h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm a 16 year old King Country resident and I never heard any vowel flattening until I went to high school, were only one person I know talks anything like that... When I saw a 'humorous' poster on it in a Wellington hotel-thing (it's near Courtenay place with the zebra stripe) I thought it was mocking Australians.

Personally, I think it's disappearing, except in certain words, like scone, which is (skon) instead of the very royal (poncy) (skoan).
The only reason anyone says anything is because Australians think they do (theeeeenk theeeey do). If only they knew....

What is non-homonym way to say steer and stare, and ear and air??

The thing about steer/stare and other pairs is that they have a distinctly different sound, which an article in the Listener said (around 2002) was disappearing, and I have noticed that myself on the TV and radio. It can be quite awkward!

Peoples' pronunciation varies tremedously. For real vowel-mangling, listen to Edge radio station, and for the other end of the spectrum, Judy Bailey on TV1 news, is a good example...

Are you talking about Caroline?
I used to listen to the Edge, but the music is a bit to repetitive, to popular.....

Tasha Tolson! I don't know if the Edge has different people in different cities... This morning, TT was reading the news, and talked about 'women', plural, (that was clear from the context) but she said 'woman' singular, which is a confusing thing that some New Zealanders do - sigh.

I see from your space, that you are particularly interested in language. Are you a student?

Not officially right now. I'm currently focusing on Maaori and German occasionally right now (but I'm a bit busy. I was also learning Esperanto last year (for about a week) but realised that it was pretty stupid.

Obviously, you have a facility with, and interest in language! Did you know that there is a movie made in Esperanto, starring William Shatner? It sunk like a stone, afaik.
I studied linguistics last year, and in 1983. Phonetics - yikes! Sociolinguistics is the most interesting area for me..

Huh! William Shatner.

He's ly interesting... Have you read his Star Trek novels about Kirk? They're actually better than they sound! Apparently, he made the film I mentioned in order to promote Esperanto...