PRONUNCIATION OF FOREIGN NAMES
Sir-I hope P. S. Ardern will not mind if I criticise some points in his letter in The Listener of March 12. First, the Maori "te" is not "tay;" the vowel is the indefinite one that phoneticists sometimes represent by an inverted e. It is like the first a in "carouse."
— >) Pen a — Sl Ul er" ff Secondly, his phonetic spelling suggests that a and u are sounded separately in "au." Thirdly, he gives f as the sound represented by wh. This is contradicted by his own words, "Maori spelling .. . is completely straightforward." It was so when the language was reduced to writing. At the time, one of the learned gentlemen concerned mentions the / sound as "an affectation springing up amongst the younger Maoris." This affectation has been spread by pakehas who, knowing little of the language, seizéd on it as a means of impressing others with their own superior knowledge. It may be permissible in ordinary speech (Maori usage will settle that point) but if place-names, given long before pakeha times, it is definitely out of place, I can add a few to his list of atrocities. Ripapa Island is "Ripper;" Kohurau has been fixed as "Kurow;" Paraparaumu is always Parra-parram, with the a as in "eat," a sound unknown to the Maori but much favoured by the pakeha; Petane is locally Pateney. I agree that our announcers should give us correct pronunciations; but it would be good, too, if people who take an intelligent interest in the Maori language would keep to what they know to be right; they would be understood, and though they might sometimes be laughed at, there is the consolation that the laughers are only exposing their own ignorance. If I may be permitted to change to the allied subject of place-names; I was told in seriousness that Paihia was given that name because when the first Maoris arrived there and found it a good place, lacking a word in their own language for "here." thev said "It is pai here."
KOTUKU
Christchurch).
(This correspondence 1S now ciosea: La:)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540402.2.12.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 767, 2 April 1954, Page 5
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349PRONUNCIATION OF FOREIGN NAMES New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 767, 2 April 1954, Page 5
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