New Zealand 27

Listen to New Zealand 27, a 53-year-old woman from Christchurch, New Zealand. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject. 

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 53

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/08/1971

PLACE OF BIRTH: Christchurch, New Zealand

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Pākehā

OCCUPATION: cafe owner

EDUCATION: high school

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject was born and raised in the city of Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand, where she lived until age 40. She then moved to Hororata, where she had been living for 14 years at the time of this recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: 

The subject has difficulty reading some of Comma Gets a Cure (“different,” “Comma,” administered,” “ether,” etc.). So her pronunciations of certain words might reflect that difficulty rather than her dialect.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: David Nevell

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/08/2025

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Um, I believe I live in paradise, so that’s — full stop. Yeah, this is paradise, from one end of the country to the absolute other. It’s the safest, most, um, honest country of people ever, that I’ve ever come across. … Um, I’ve cleaned the bathrooms after at the end of the day and someone’s entire lot of clothing has been in there and I never saw a naked person leave. So I don’t know what they were doing or how they got out. Yep, including underpants.

TRANSCRIBED BY: David Nevell

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/08/2025

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.

• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.