Finding our own voice

'Finding our own voice' was the title of the three Macmillan Brown lectures delivered at the University of Canterbury in 2005 by Elizabeth Gordon. She discusses the development and evolution of the New Zealand accent from the earlist days, when the children of the early settlers spoke with the dialects of their parents, through the remarkably short period of time to when people began to accuse children and others of speaking with an odious 'colonial twang'. Various English dialects and Māori also contributed to the mix to produce a unique New Zealand voice.