Languages of New Zealand


is the predominant language and a de facto official language of New Zealand. Almost the entire population speak it either as native speakers or proficiently as a second language. The New Zealand English dialect is most similar to Australian English in pronunciation, with some key differences. The Māori language of the indigenous Māori people was made the first de jure official language in 1987. New Zealand Sign Language has been an official language since 2006. Many other languages are used by New Zealand's minority ethnic communities.

Official languages

New Zealand has three official languages: English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language.
Some disagree that English is an official language of New Zealand. The New Zealand First party MP, Clayton Mitchell, considers that it is not officially recognised in the same way that the two other official languages are, and in 2018 filed a member's bill to have English recognised as an official language.

English

is spoken by 96.1 percent of the population. It has long been the predominant language and the de facto official language. It is the primary language used in parliament, government, the courts, and the education system. Its official status has been presumed and is not codified in statute. In 2018, New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell introduced a bill to parliament to statutorily recognise English as an official language.
New Zealand English is mostly non-rhotic with the exception of the "southern burr" found principally in Southland and parts of Otago. It is similar to Australian English and many speakers from the Northern Hemisphere are unable to tell the two accents apart. In New Zealand English the short i has become centralised, leading to the shibboleth fish and chips sounding like "fush and chups" to the Australian ear. The words rarely and really, reel and real, doll and dole, pull and pool, witch and which, and full and fill can sometimes be pronounced as homophones. Some New Zealanders pronounce the past participles grown, thrown and mown using two syllables, whereas groan, throne and moan are pronounced as one syllable. New Zealanders often reply to a question or emphasise a point by adding a rising intonation at the end of the sentence. New Zealand English has also borrowed words and phrases from Māori, such as haka, kia ora, mana, puku, taonga and waka.

Māori

The Māori language of the indigenous Māori people has been an official language by statute since 1987, with rights and obligations to use it defined by the Maori Language Act 1987. It can, for example, be used in legal settings, such as in court, but proceedings are recorded in English only, unless private arrangements are made and agreed by the judge.
An Eastern Polynesian language, Māori is closely related to Tahitian and Cook Islands Māori. After the Second World War, Māori were discouraged from speaking their language in schools and workplaces and it existed as a community language only in a few remote areas. As a consequence of this, many Māori came to view te reo Māori as a language without purpose and chose not to teach their children. Since the 1970s, the language has undergone a process of revitalisation and is spoken by a larger number of people. Of the 148,395 people who claimed they could hold a conversation in Māori in 2013, 84.5 percent identified as Māori. No adult Māori alive in New Zealand today does not also speak English.

New Zealand Sign Language

, the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand, has been an official language by statute since 2006, by virtue of the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. It is legal to use it and have access to it in legal proceedings and government services. In 2013, 20,235 people reported the ability to use New Zealand Sign Language.

Immigrant languages

New Zealand has immigrants from European, Asian and Pacific Island countries who have brought their languages with them. According to Ethnologue, the largest groups are Samoan, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, French and Yue Chinese. These minority foreign languages are concentrated in the main cities, particularly Auckland where recent immigration groups have settled. In the 2013 census, about 87,534 people did not include English as one of their spoken languages.
The number and proportion of multilingual has continued to increase since the 2001 census. In 2013, the number of multilingual people was 737,910, or 18.6 percent of the population. The highest numbers of multilingual speakers lived in the Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury regions.

Statistics

In the 2013 census, the following languages were reportedly spoken by more than 0.1 percent of the population. People could report more than one language, therefore percentages do not add up to 100. Statistics necessarily exclude unusable responses and those who spoke no language.
LanguageNumberPercentageChange
English 381996996.14
Māori1483953.73
Samoan864032.17
Hindi663091.67
Mandarin Chinese522631.32
French491251.24
Yue Chinese 446251.12
Chinese 427531.08
German366420.92
Tongan318390.80
Tagalog290160.73
Afrikaans273870.69
Spanish269790.68
Korean263730.66
Dutch240060.60
New Zealand Sign Language202350.51
Japanese201480.51
Punjabi197520.50
Gujarati175020.44
Arabic107460.27
Russian94260.24
Italian82140.21
Cook Islands Māori81240.20
Thai75990.19
Tamil68400.17
Malaysian67890.17
Khmer67290.17
Fijian62730.16
Vietnamese53760.14
Serbo-Croatian53490.13
Sinhala52200.13
Min Chinese51660.13
Persian50610.13
Urdu50460.13
Bahasa Indonesia48810.12
Niuean45480.11
Malayalam43650.11
None 675091.70

Footnotes