MAORI ON THE AIR
Sir,-I agree- with those correspond‘ents who hold that the majority of Maoris. are not concerned to keep their language in its original purity. As a schoolmaster in a certain school I, used to appeal to a big Maori girl in Form II. for the correct pronunciation of Maori place names. I could get no authoritative answers. One day I asked her why, and she said, "I can’t speak Maori at all. We always speak English at home." "You ought to be ashamed," I said. "You have a poetic and expressive language and you don’t bother to speak it." I went’ on with my lessons; but interrupted it shortly to say, "I owe you an apology, Mary. J cannot speak my language, which is Scottish Gaelic. We both need somebody to scold us." A worse feature is the speaking of "Maori-ised" English common in many settlements. Airing my scant stock of Meori phrases to a Maori youth, I used the word "pirangi" which I understand to mean "like", or "enjoy." He didn’t know it, and when I asked what word he used, said, "raika"-just a Maorified form of the English word. At the same time I cannot see that "we pakehas have any right to take liberties with the language.
E. H.
MACKAY
(Sandringham)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 487, 22 October 1948, Page 5
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217MAORI ON THE AIR New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 487, 22 October 1948, Page 5
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