Unstressed vowel system

The unstressed vowel system is made up of three contrasting units, one of which has two major allophones. The first of the units is the happY vowel, which native speakers relate to the FLEECE vowel rather than to the KIT vowel in phonemic terms. The patterns of diphthongization for FLEECE and happY are probably not identical, although both can be diphthongized. The second unit is made up of vocalized realizations of /l/. The phonetics of this vowel vary in ways which have not been fully described. The actual vowel may be more or less rounded and more or less back or open, rarely more open than cardinal [o] and generally more back than central. Phonemically, it may be transcribed as //, but this is no more than a viable symbol. The third member of the system is rather more problematic. Introductory students identify it as the STRUT vowel when it is in final position (and especially when it is in utterance-final position), and occasionally also in word-initial position, and with the KIT vowel when it is in other positions. This corresponds to the commA vowel in RP, but also to the horsES vowel, since chatted and chattered, villages and villagers are homophones for nearly all New Zealand English speakers.

In phonemic transcriptions we use the first symbols in all of these sets.