and clipped with their speech, Wellingtonians have more of a british, formal speak, South Islanders have more of a drawl by comparision with slower speech and people from Oamaru south through Dunedin to Invercargill have a scottish influenced accent. It's a scottish lilted kiwi accent down there.
I'm one of the fast-talking Aucklanders...the first time I heard a deep south island accent I thought the people were from another country! Talked about sheltered Jafa!
Interesting what you said about the accents, it's definitely true. I've lived in Wellington the majority of my life but must've caught the fast-clipped Auckland accents when my family lived there years ago.
Originally posted by hkgal
I'm one of the fast-talking Aucklanders...the first time I heard a deep south island accent I thought the people were from another country! Talked about sheltered Jafa!
NI and SI have different accents? The only kiwis I've met were from Auckland Metro, so I wonder what the SI accent sounds like. Come to think of it, what region of NZ has the "standard" NZ accent that we all hear?
Like here in America the "standard American" is the midwestern one. What is it down there?
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,054,732 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mackinac81
NI and SI have different accents? The only kiwis I've met were from Auckland Metro, so I wonder what the SI accent sounds like. Come to think of it, what region of NZ has the "standard" NZ accent that we all hear?
Like here in America the "standard American" is the midwestern one. What is it down there?
Like Australian, the standard is pretty much found everywhere. The 'standard' is found in the majority middle class instead of a particular region.
NI and SI have different accents? The only kiwis I've met were from Auckland Metro, so I wonder what the SI accent sounds like. Come to think of it, what region of NZ has the "standard" NZ accent that we all hear?
Like here in America the "standard American" is the midwestern one. What is it down there?
Compared to the US accents, NZ accents show only a small variation. In parts of the south island, there is that Scottish influence which gives the speakers a pronounced 'burr' i.e. where an Auckland would say 'heard' as something like 'heahd', a south island would say it more like 'huurd'. Basically, we drop off 'r' from the end of a word whereas this SI regional accent tends to really pronounce it.
The main variations in the NZ accent, apart from this regional characteristic, would be found between city and rural dwellers. The rural kiwi accent is much stronger. This, like in other parts of the world, is probably due to the fact that in cities you have a wide variation of accents from everywhere and the kiwi-ness in speech is tempered somewhat. In rural communities this may not be the case, so it tends to sound much stronger.
You will also find variations in the accents of some Maori and Pacific Island speakers, which I assume come from the influences of their native languages. I have to say I think these variances may become even more pronounced as I noticed last time I was home that there is a very strong trend toward young Maori children being educated in a 'language nest' environment where they are immersed in Maori language and culture. I heard little kids speaking Maori with their families and I NEVER heard that growing up.
Last edited by hkgal; 03-20-2009 at 10:44 PM..
Reason: spelling!
NI and SI have different accents? The only kiwis I've met were from Auckland Metro, so I wonder what the SI accent sounds like. Come to think of it, what region of NZ has the "standard" NZ accent that we all hear?
Like here in America the "standard American" is the midwestern one. What is it down there?
Probably most people that don't listen to kiwis much wouldn't notice the differences. After you've lived and worked with them 24/7 it starts to become obvious. Maybe one would have to put people side by side to notice, dunno.
I would say people from Canterbury/Christchurch have a slight drawl and slower speech than the northies and probably most noticeable of all down in the southern part of the south island you will notice a scottish twanged kiwi accent.
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Talked about sheltered Jafa!
