Cambridge, MA right now, but I’m a native speaker of Hiberno-English. Given more than a few sentences it is usually easy for me to distinguish between South African and Australian/New Zealander. I’m not sure if I regard the three as a cluster but there is definitely some kind of similarity, at least to Irish and UK ears.
I’m not exposed to enough New Zealander to be sure of the distinction between it and Australian, and I think there’s significant overlap especially among careful/educated/urban/middle-class speakers.
For reference I can distinguish and name about 5 North American accents (if they’re strong enough), about 10 UK ones, and about 12 Irish ones, maybe more.
Cambridge, MA right now, but I’m a native speaker of Hiberno-English. Given more than a few sentences it is usually easy for me to distinguish between South African and Australian/New Zealander. I’m not sure if I regard the three as a cluster but there is definitely some kind of similarity, at least to Irish and UK ears.
I’m not exposed to enough New Zealander to be sure of the distinction between it and Australian, and I think there’s significant overlap especially among careful/educated/urban/middle-class speakers.
For reference I can distinguish and name about 5 North American accents (if they’re strong enough), about 10 UK ones, and about 12 Irish ones, maybe more.