$530,000 to investigate why Southlanders roll their Rs
Thursday, 3 November 2016
Ask a Southlander where they're from, preferably one from Gore or Mossburn, and you get the same heavy burr in response.
Southlanders roll their Rs. Everyone knows that. But why?
A researcher at the University of Canterbury now has half a million dollars to find out.
Linguistics senior lecturer Dr Lynn Clark will head the three-year project looking into the Southland accent along with two collaborators from the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour.
Some $65.2 million was allocated to 117 proposals nationally, including Clark's, in the largest ever round of Marsden Fund grants.
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More than 300 voice recordings, taken from Southlanders between 1868 and the early 1990s will be analysed as part of the project, which is aimed at finding out what makes the accent so different to the rest of New Zealand.
The recordings were mostly of residents speaking about life in Southland and what life was like growing up, she said.
They were mostly from people in Invercargill, but also Gore.
'We don't know what people hear, what makes it distinctive,' Clark said.
It wasn't just the rolling 'R's, that made it unique, there were also differences in vowel pronunciation, she said.
She believed the accent had changed since the early settlers' presence in Southland.
The 1871 national census showed more than 60 per cent of all British immigrants to Southland were Scottish.
Clark said anecdotal evidence suggested the accent almost disappeared, before coming back, possibly in the 1990s.
There was evidence to suggest 'young urban females' brought it back again, but it was unclear why.
'There's still so many questions we have about this.'
Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt said he 'often wondered' whether the city should use the accent more to promote the deep south.
'It's unique.'
Words like 'noggin' [head] and 'crib' [bach] gave Southland residents their own language, he said
'It has divided the community a little bit though . . . these different opinions about whether it's a good thing or not.'
He said students who ended up in Canterbury or Otago for university would get 'teased' because of their southern accent.
When they came back to visit they were 'cleansed of it', he laughed.
'If we knew more about it, it would probably be more acceptable.'
Invercargill resident Sandra Andrew moved from Scotland 30 years ago.
She thought he project was a 'waste of money'.
'Half a million dollars trying to find out why Southlanders roll their 'Rs?'
Julie Thomas, a self-declared 'proud Southlander' said the accent was hard to shake off.
'We roll our R's because of our Scottish descent – once you start doing it you can't stop.'
Brian Todds thought the accent was because of 'the high-heeled shoes' Southlanders wear.
He thought a better investment was to buy everyone flat shoes.