New Zealand English

New Zealand English is the variety spoken by about 5 million people across Aotearoa New Zealand, with Māori vocabulary woven through everyday speech (kia ora, whānau, kai). It's non-rhotic like British and Australian English (the r at the end of car is dropped), but the vowel system has shifted further than either, producing the famous "fush and chups" sound where the short i in fish ends up close to the u in "put." High-rising terminal intonation makes statements sound like questions to ears trained on flatter accents. Pace can feel fast because vowels are compressed and unstressed syllables get further reduced than in American or RP English. Once your ear locks onto the shifted vowels and rising melody, the connected speech follows the same rules as any other variety of English.