Abstract

This paper describes a study designed to investigate New Zealanders’ attitudes toward (perceived) regional dialects in New Zealand. Participants from four University campuses were asked to rate a range of New Zealand regions for the ‘pleasantness’ and ‘correctness’ of their speech. Despite the fact that very little regional variation has been documented in New Zealand, participants displayed considerable variation in the ratings they gave to different regions. Wellington, Canterbury and Nelson/Marlborough tended to elicit high ratings for both pleasantness and correctness, whereas Northland and Westland elicited lower ratings. In general, pleasantness and correctness ratings were well correlated, but Auckland proved an exception to this rule, faring reasonably in ‘correctness’ but receiving extremely low ‘pleasantness’ ratings. Participants displayed a tendency to give a region a higher rating for correctness, and – particularly – pleasantness, if that region was where they grew up.

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