From Māori English to Aotearoa English

Among Englishes in New Zealand, the variety called Māori English has remained difficult to define. Thus, Holmes (2005: 93) argues that Māori English relates to Pākehā (i.e. New Zealand European) English on a continuum from colloquial to Standard New Zealand English. Similarly, when discussing Englishes in New Zealand, Bell (2000: 222) points out that 'few if any features are likely to be unique to Maori English'. At the same time, previous research has discussed phonological differences of Māori English such as devoicing of final /z/ (Holmes 1996; Maclagan, King, and Jones 2003), the occurrence of unaspirated /t/ (Holmes 1997; Bell 2000), a less centralized KIT vowel (Bell 2000; Warren and Bauer 2004), the fronting of back vowels (Bell 2000), a more syllable-timed rhythm (Holmes and Ainsworth 1996; Warren 1998; Szakay 2008), and the use of the pragmatic device of high rising terminals (Allan 1990; Britain 1992; Szakay 2008). To add to that, King (1995, 1999) has reported a more frequent occurrence of Māori terms and the function of Māori English as a marker of ethnic identity (also cf. D’Arcy’s 2010 description of Māori English as an ethnolinguistic repertoire). Based on data from a story-telling task performed by Māori and non-Māori participants, our research adds a new facet to the discussion of Māori vs. New Zealand English. Taking the expression of culturally specific contents as a point of departure, the mention of Māori knowledge, concepts, and ways of thinking calls for a reconceptualization of Māori English into Aotearoa English, the English that draws on a New Zealand indigenous cultural view of the world. Our talk will exemplify Aotearoa English by discussing semantic and conceptual differences between stories following from Māori and non-Māori thinking.