LETTERS FROM LISTENERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 317, 20 July 1945, Page 5

LETTERS FROM LISTENERS

MAORI PRONUNCIATION Sir,-Mimic’s suggestion for instruction in Maori pronunciation is a good one, but we really need to get down to bedrock-begin in the schools, not just with the repetition of place names though. There should be a simple textbook on the subject of Maori pronunciation for the guidance of teachers. The instruction need not entail much time. In the primary schools it could be taken in conjunction with the singing lesson and some Maori songs taught. In the secondary schools it could be correlated with language study. The pupils would very soon get the idea of the vowel sounds if these were compared with those in French, As a general rule:a in Ra as in la e in te as in mets iin tiki as in pic o in moki as in mot u in muku as French ou Dumont D’Urville, with no dictionary to guide him, was able to record Maori place names intelligibly. He had little difficulty with the language, and we, with more than a hundred years’ intercourse with the people, are still stumbling with these euphonious names, I don’t agree with Mimic when he deplores: the restitution of "Maori names for Pakeha ones.’’ The Pakeha ones should never have been given. D’Urville urged, and rightly too, that the names given by the first discoverers of a country should stay. The Maoris were first, and, he added, such appropriate names given by an intelligent people should not be for-

gotten.

REWA

GLENN

(Wellington).

[We have no space at present for further letters on this subject.-Ed.]