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New Zealand Dialect Development: Wellness & Birthing now permanently installed in vocabulary

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Words have made transition from officialese & gobbledygook to standard usage

Napier, MSCNewsWire, Thursday 7 July 2016 - Two words have made the transition from officialdom to becoming part of the accepted and day-to-day accepted vocabulary.They both describe things within the health sector which has been particularly subject to the incursions of politically correct dialect.Wellness as a synonym for health has now become standard as has the gerund birthing for what was routinely described until a few years ago as maternity.Meanwhile MSCNewswire’s Patois Panel has identified in official use the word conversation to describe what was until even this year covered by words such as talk, dialogue, debate and discourse.In transitioning pronunciation the noun Kauri, has been identified. The New Zealand native tree is now routinely referred to by broadcasters as being a “Cody” tree.This has been ascribed to television presenter Hilary Barry (pictured) who routinely utters the word with the r sound being replaced by a hard d. Miss Barry is herself in a state of transition between independent broadcasting and the government version.

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