this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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New Zealand is at least teaching maori languages
Watched New Zealand bake show and I loved how many Maori words they incorporated.
And if anyone reading this wants to get a better understanding of pronouncing Māori words, it's got some similarity with Japanese. Here's a tip:
a = ah
e = eh
i = ee
o = aw (as in hawk, but not USA's 'hock')
u = oo (as in ew but less of the 'e')
wh = f
The r consonant rolls a bit, so it's like a very soft d sound.
And when vowels are close together they tend to kind of mesh into one, like 'ai' into 'eye.'
So the word whanau (family) is pronounced fah-know, and kaimoana (seafood) is k'eye'-maw-ah-nah. And the Māori word itself is maah-aw-ree, but we'd let you off if you said mow-ree (as in mowing the lawn) because you're at least making an attempt.
TIL Moana's name means "sea."
I always thought it was a bit harder in Australia, given that the language changes so much across such small distances.
There are something like 50 different indigenous languages across Australia. That makes it pretty hard to standardise one.
Same with Te Reo in NZ, it's kind of standardized now but when I was a kid living in the BoP I learnt a lot of Maori but when we moved to the south island the dialect was quite different so I lost a lot through atrophy.
So much of it has been lost too. We could do better, though. Teaching what we can would at least teach the general skill of learning languages.
Indonesian is an underrepresented option in my opinion. They're neighbours and the language is relatively easy. Couldn't hurt to improve relations a bit. Might make a better impression during the customary pilgrimage to Bali.
Kia ora! Tena koutou Tena koutou Tena koutou katoa.
With the 3rd official language being NZSL ( New Zealand Sign Language )
There's a computer game called Umurangi Generation, which is like Tony Hawk's but you take photos instead of skateboard, and you can set the language to Maori.