Getting it right: Taking te reo back to basics
As part of Te Wiki o te reo Ma¯ori, Ma¯ori Language Week, we’re taking a look at why so many of us mispronounce Kiwi place names. Hannah Bartlett reports.
AH EHEE OR OO. To get Ma¯ori vowel sounds for what they Ma¯ori place names are, says Shepard, who teaches at ‘‘Work on that same principle correct, you have to start Nelson Marlborough Institute of with ah-oo ... just speed them up to with the vowels. Technology. join them together.’’ Those five sounds are the A¯So let’s break it down. The A macron over the vowels: building blocks for any attempt to Ma¯ori pronunciation of the vowels -O¯-U¯ - lengthens them. So that pronounce the names of many of E¯¯youAA-E-I-O-Uareah-eh-ee-or-oo.gives like the ‘a’ in car, our most beautiful places, says Ite¯ Or in other words – the words of like the ‘ea’ in measure, like the reo tutor Craig Shepard. O¯ New Zealand’s Ma¯ori Language ‘ee’ in heel, like the ‘ou’ in your,
It sounds simple. And yet¯andUsoCommission–Alikethe‘u’incup, like the ‘oo’ in roof. many of us can’t seem to manage E like the ‘e’ in egg, I like the ‘e’ in Most consonants are similar to it. eat, O like the ‘o’ in for and U like English, except that WHis said the ‘o’ in to. like the ‘f’ in father, NGlike the
When it comes to dipthongs – ‘ng’ in singer, and ‘r’ with a roll where there are two vowels joined which can sound more like a ‘d’ or
The challenge is to stop seeing Ma¯ori words through an English lens, and instead recognise the together in a place like Marahau - the same principle applies, Shepard says. -E¯- ‘l’ sound in English.
Put them all together, and you can make a strong stab at saying the place name you see on the road sign in the way it’s meant to be said.
Many non-speakers choose to pronounce Ma¯ori place names incorrectly because that’s how they have always heard them, according to Shepard.
He gave the example of Marahau, in the Tasman district.
‘‘It’s often said ‘ma-ra-how’, which it doesn’t even sound nice when the word is ‘mah-rah-hoe.’’’
Nearby Motueka, meanwhile, is often said as ‘‘mot’’ or ‘‘mot-ew-ayka’’, but it was meant to be said, ‘‘maw-tu-eh-kah’’.
‘‘The key is to understand the name for a name,’’ says Shepard.
‘‘If someone is called David, and I choose to start calling him ‘Dahvid’, he’s not going be happy about that.’’