Writing Maori English: Voices in Pounamu, Pounamu

Abstract

Attempts to pin down the distinguishing features of Maori English have exercised linguists for a considerable period of time. Only a decade ago Benton (1991,193) was able to conclude that, up to that time, 'the evidence was not strong enough to establish the existence of a Maori English dialect'. More recently, however, Bell (2000) has proposed that Maori English — which he refers to as Maori Vernacular English — could be identified through the cooccurrence of certain speech features, and Stubbe and Holmes (2000) have drawn attention to discourse features that signal ethnic identity in New Zealand English.