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Researchers from three countries have joined forces to solve a Kiwi mystery: why do we say "fush and chups"?
The Edinburgh University-led investigation - which has enlisted US linguists and New Zealand mathematicians - is trying to determine how our New Zild dialect developed so quickly and uniformly following the arrival of 19th-century British settlers.
From the 1850s, there was large-scale immigration by Brits, who brought regional accents.
But what is not entirely understood is how - within 50 years - most New Zealanders were speaking in the same dialect.
Though first-generation arrivals held on to their British accents, their children started to adapt their speech, Edinburgh University physicist Richard Blythe said.
"In New Zealand today, there is one dialect, while in countries like the UK, France and Germany there are many.
"At the time this dialect arose, there would have been between 100,000 and one million people living in New Zealand. With that big a number it would be impossible for all the inhabitants to meet each other."
Declining immigration, improved internal transport links and the growth of a class system helped shape a standard, nationwide dialect.
Archived radio broadcasts with the country's oldest citizens - dating from the 1940s - were used in conjunction with a mathematical model to trace how language changes were passed through the population.
Auckland University senior language tutor Jackie Greenwood said the New Zealand accent was constantly evolving, and could sound noticeably different in 50 to 100 years.
At the moment, the distinctive Southland "burr" - a hang-over of Scottish settlement - is the closest we have to a regional accent, though it was possible other accents were emerging in the Polynesian areas of South Auckland, she said.
Future accent changes would probably not be regionally based, but more likely formed along language lines, as immigrants arrived in New Zealand.
Ms Greenwood said immigrants could be expected to "import" aspects of New Zealand English into their own language, while "exporting" certain aspects of their native language.
OUR COMMONKIWI ACCENT
Formed: With the arrival of British immigrants around 1850.
By: Immigrants bringing their regional dialects to New Zealand.
Developed: As immigration dropped off and internal transport improved.
The future: Our accent will likely change as immigrants import aspects of their own language.
