Speak Like a Kiwi!

As Ed and I prepare, rather sadly, to leave New Zealand for our next stop, I thought I'd share some linguistic gems gathered during our time here.

First, pronunciation. Like many commonwealth countries, funny things happen to vowels (especially the short e sound) and Rs here. Try the following words and phrases to sound like a native:

Left - Lift

Stairs - Steeys

Red - Reed

Neck - Neek

Yes - Yiss

Spectator - Spictatah

Berry smoothie - Beeree smoothay

Aircraft - Eaycrahft

Ed - Eed

Head - Hid

Ace of Base - Ice of Bice

Grab - Greb

Clever - Clivah

Scared - Skeed

Big Fig - Bug Fug

Next - Nixt

In addition, there's some delightful slang to be aware of. Some of my favorites are:

-"Sausage sizzle" - Backyard BBQ

-"(Adjective) as." - Very (adjective). For example, if a burrito is large, a local might say, "That burrito is big as!" "Sweet as" is a very common way to express approval or admiration, e.g. "I just won the Nobel Prize." "Sweet as!"

-"Chockas" - full, as in, "That restaurant is chockas. It's a two-hour wait for a table." Comes from "chock full."

-"Kiwi" - 1) an endangered, flightless, indigenous, nocturnal bird, now endangered; 2) an oblong fruit with a brown, furry skin and a bright green, sweet center punctuated by edible black seeds; 3) a native person of New Zealand; 4) an adjective describing something inherently characteristic of New Zealand

-"Brecky" - breakfast, one of many British English terms that survive here

-"Hire" - rent

-"Is that the lot?" - Is that everything?

-"(Unprintable)" - for the sake of propriety, I will not include this word here; suffice it to say that a four-letter word most Americans consider to be the most offensive term imaginable is not only no big deal here, it can be used in compliments, as in "He's a good *," or "She's a built *," (meaning she is strong and in good shape).

-"Mate" - friend; in addition to British English terms, lots of Aussie slang is used here. 

-"Bugger/buggered" - casual and commonly used synonym for another rude (in the US) word, as in "He's had a hard time of it, poor bugger," and "This pen is buggered; do you have another I can use?"

-"Courget" - zucchini 

-"Kumara" - sweet potato

The best way to learn is to practice, though with some of the slang you may want to be careful about doing this in mixed company.