Sir,-Your correspondent J. H. Harvey says, "I am sure R. T. Kohere has slipped when he states that Maori names (for that matter, any Maori word.R.T.K.) should be accented on the first syllable." I know some pakehas contend that there is no accent in Maori-evi-dently J. H. Harvey is one of them. On the other hand, I don’t know of any Maori who agrees with them. It is true that often in ordinary speech the accent is hardly noticeable, nevertheless there ig an accent on the first syllable. Take my own name, for instance. To glide over the Ko would not matter much, but it is more correct to accentuate the syllable. One great mistake pakehas make is to accentuate and lengthen the second syllable. They would avoid making the mistake if they consistently placed the accent on the first syllable. Bishop Williams does state, in his Grammar, that the accent is to be placed on the first To place accent on a syllable is not the samg thing as lengthening it.
R. T.
KOHERE
(East Cape).
(This correspondence is now closed.-Ed.)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 24, Issue 621, 25 May 1951, Page 5
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182Untitled New Zealand Listener, Volume 24, Issue 621, 25 May 1951, Page 5
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