Kiwi English moving with times and taking us with it
New Zealand’s English is evolving to reflect the Polynesian origins of our country’s people.
When talking toma¯ori friends I easily fall into the use of what little te reo I know. Ihave done so since the mid-70s, whenan old friend and work mate would greetmeevery morning in the Wellington Central police station yard with “kia ora, Ratts”.
Having ama¯ori dad I grewup hearingma¯ori terms such as taihoa, ehoa, whare and waipiro.
As a child, Inever realised that they werema¯ori words, everyone in myneighbourhood used them.
Over the years Ihave taken the trouble to learn more, but Iwill never be fluent.
I amglad to saymyma¯ori niece andnephewand Pa¯keha¯ grandchildren probably will.
Talking withmypa¯keha¯ family and friendswenow, often unconsciously, usema¯ori words morethan ever before.
Newzealand’s English is evolving to reflect the Polynesian origins of our country’s people.
Ihope this is regarded by both cultures as a good thing. It makes Pa¯keha¯ different from other English speakers.
The danger could be of developing ama¯ori/english patois as has happened in other places with other cultures.
Such examples could easily develop in parts ofnewzealand with a highma¯ori population.
With newsreaders, media people and public figures of all hues and walks of life appearing on television every day talking and correctly pronouncing te reo, this is helping manypa¯keha¯ to becomeused to the language and to accept its normality.
It is also tuning the ears of Pa¯keha¯ whouse, or try to use, te reo in their daily lives, ensuring that pronunciation ceases to be an issue in time.
This coupled with our young learning te reo and Aotearoa/new Zealand’s true colonial history as part of the school curriculum must surely be a good thing.
Barriers between the cultures will continue to tumble.
It is hard to regardsomeone as different if you understand their language andknowtheir customs.
Language is an interesting subject, forever changing and forever being added to.
Both English and Ma¯ori, our two official spoken languages, have changed since colonial times and are continuing to change.
Newzealand English seems to havenowadopted thewordmanato describe a person of great respect and standing.
Thewaywetalk has also changed in recent times.
Watching and listening to old film and television newsreels, it is clear that our forebears spoke a clearer, moreprecise version of English than wedo, with amore British-based accent than present today despite beingnewzealand born.
The Englishwespeak today would bear little resemblance to the ear of a person from only 200to300 years ago.
Wewould struggle with their spoken version of English as well but it is the samelanguage, just changed by time, the influences of other cultures and fashion.
Written English has changed in the last200 years, as well; less formal nowadays, maybenot as precise, someletters not recognisable as such today, for example, modern“s” appears as “f”.
Going back400 to500years, the modernenglishspeaker would struggle somewhat understanding the written English words of those times, let alone the spoken version. Aninteresting and somewhat exciting thought is what willnew Zealanders talk in 100 to200years?
Bythen, the shrinking cultural barrierswehave today should have disappeared completely andwewill be, hopefully, more united while still retaining cultural identities.
There could be parts ofnew Zealand with regional dialects such as in Britain and the US.
There could be a language comprised of bothma¯ori and English used in parts of the North Island but an updated, accented version of English still used in the South Island or areas of lowma¯ori population.
Southland people have always had adistinct Scottish burr to their English, so anything can happen in a small country.
Willma¯ori and English still be distinct languages on theirown?
I personally hope so, but people being people, shortcuts will be taken in both cultures to learn language, perhaps resulting in sentences madeupofma¯ori and English with perhaps Indian and Chinese thrown into the mix as well.
English is already amixture of tongues, German, French andsome Indian. Could the samehappen here in time?
There is still someedginess in parts of Pa¯keha¯ society nowadays about accepting and using te reo generally.
This will fade with the passing of time and the ongoing education of our young.
The ability to talk inmorethan one tongue is a gift worth receiving for everyone.