HOW TO PRONOUNCE MAORI

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 62, 30 August 1940, Page 5

HOW TO PRONOUNCE MAORI

Sir,-In fulfilment of a promise to give readers of The Listener a few hints on Maori pronunciation, I submit the attached lesson. It may not be as scholarly as students would like, but it will be found practical, concise, and to the point. New Zealand is the home of the Maori people and naturally it still retains a large number of Maori place-names. As Maori pronunciation is very simple there is no reason whatever why Maori place-names should not be correctly pronounced, I may mention that it is a pleasure to listen to a pakeha announcer of 2YA radio station, who pronounces Maori correctly. I wish other announcers and also teachers would follow his example. If one pakeha can pronounce Maori so well, I can’t see why others should not be as proficient if they would only take the trouble. Here is the lesson. To pronounce Maori correctly all that is required is to know the sounds of the five vowels, A, E, I, O, U, and to place the accent on the first syllable. Surely there is nothing simpler, and yet a century has passed and Europeans will mispronounce such well-known names as Taranaki and Waikato. The root of the trouble is that’ Europeans do not sound the vowel A correctly; they sound it like A in hat instead of A ir®about. A Maori vowel has but one sound, although it may be either short or long. A vowel can be sounded by itself but a consonant cannot-it is the vowel that gives a consonant its sound. Examples: A=short as in about; long as in father; never as in hat. $3 E=short as in pet; long as in fed; never as in eat. I= short as in pit; long as in feed; never as in kite. O=as in awe and caught; never as in bone. i Usshort as in put; long as in food; never as in butter. The accent falls on the first syllable except. in some words with the prefix whaka, when the accent falls on the third syllable, that is, on the first syllable of the root word. ; Example: Whaka-mate, to cause to die, where the accent falls on ma of the root mate, to die. Exercise: Place accent on first syllable in Otaki, Awatea, Rotorua, Patea, Awarua, Poneke, Waikato, Karori, Akaroa, etc, The Maori consonants are: H, K, M, N, P, R, T, W, NG, WH, Note: NG and WH are taken as single letters. WH is not F, Europeans find difficulty in sounding NG when it comes at the beginning of a word. Why I don’t know, for it is the same sound as»in sing. It is neither na nor ga but " nga."

R. T.

KOHERE

(East Cape).