PRONUNCIATION OF MAORI NAMES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 387, 22 November 1946, Page 14

PRONUNCIATION OF MAORI NAMES

Sir-The pronunciation of Maori words has improved, but there is still a good way to go. It always seems a sin to me that announcers are not given instruction in the pronunciation of the beautiful Maori names. It is really very simple. With very little instruction it would cease to be the barbwire entanglement which some think. William’s Lessons in Maori gives the following directions for sound: "A as in father. E as in send, I as in feet. NG as in singing. O as in obey without the W sound usually connected with O in English. U as in boot. The WH is not as it is written a compound of W and H, but a simple consonant, the effect of breath emitted sharply between the lips. The consonants always stand singly and every syllable ends in a vowel. It may be set down as a general rule, to which there are some exceptions, that Maori words are always accented on the first syllable." There are some further simple instructions for which there is not space, but ‘the above gives the gist of it. One announcer gave us Aotea (wharf) with the vowels exactly the same as in English eh-o-t-eh. Well he was a trier at any rate, and better luck next time. All he wanted was a little tuition, and there are plenty of other announcers just as bad if they only knew it. Remuera is a pretty name almost always mispronounced Remmyeweera. Every syllable in Maori ends in a vowel, never on a consonant. Say it over a few times slowly, giving every syllable the right sound. Re-mu-e-ra and then increase to the natural pace, and there it is, quite easy. Most people pronounce Rimutaka fairly correctly. Few of them say Rimmyewtaka. Many words beginning with O seem to be a stumbling block. O-takau (Otago) is a useful example to follow. O-ma-tua (not Oma-tua). O-ra-kau (not Orrerkau), O-ne-pu (not One-pu), etc. One of the most unfortunate names is Motueka; as often as not called Mocheweeka. Motu means a clump of trees, or an island, The only meaning the dictionary gives for eka is acre; eka being the Maori adaption of the English word, and if the A in acre is sounded very short, it gives the Maori sound for E as nearly as possible. I am not suggesting the meanings the dictionary gives are applicable to the name Motueka. Well, the man who said eh-o-t-eh for Aotea, at least sounded as if it might be Maori. Mocheweeka might be Chocktaw, but never by any possibility Maori-WA-NGA-NUI, not Wangenui

(Wellington).