Te reo Māori’s place among the world’s languages

The vocabulary of the English language is drawn from numerous different sources both in Europe and many other parts of the world. Words such as ‘‘bungalow’’ and ‘‘verandah’’, for instance, come from Hindi. It’s no surprise, then, that English, particularly as spoken here, should incorporate many Māori words.

Names of native animals and plants feature prominently. Words such as ‘‘kiwi’’ and ‘‘kauri’’ were no doubt appearing regularly in English contexts from the beginning of the 19th century.

In some cases, English names have remained in use: many people still refer to the piwakawaka as ‘‘fantail’’, but who now would use t ‘‘parson bird’’ for the tuı?

A more recent phenomenon – though with origins dating back at least to the publication of Hoani Waititi’s Te Rangatahi books in the 1960s, and the continuation of this work in (now Sir) Tımoti Karetu’s Te Reo Rangatira of 1974 – has been an increasingly widespread use of Māori phrases in the context of English speech.

Notably, in 1984 an Auckland telephone operator, (now Dame) Naida Glavish, greeted callers with ‘‘Kia ora’’ – and despite complaints from some members of the public, she received support from then-Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.

More and more phrases are now being used in media generally. A Swedish-born Nelsonian friend, Blanche Hallstrom – who is certainly familiar with more than two languages – spoke a while ago about the changing face of New Zealand English, and of its recognition as a distinct dialect of English,

One thing is certain: living languages keep changing, often in interaction with other living languages.

Two Dunedin friends – James Saville and his wife Rose Sneyd – returned not long ago to New Zealand from Italy. Both are deeply immersed in Italian literature and language, and frequently use Italian words and phrases rather than English. James now writes of the possibility of a multilingual ‘‘universal’’ language, which would include te reo Māori.

Perhaps the most notorious example of polyglot literary language is James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Near the middle of this book, one finds ‘‘Katu te ihis ihis! Katu te wana wana! ... Au! Au! Aue! Ha!’’. Apparently, Joyce attended a rugby match in Paris in 1925, and was intrigued by the haka (more correctly: Ka tu¯ te ihiihi! Ka tu¯ te wanawana ... ) led by George Nepia. In 2006, Richard Corballis, then a professor of English at Massey University with a specialist interest in Joyce’s work, published an article, The Provenance of Joyce’s Haka.

Yes, te reo Māori does have a place among the world’s languages.

David Kārena-Holmes is a New Zealand-born writer currently living in Nelson. A tutor of grammar since the 1980s, his third book on the subject is Te Reo Māori – the Basics Explained (Oratia Books, 2020). He is examining te reo grammar in a series of fortnightly articles.