CHAPTER 3

To show Ricky Bakers authentic New Zealand voice throughout the story, Crump uses Rickys point of view to narrate it. Ricky, a young Maori boy from New Zealand is the perfect person to portray the way ‘kiwis’ speak and he does this by using many language features that make our language different. Idiomatic speech is used very heavily with words like ‘ill take to the scrub for a spell’ used by Hector meaning he’s going into the bush for awhile. Secondly because the book is set in New Zealand many Maori names are used for the towns and huts that are mentioned in the book, ‘mangatoa hut’ and ‘Urewera’ to name a few. ‘mornin’, ’em’ and ‘kilos’ are some of the contractions (shortened words) used in chapter three. People who speak English around the world would never use language the way we do and thats why we have developed our on ‘kiwi language’. I think that even though we might not speak the Queens perfect English I think we are lucky to have our own language that is different and unique to everyone else. As New Zealanders we have our own culture, our own views and also our own language that Ricky Baker demonstrates perfectly in Wild Pork and Watercress.