The consonant system

The consonant system of New Zealand English is set out in the table. There is nothing unexpected in this system except possibly the lack of /M/, which is discussed below

Some conservative speakers still maintain a voiceless labial-velar fricative [M] in words like when and whimper, but this may be represented as /hw/ when it occurs.

It seems likely that where this feature is retained it now serves to mark regionalism or social status.

The glottal plosive [ʔ] may be argued to be gaining phonemic status in word final position in utterances such as [ʃΛʔ  Λʔ] shut up, though for many speakers it occurs only as an allophone of /t/ except where it is reinforcing one of [p, t, k, ʧ] .