When Nanny Flowers says ‘Turituri to waha’ (be quiet) to Koro Apirana in Whale Rider there is no translation in the text. It occurs far enough into the novel so that readers, New Zealanders as well as others, can probably work out what she is saying from the context even though turituri to waha is not a phrase that is commonly used by non-Maori speakers. The other Maori word in the extract, mana (authority, prestige), by contrast, would be understood by all New Zealanders and possibly by non-New Zealanders as well.

We discussed Maori words as a characteristic part of NZE lexis in Chapter 4 (section 4.2). In this chapter we will be considering variation within NZE. The study of language variation usually focuses on two types of variation – variation across speakers, and variation within speakers. For example, some speakers, like Nanny Flowers, use many more Maori words than other speakers. Many speakers who use Maori words and phrases are themselves Maori, but non-Maori speakers also use Maori words in their speech. This is an example of variation across individual speakers. Speakers vary in the vocabulary they use.